Why did Nigeria ban UNICEF?

EVEN AT THE best of times Nigeria is awash with speculation. Ask otherwise sensible people who is really behind Boko Haram, a jihadist group, and conspiracy theories come pouring out. National politicians have stoked the fighting, some say. No, others retort: it was American and British spies who started it. Not a shred of evidence supports these theories. Nor is there any plausible reason why any of them might be true. But none is as bonkers as the latest one from Nigeria’s army.

On December 14th Nigeria suspended the operations of UNICEF, the UN children’s fund, accusing it of spying for Boko Haram. The two groups do not obviously share a common interest. One saves children’s lives. The other uses them as human bombs. Nonetheless, commanders insisted that UNICEF was “training selected persons for clandestine activities”. They added that there was “credible information” that foreign aid agencies and NGOs were training and deploying spies for Boko Haram.