P.D. Lawton argues that conflicts like Boko Haram are synthetic, Western-backed insurgencies designed to keep African states weak while corporations extract minerals cheaply — She cites the PMC Executive Outcomes, which routed Boko Haram in four weeks before it was dismissed so the insurgency could continue.
She links this to a Kissinger-era destabilisation doctrine, flags the UK–Rwanda deal as to have funded Kagame's Congo operations, and sees hope in the Alliance of Sahelian States (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger), where military governments reclaim their mineral wealth and infrastructure, to include a neglected continental railway project.