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At least 25 Nigerians were killed Sunday night when motorcyclists threw bombs into outdoor beer gardens in the northeastern city of Maiduguri (see map). No group has claimed responsibility yet, but local police say the attack bore the hallmark of the Islamist group Boko Haram.
The attack underscores a deterioration of security in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north particularly since President Goodluck Jonathan, who comes from the mainly Christian south, was inaugurated on May 29. Boko Haram is fighting for the implemention of sharia (Islamic law), including a ban on alcohol, and has demanded an Islamic state.
The Islamist group, which came to prominence in 2009 and is now considered the greatest threat to Nigeria's security, launched coordinated bombings in three towns after Mr. Jonathan's inauguration. It also claimed responsibility for a June 16 attack on federal police headquarters in Abuja, the capital, and has attacked clerics, politicians, and soldiers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. According to Reuters, attacks now occur almost daily in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
Borno State is already governed by sharia, as are 11 other northern states out of Nigeria's 36 total states. However, even in those mainly Muslim states, establishments like the beer gardens are thriving out of the public eye, the Associated Press reports.
President Jonathan's government has said it wants dialogue with Boko Haram, but the Islamist group has yet to put forward a leader to speak on its behalf. Its former leader, Muhammed Yusuf, was killed while in police custody in 2009.
Jonathan also endorsed a cease-fire effort led by Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima. He has offered amnesty to members of the group who opt to give up their arms, according to AFP. The group was set to begin talks with the government on a few conditions, including the continuation of sharia in the northern states, but it backed out after the national police chief said that the group's days were "numbered."
Sunday's attack coincided with the deployment of government troops in the city to address the daily violence. The special task forces resemble the ones deployed in the oil region of the Niger Delta and in Jos, a city prone to sectarian violence, Agence France-Presse reports.
Boko Haram whose name is variously translated as "Western education is sinful" or "Western culture is forbidden" used to exist at the margins of Nigerian Muslim society, but unemployment, poverty, and a lack of education have increased its influence in the north. They have a strict Islamic ideology and have claimed responsibility for the deaths of Muslim leaders who criticized their tactics, according to a Reuters background article on the group.
A Reuters report on the growing violence in the north says that the group now has thousands of supporters and that heightened security in Maiduguri has polarized the local population.
Nigeria is heading towards a Rwanda style civil war!
AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command based in Stuttgart, Germany, is the newest of the U.S. military's combatant commands. Its mission is to defend U.S. national security interests by strengthening the defense capabilities of African states. General David Rodriguez took the helm of AFRICOM two months ago. He sat down for interview with VOA during a visit to the Pentagon Thursday. Rodriguez said one of the command's top concerns is the spread of militant groups on the continent. The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram is of special concern, in part because it continues to expand its connections to terrorist groups in the region.
We're very concerned about that because those connections expand opportunities, expand capabilities and things like that to those networks as they grow and develop, and Boko Haram is a very, very violent network. It is one that has had a very, very negative impact on the northern part of Nigeria, as well as Niger and Chad, and it crosses borders. And it's going to take a coordinated effort by all those nations as well as some good decisions and good thought process for the Nigerian government to help solve that problem," said General Rodriguez. US officials see the militant activity in northern Nigeria an internal issue and think the problem is best left for the Nigerian government to handle.
Rodriguez says the U.S. military's role on the continent is to provide training and other assistance to the militaries of partner nations that request the help. He said U.S. forces are keeping a close eye on Boko Haram. All the things that are destabilizing to a country is what we really want to watch carefully, because those are the things that we have to help build - the African capacity -because that's the best way for them to handle the challenges: in an African way, with African forces. So, that's why we're really working on strengthening the defense capabilities of the African partners," he said. The only permanent U.S. base in Africa is in Djibouti, and the U.S. says it has no plans to build any other. But reports of expanded U.S. activity including drone operations in Mali and Niger have triggered speculation of much larger involvement.
Rodriguez says the U.S. presence is largely limited to small numbers of trainers who are rotated in and out of countries as requested by the host governments. The history of the African nations, the colonialism, all those things are what point to the reasons why we should not go in there in force and everything else, and just use a small footprint with creative and innovative solutions to get high payoff from a small number of people, as well as come in for short periods of time to do exercises, to do operations, to help build that capacity," he said. While the U.S. is limiting the number of American trainers going to Africa, officials have called for a boost in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and called for a larger number of drones, surveillance aircraft and satellite imagery to improve intelligence gathering on the continent.
US Military Pays Close Attention to Boko Haram Militants
The presence of the extremist group in the region came into the spotlight this week after the United States announced it was imposing sanctions on four Lebanese citizens accused of aiding Hezbollah in its efforts to expand in West Africa. The U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday that the four men helped Hezbollah broaden its reach in Sierra Leone, Senegal, the Ivory Coast and Gambia.
Richard Downie, Deputy Director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says weak government policies in these countries work to Hezbollah's advantage. "This is a set of countries that are undergoverned ill-governed in some respects. Their security services are weak. Their police capability is pretty low, so there are opportunities there for transnational organized criminals to take advantage, and that seems to be the theme of whats happened," he said. Downie says Hezbollah has also received support from the region's Lebanese communities. In West Africa, there is actually a fairly large Lebanese community," he said. "It dates back a century or more. Many of them are Shi'ite Muslims and so there is a community there that Hezbollah is able to target."
Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, a senior fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy, says Iran, which has traditionally provided Hezbollah with substantial support, has been using the militant group to further its own regional interests. Hezbollahs role has to be seen only in context of the interests of Iranian foreign policy and Iranian military strategy in the Near East and in Africa," he said. "The Iranian influence [has grown] in the last years and the main interest is smuggling weapons and recruiting soldiers."
In a separate development, three Lebanese men who were arrested in Nigeria on suspicion of being Hezbollah members have announced they are suing the Nigerian government for more than $6 million for unlawful incarceration. The three men were arrested in the city of Kano last month. They say they have not been formally charged with any offense.
Analysts: West Africa Attractive Hezbollah Destination
The leader of militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, may have died of gunshot wounds some weeks after a clash with soldiers, the Nigerian military said on Monday. Past reports of Shekaus death have proved false and there was no independent confirmation of the army account. In a statement, the army said that Shekau, blamed for a campaign of deadly attacks on security targets and churches across Africas biggest oil-producing country, was hit during a gunbattle near one of his camps in the northeast on June 30. He was taken over the border into Cameroon where he was believed to have died between July 25 and Aug. 3, according to the report issued by the military base in the northeast city of Maiduguri.
Intelligence reports revealed that Abubakur Shekau, the most dreaded and wanted Boko Haram terrorist leader, may have died, the statement read. Boko Haram wants to impose Islamic law in Nigerias north, and, alongside other spin-off Islamist groups, has become the biggest threat to stability in Nigeria. Though the death of Shekau would be a blow to Boko Harams campaign, the group has several factions without one homogeneous leadership structure. Spin-off groups like al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru, which has claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing Westerners, are believed to operate independently.
Shekau assumed the leadership of Boko Haram when its founder Mohammed Yusuf was killed in police custody during a crackdown in 2009. He is the only high-profile member of Boko Haram, appearing in several videos posted on the Internet where, wagging his finger, he has sworn to bring down the government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and criticized the US for its treatment of Muslims.
The US has offered a reward of US$7 million for information leading to Shekaus capture. Shekaus last public contact was thought to be in a video distributed to journalists in Maiduguri on Aug. 13. Though the video looked and sounded like the same person in previous recordings, the military said on Monday it was a fake. The recent video ... was dramatized by an impostor to hoodwink the sect members to continue with the terrorism and to deceive the undiscerning minds, its statement said.
Nigerian army says Boko Haram leader may be dead - Taipei Times
If the death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is verified then it is undoubtedly a key milestone in the life of the group which, in almost exactly four years, has murdered thousands in northern and central Nigeria. Since 2009, the group (whose name roughly translated means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language) has waged a guerrilla insurgency against the state and a wide array of "soft" targets. At times, large-scale attacks came almost daily. Boko Haram believes its war will bring a strident and extreme form of Islamic law to Nigeria. School children, teachers, the UN, the police, north-eastern traditional leaders, journalists, mobile phone towers, ordinary Nigerians going about their lives have all come under attack.
The group is also reported to have moved to Mali during the conflict there, where it is alleged to have received training from foreign jihadis. Looking back over the last four years the attacks appear to be almost mini-campaigns, responses by the group to events in Nigeria and outside. The type of attacks evolved as the group developed, and in some cases occurred in several areas in short succession - evidence the group was controlled by a tight cadre of people, and the cell-like structure of the organisation took direction. So killing the leadership might possibly have a big effect on how the group is organised and how well it is able to repeat such big campaign attacks in future.
Scepticism
"Might possibly" because what is known for sure about Boko Haram is very scant. Reliable information from Nigeria in general is a rare thing; from a secretive Islamist insurgency even rarer. Certainly, until Nigerians see more proof, they are unlikely to believe that Shekau is actually dead - the military has claimed they have killed top leaders, even Shekau himself, before. Shekau appeared in a video circulated to journalists on 12 August, but the military has claimed this was acted by an impostor. Hundreds of people have written in to the BBC's Hausa Service social media pages to voice their scepticism at the announcement, which coincides with the end of operations carried out by the Joint Task Force (made up of the military and police) against Boko Haram and the launch of a new brigade with special responsibility to tackle the group.
Nigerians on social media are wondering if the announcement could be more to do with this launch and the military's relationship with the federal government, than events on the ground. It is also unclear what effect the killing of the group's leadership might have on the danger radical militants present to northern Nigeria. It is true that in recent months the group has been put into abeyance, civilian vigilante groups have reportedly chased them away from Borno state's Maiduguri city. They were chased to southern Borno, where the military have been concentrating their attacks successfully, says Boko Haram analyst Adam Higazi in a report for think-tank Oxford Analyitica.
'Personality cult'
The move enables the United States to freeze assets, impose travel bans on known members and affiliates, and prohibit Americans from offering material support. The United States says Boko Haram has killed thousands since 2009. Human rights groups put the figure at more than 3,000. Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa-Fulani language, has launched a self-described "war on Christians" and seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia law across northeastern Nigeria, if not the entire country. It has attacked various targets in the West African nation since its formation in the late 1990s, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. This includes killing and kidnapping Westerners, and bombing schools, churches and mosques, the center said.
In August, militants allegedly went into a mosque in Borno state and killed 44 worshipers. The group released a video boasting that it was growing stronger and had launched attacks in Benisheikh in September that the State Department said left 160 civilians dead, many of them Muslim women and children. In recent months, it has stepped up attacks against students at English-language schools. In September, the State Department said Boko Haram attacked an agricultural school, killing 50 students in their dorm as they slept. Earlier this month, the United Nations warned the extremist group could be found guilty of crimes against humanity after it launched a brutal attack on a wedding party that killed more than 30 people. The U.N. refugee agencies estimates more than 8,000 people in Northern Nigeria have fled into neighboring Cameroon to escape the escalating violence and another 5,000 have become internally displaced.
A poster displayed along the road shows photograph of Imam Abubakar Shekau, leader of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, declared wanted by the Nigerian military with $320,471 reward for information that could lead to his capture in northeastern Nigeria town of Maiduguri
While the group's principle focus is Nigeria, the United States cites links to the al Qaeda affiliate in West Africa, and extremist groups in Mali. Gen. Carter Ham, then the commander of U.S. Africa Command, warned Congress that Boko Haram elements "aspire to a broader regional level of attacks," including against United States and European interests. A Boko Haram suicide attack on the United Nations building two years ago in the Nigerian capital of Abuja killed at least 25 people. In June 2012, the State Department added several of the group's members to a terrorist blacklist, including its new leader Abubakar Shekau, who has a $7 million bounty on his head. The decision to designate Boko Haram and Ansaru followed a robust debate.
The administration faced intense pressure from Congress and some officials to list the group, but other officials and experts warned it did not pose a threat to the United States, but that Washington could become a target as a result of the designation. Other officials argued the Nigerian government could interpret the decision as an American green light to continue its heavy handed crackdown on the organization. President Goodluck Jonathan stepped up a military campaign against the group six months ago, declaring a six-month state of emergency in May in the three northeastern states worst hit by the violence. Recent Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports accused the Nigerian military of human rights abuses and violations when conducting operations against the group. The UN said it is investigating the claims.
First on CNN: U.S. to designate Boko Haram a terror group ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
A stupid brainless religion of idiocy. For what???? To bow to a fucking rock 5 times a day.
Naw......Rwanda was between the Christian Hutu and the Christian Tutsi .Nigeria is heading towards a Rwanda style civil war!
Boko Haram’s leader said a northeast town seized by the insurgents earlier this month has been placed under an Islamic caliphate, in a video it gave reporters on Sunday. “Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in [the town of] Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video. However, the military rejected the claim, saying in a statement that the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact.”
In a video last month, Shekau voiced support for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (IS) militants — formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere.” However, there was no indication from Shekau in the latest video that he was associating himself with Baghdadi. As such, it was not clear if Shekau was declaring himself to be a part of Baghdadi’s call or if he was referring to a separate Nigerian caliphate.
A screengrab taken on Sunday from a video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram shows the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, center, delivering a speech at an undisclosed location.
Shekau — who has been designated a global terrorist by the US — is shown in the video wearing military fatigues, with a Kalashnikov rifle strapped to his body. He alternates between Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in the region. He is pictured standing in front of three SUVs and flanked by four fighters, who are masked and armed. It is not clear when or where the video was filmed. There was no indication that Shekau was actually in Gwoza for the filming and his whereabouts remain unknown, but another unidentified fighter who speaks later in the video vowed that Boko Haram would keep control of the area. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.
Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighboring Yobe State. Mapping the precise areas that have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible. There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region has poor mobile phone coverage. Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria. However, many analysts believe the military still has the capacity to reverse the insurgents’ advance.
Boko Haram says seized town part of Islamic caliphate - Taipei Times
