DSS arrests Boko Haram terrorists’ bomb specialist who tried to join the army

[jchima]

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested a suspected bomb specialist of Boko Haram, Idris Audu, who had “perfected plans to join the Nigeria army,” the agency said on Sunday, Septembers 4.

In a statement signed by its operative, Tony Opuiyo, the DSS said two high-profile members of the sect were intercepted during a military operation in Kano State.
The statement said: “In response to the regrouping of Boko Haram elements in Kano state, the service in concert with the military, carried out coordinated operations in the state which led to the apprehension of two high profile members of the sect, namely; Ibrahim Ustaz Abubakar and Idris Audu (aka Aya).

“Audu is an IED specialist who was being groomed to penetrate security agencies in the country. Audu had already perfected plans to seek for recruitment into the next recruitment scheme of the Nigeria army, before his arrest.”

Source: DSS arrests Boko Haram terrorists’ bomb specialist who tried to join the army – LATEST NIGERIA NEWS

 

[waltky]

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau wounded but not killed...

Boko Haram leader mocks Nigerian army, parents of missing girls
Sun September 25, 2016 - Abubakar Shekau also taunted the parents of kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls; "I'm not dead," he says in response to army reports he was fatally wounded

Boko Haram's embattled leader, Abubakar Shekau, appears in a new video to deny reports of his death and to taunt the parents of the nearly 300 school girls the group kidnapped from their boarding school in 2014. "To the despot Nigerian government: Die with envy. I'm not dead," Shekau says in the video. An ISIS flag is visible in the background. That terrorist organization has said it is supporting Shekau's rival, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, as the legitimate leader of the Nigerian ISIS-affiliated terrorist movement.

A Boko Haram flag flutters from an abandoned command post in Gamboru deserted after Chadian troops chased them from the border town on February 4, 2015. Nigerian Boko Haram fighters went on the rampage in the Cameroonian border town of Fotokol, massacring dozens of civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.​

The video was a response to the Nigerian army's claim that it "fatally wounded" Shekau in a raid August 19. The army dismissed the video Sunday as evidence of Shekau's desperation. "The video has shown beyond all reasonable doubt the earlier suspicion that the purported factional terrorists' group leader is mentally sick and unstable," the army statement said. CNN cannot independently confirm when the video was shot, or confirm its claims.

A Boko Haram video shows embattled leader Abubakar Shekau​

The attack that brought Boko Haram international notoriety was when Shekau's forces captured approximately 300 girls -- between the ages of 16 and 18 -- from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in Borno state in April 2014. Boko Haram, which opposes western education, wants to set up an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. In the video, Shekau teases parents of the Chibok schoolgirls about whether their daughters will be released and insists detained Boko Haram fighters must be released for the return of the schoolgirls. The kidnapping sparked global outrage and prompted global figures, including activist Malala Yousafzai and US first lady Michelle Obama, to support the campaign to #BringBackOurGirls.

Boko Haram video shows missing Chibok girls​

For a year after they were taken, the abducted girls were kept together, Amina Ali, an escaped schoolgirl told CNN in August. Then some of the teenagers -- including her -- were "given" to the terrorists as wives. Shekau, however, is still shrouded in mystery. A Boko Haram insider told CNN in August the group had split after new leader al-Barnawi broke with Shekau and left with some followers, a move which the insider said left Shekau with most of the fighters in the Sambisa forest and also in control of the schoolgirls, a powerful bargaining chip for the group. The army contends Boko Haram is significantly weakened and has been "irrational and unreliable" in negotiations over the schoolgirls.

Boko Haram leader mocks Nigerian army in new video - CNN.com

 

[waltky]

Boko Haram causing starvation deaths of children...

Nigeria Boko Haram: 75,000 children 'risk dying of hunger'
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 - Some 75,000 children in insurgency-hit northern Nigeria could die of hunger within months, UN says.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator Peter Lundberg said that overall 14 million people needed humanitarian assistance in a region that was the former stronghold of Boko Haram militants. He warned that the UN did not have enough funds to avert the crisis. Boko Haram jihadists laid waste to the region before being pushed back by Nigerian forces in recent months. "Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance" by 2017, Mr Lundberg said in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Tuesday.

A malnourished child is fed in in Maiduguri, Nigeria's Borno state​

He added that this figure included some 400,000 children, and that 75,000 of them "are going to die in the few months ahead of us... if we don't do something rapidly and seriously". Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million displaced since Boko Haram began its military operations in 2009 in the Borno state and other areas. In July, the UN warned that almost a quarter of a million children in parts of Borno were suffering from severe malnutrition.

Boko Haram at a glance:

* Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
* Launched military operations in 2009
* Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, and hundreds abducted, including at least 200 schoolgirls
* Joined so-called Islamic State, now calls itself IS's "West African province"
* Seized large area in north-east, where it declared caliphate
* Regional force has now retaken most territory

Nigeria Boko Haram: 75,000 children 'risk dying of hunger' - BBC News