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France denies complicity
Locations of the various ethnic groups of the Far North Province (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
September 7, 2014 by Bayo Akinloye
The French embassy in Cameroon has denied any secret activity against Cameroon in its declared war against Nigerian Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, following media reports in the neighbouring country, the embassy condemned attacks by the terrorist militants in northern Cameroon, near the Nigerian border.
France restated its solidarity with the Cameroonian authorities in the fight against the insurgents from Nigeria, African Press Agency reported.
The French government also paid tribute to Cameroonian soldiers killed in combat against Islamist insurgents and "mourned with families of civilian victims and soldiers fighting against terrorism".
The embassy, contrary to some Cameroonian media assertions which alluded to some behind-the-scene negotiations with Boko Haram, said President François Hollande had not met with Cameroonian officials during his July visit to Chad. Read the rest of this entry »
This entry was posted in Africa, Boko Haram, Europe and tagged Africa, Boko Haram, Cameroon, Chad, Ebola Virus Disease, Islamism, Nigeria.
The Lost Girls
Posted on May 6, 2014 Updated on May 8, 2014
Why women are the "spoils of war" in Nigeria and around the world — and nobody cares.
BY Lauren Wolfe MAY 5, 2014
Over the last week or so, multiple stories in the news have been asking why the media is ignoring the kidnapping of more than 200 girls (some reports say as many as 276) by Boko Haram, an extremist anti-Western group in Nigeria. Yet there have been literally hundreds of Facebook posts, thousands of tweets, and dozens of stories in the media about what is going on. It took a week or two — longer than it should have, yes, considering the horror of what has been perpetrated — but in the end, this case has gotten more attention than any single case of girls abducted in armed conflict in recent memory, possibly ever. People are paying attention.
As that becomes evident, all the outcry over "why aren't we paying attention" starts to look like it's part of a deeper public distress: Why have we not paid attention in the past when thousands of girls — and boys — have been abducted in armed conflict? Why aren't we paying attention, right now, to the girls caught in human trafficking webs or sold into early marriages or held in captivity as "wives" by armed groups? Why are we only now outraged? And will this outrage sustain itself as situations like this one unendingly arise? Will any amount of anger lead to any concrete solution? Read the rest of this entry »
This entry was posted in Africa, Boko Haram, War & Conflicts, women rights and tagged Amnesty International, Boko Haram, Chibok, Facebook, International Crisis Group, Nigeria.
Boko Haram denies killing hostages as UK, Italy relations boil
Posted on March 10, 2012 Updated on March 10, 2012
On March 10, 2012 · In News
By Uduma Kalu & Abdallah el-Kurebe with agency report
Diplomatic relations between Nigeria, Britain and Italy may be strained following the botched rescue operation to free two hostages, a Briton, Chris McManus and an Italian, Franco Lamolinara at the Mabera area of Sokoto State, Northwest of Nigeria Thursday.
While Italy is furious with Britain for not informing it before the rescue operation, the Italian President has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to furnish him with detailed information on what actually happened.
This development is coming even as the Boko Haram Islamic sect, accused of the crime has denied any involvement in the kidnap and killing of the hostages.
The group in a message forwarded to the media electronically yesterday afternoon said that it does not engage in such acts of kidnapping.
David Cameron says: 'Indications are clear that both men were murdered by their captors
Boko Haram's alleged spokesman, Abul Qaqa said, "following the failed rescue attempt by Nigerian/British intelligence agencies yesterday, Boko Haram has strongly refuted speculation that his group was behind the hostage- taking.
"We have never been involved in such acts of kidnapping. It is a known fact that the group has not denied any act it have been involved in.''
This entry was posted in Africa, Islam, Italy, Military, Terrorism, UK, War & Conflicts, World News and tagged Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Goodluck Jonathan, Italy, Nigeria, Sokoto, Sokoto State, State Security Service.
30 killed in attack on Nigeria market: medic, witness
Posted on February 21, 2012 Updated on February 21, 2012
By Aminu Abubakar (AFP) –
KANO, Nigeria — Suspected Nigerian Islamists opened fire and set off bombs at a market in the northeastern city of Maiduguri on Monday, killing at least 30 people, a medic and a witness said.
Gunmen believed to be members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram stormed the fish section of Baga market and sprayed stallholders and vendors with bullets, traders said, reporting that women and children were among the dead.
"The number of dead could not be less than 30," a Maiduguri hospital nurse told AFP.
The military confirmed the assault on the market but denied any civilian deaths, saying security forces had killed eight assailants and safely detonated bombs planted by the attackers. Read the rest of this entry »
This entry was posted in Africa, Al Qaeda, Islam, Middle East, Terrorism, War & Conflicts, World News and tagged Agence France-Presse, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Borno State, Islamism, KANO, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Boko Haram Leader Vows More Attacks On Christians | Jih@d
2012/01/15/
by Florian Flade
Imam Abu Bakr Shekau – Boko Haram leader vows more attacks on Nigerian Christians
In 2009 international media for the first time reported about a ominous Islamist group operating in Nigeria – Boko Haram. The group whose name is translated from the Northern Nigerian Hausa language into "Western Eduction is forbidden" carried out a series of attacks, killing dozens of policemen in Christian-dominated regions of Nigeria´s north.
As a result Nigerian security forces took revenge on the Islamists of Boko Haram killing hundreds of the group´s members in and around the city of Maiduguri. Boko Harams leader and founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured by security forces. Yusuf had created the Islamist movement in 2002 starting with a network of mosques and Islamic schools to spread Salafi Islam in Nigeria.
Nigerian security forces claimed Mohammed Yusuf was killed during his arrest. Video footage which emerged several days after the raid on Boko Haram showed Mohammed Yusuf alive in custody being interrogated. He was shot dead by Nigerian soldiers and policemen, his body was also seen in videos released later.
This entry was posted in Africa, Islam, Terrorism, World News and tagged Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Christian, Goodluck Jonathan, Hausa language, Islamism, Mohammed Yusuf, Nigeria.
Terrorist and Colonial Borders | Terrorism In Africa
Terrorism Africa News
It is possible that Nigeria and Somalia will each be divided into multiple countries during this decade or the next. I could not be surprised if it happens sooner than later. Each country is in the midst of violence that was primarily perpetrated by terrorist groups. In each case the central government is ineffectual in managing security and delivering the needed services to the poorer districts. If we do witness the partitioning of these countries we will be well on our way to seeing the redrawing of many national boundaries on the continent.
Over the past sixty years African countries have struggled to gain independence from their colonial rulers. That process took close to fifty years. South Africa was the last to achieve such a righteous milestone. Yet, this independence was for countries who borders were set by the colonialists and looked very little like the kingdoms and ethnic domains recognized by Africans for centuries. The continent may well be on the verge of a redrawing of the demarcations of sovereign states to more accurately represent the realities of the continent. It could be said that the movement to throw off colonial borders may have begun with the division of Ethiopia, resulting in Ethiopia and Eritrea, followed by Sudan splitting into Sudan and South Sudan. These divisions were preceded by violent conflicts and referendums.
Al-Shabaab claims to be a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda with the agenda of placing all of Somalia under Sheria. Few analysts would differ with that description. The ability of Al-Shabaab to take control and place all of present day Somalia under Sharia is questionable. In fact the current struggle in Somalia has spawned several ad-hock meetings of diaspora Somalians who have drawn up plans that would result in Somalia being divided into three countries separated primarily along ethnic or clan lines.
Boko Haram has its genesis and base of operation in the poor, Muslim north of Nigeria. They have bombed Christian houses of worship, government and United Nations instillations and recently demanded that government troops and southerns leave the north. Their terrorist operations have brought Nigeria to the brink of civil war. Read the rest of this entry »
This entry was posted in Africa, Al Qaeda, Islam, Terrorism, War & Conflicts, World News and tagged Africa, Al Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan.
Posted on December 28, 2011 Updated on January 3, 2012
Toni Johnson, Senior Editor/Senior Staff Writer
Update: December 27, 2011
Birth of Boko Haram
Rising Against the State
The North-South Divide
Terror Ties and Policy Prescriptions
Boko Haram, an Islamist religious sect, has targeted Nigeria's police, rival clerics, politicians, and public institutions with increasing violence since 2009. Some experts say the group should primarily be seen as leading an armed revolt against the government's entrenched corruption, abusive security forces, strife between the disaffected Muslim north and Christian south, and widening regional economic disparity in an already impoverished country. They argue that Abuja should do more to address the issues facing the disaffected Muslim north. But Boko Haram's suspected bombing of a UN building in Abuja in August 2011 and its ties to regional terror groups may signal a new trajectory and spark a stronger international response that makes it harder to address the north's alienation.
Mohammad Yusuf, a radical Islamist cleric, created Boko Haram in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno. The group aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, including the implementation of criminal sharia courts across the country. Paul Lubeck, a University of California professor studying Muslim societies in Africa, says Yusuf was a trained salafist (CSMonitor) (a school of thought often associated with jihad), and was strongly influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, a fourteenth century legal scholar who preached Islamic fundamentalism and is considered a "major theorist" for radical groups in the Middle East.
Boko Haram colloquially translates into "Western education is sin," which experts say is a name assigned by the state. The sect calls itself Jama'atul Alhul Sunnah Lidda'wati wal jihad, or "people committed to the propagation of the prophet's teachings and jihad." Some analysts say the movement is an outgrowth of the Maitatsine riots of the 1980s (AfricaToday) and the religious/ethnic tensions that followed in the late 1990s. Many Nigerians believe Yusuf rejected all things Western, but Lubeck argues that Yusuf, who embraced technology, believed Western education should be "mediated through Islamic scholarship," such as rejecting the theory of evolution and Western-style banking.
Before 2009, the group did not aim to violently overthrow the government. Yusuf criticized northern Muslims for participating in what he saw as an illegitimate, non-Islamic state and preached a doctrine of withdrawal. But violence between Christians and Muslims (al-Jazeera) and harsh government treatment, including pervasive police brutality, encouraged the group's radicalization. Human Rights Watch researcher Eric Guttschuss told news service IRIN that Yusuf gained supporters "by speaking out against police and political corruption." Boko Haram followers, also called Yusuffiya, consist largely of hundreds of impoverished northern Islamic students and clerics as well as university students and professionals, many of whom are unemployed. Some followers may also be members of Nigeria's elite. Read the rest of this entry »
This entry was posted in Africa, Al Qaeda, Islam, Terrorism, War & Conflicts, World News and tagged Abuja, Africa, Boko Haram, Christian, Ibn Taymiyyah, Muslim, Nigeria, Yusuf.
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