The Nation Newspaper

Tag: boko haram

  • Boko Haram kills seven policemen in Niger

    Suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked a village in Niger while a delegation of ministers were visiting, killing seven gendarmes and wounding 12 in a gun battle, the military said on Friday.

    The attack happened on Thursday in a village in the region of Diffa that hosts refugees and internally displaced people who have been forced from their home by the insurgents, officials said.

    The ministers were unharmed.

    Neighbouring Chad has sent troops to help Niger in a planned counterattack against Boko Haram after the militants seized the southern Niger town of Bosso in an attack that killed 26 soldiers.

    Niger’s government has called on France, which already has 3,500 troops spread across five countries in West Africa, to strengthen military operations against the militants.

    Niger’s defence minister, Hassoumi Messaoudou, told Radio France International on Friday that regional leaders needed to “rethink Boko Haram” and called on regional forces to defeat the sect.

    “We thought they were reduced to making suicide attacks,” he said. “Now they have rebuilt their military forces. We are dealing with an army.”

  • Boko Haram kills 18 women at Adamawa funeral

    Boko Haram militants have shot dead 18 women at a funeral in Adamawa, rampaging through a village, setting houses on fire and shooting at random, witnesses and local government officials said on Friday.

    The attack took place at about 5:00pm (1600 GMT) on Thursday in the village of Kuda in Adamawa State.

    A resident, Moses Kwagh told Reuters that people waited until three hours after the attack and had then counted 18 women’s bodies.

    Some women were still missing, he said.

    A police source confirmed the attack but said it was not yet clear how many people had been killed. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

    State lawmaker Emmanuel Tsamdu told Reuters: “I am yet to get the details on how it happened and the real number of people killed. I have sent hunters to go to the area and get me the details because people are afraid to go to the village.”

    Kuda is close to the Sambisa Forest, a vast colonial-era game reserve where Boko Haram militants hide in secluded camps to avoid the Nigerian military. The village was attacked by Boko Haram militants in February.

    Under President Muhammadu Buhari’s command and aided by Nigeria’s neighbours, the army has recaptured most of the territory seized by Boko Haram, but the group still regularly stages guerrilla attacks.

    “When we said that Boko Haram is still in this place some people sit in Abuja and claim that there is no more Boko Haram, but see what has happen,” Kwagh said.

  • Military to rehabilitate ‘repentant’ Boko Haram fighters

    The Director of Defence Information, Defence Headquarters, Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, on Thursday said  the military will rehabilitate repentant Boko Haram members through its “Operations Safe Corridor.”

    Abubarka stated this at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

    He said the operation was to rehabilitate, reintegrate, empower and de-radicalise surrendered members of the sect.

    He said,“Nigeria being a signatory to United Nations conventions must comply fully with that portion of the convention.

    “Even if you arrest or capture an enemy or prisoner of war, by international law, you are to treat him with all human dignity. You must do that, as long as you are a signatory to UN convention.

    “We evolved a policy by the defence headquarter and that operation is called operation ‘Safe Corridor’.

    “Operation safe corridor is an operation trying to rehabilitate, reintegrate, empower and de-radicalise those that surrendered and those captured.

    “It is not in any way amnesty. We are trying to comply fully with international best global practices and that is why we came up with that.

    “`The Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin with other service chiefs agreed to this and they came up with it, which is the first of its kind since the Boko Haram terror began.

    “And very soon, we will have a camp somewhere in the Northeast where they will be kept for empowering and reintegrating and de-radicalising them.’’

     

  • Boko Haram abducts three women near Chibok

    Boko Haram abducts three women near Chibok

    … Kills four villagers

    Boko Haram jihadists killed at least four villagers on Tuesday and kidnapped three women near the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok where the group snatched more than 200 girls two years ago, residents and survivors told Reuters.

    Boko Haram fighters attacked the Kautuva village at dawn, set houses ablaze and fired on residents, according to villagers and a member of a vigilante group working with the army.

    “Some of us were lucky to survive and ran to Chibok,” said a man who gave his name as Ali Pagu.

    Another resident said the jihadists had kidnapped three women.

    Kautuva lies near Chibok, a town from where Boko Haram seized 276 girls from a school in April 2014, part of a seven-year-old insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the north.

    It has left some 15,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.

    In May, authorities said a first of the missing Chibok girls had been found, and President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to rescue the rest of them.

    Dozens of the girls escaped in the initial melee in 2014 but more than 200 remained missing.

     

  • Bama Boko Haram victims moved to Maiduguri

    Bama Boko Haram victims moved to Maiduguri

    Four hundred and seventy-eight children, with 219 adults have been relocated from Bama.

    61 critically-malnourished infants were hospitalised on the orders of the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, it was learnt yesterday.

    A statement by the governor’s spokesman, Isa Gusau, said the victims were moved from Bama to a special care unit in Maiduguri on Monday. Of the 219 adults, 196 are women.

    The 61 infants, now hospitalised at Umaru Shehu Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri, are receiving medical care arising from extreme deprivation of food.

    The victims were among those rescued by the military from Boko Haram insurgents.

    After ordering Health and Emergency Management Agency workers to set up the special unit on Monday, Governor Shettima was at the unit yesterday where he personally supervised the administration of care to the victims.

    “Anyone that shows sign of being in critical health condition should be sent for medical admission on Government shoulders. Food and water must be constant and so should medical staff and drugs at the unit. I will monitor every step of what happens here,” the governor said.

    The statement added that humanitarian agencies, particularly Empower 54, an Atlanta-based organisation led by Princess Modupe Ozolua, were also there to offer assistance. “Modupe has done very well in supporting Borno,” Shettima said.

    The statement reads: “Dangote Foundation was also represented at the special care unit and donated food items. Officials of the United Nations Office on Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and UNICEF, were also there. Everyone wanted to help as they were inspired by Governor Shettima’s two hours supervision.

    “The governor, yesterday, also relocated some freshly-rescued victims from Marte and Mafa. He visited the victims, who stayed under trees along Maiduguri- Dikwa road on the outskirts of Maiduguri.

    “The villagers, said to be over 10,000 were rescued after a recent raid by the military. Shettima not only ordered that a new camp be opened for them, but waited for about four hours, supervising the creation of the camp and he didn’t leave until they were in their new ‘home’. He ordered boreholes and rest rooms to be constructed while a medical unit is to be set up. The soldiers also assured him of their safety.”

     

  • Bishop to Fed Govt: take pro-active measure on Boko Haram insurgency

    Diocesan Bishop of the Osun North Anglican Communion, Rev. Abiodun Taiwo Olaoye yesterday urged the Federal Government to take more proactive measures against attacks by Boko Haram insurgents in the Northeast during the Ramadam fasting period.

    He warned that the people in the troubled region must not be caught unaware by members of the deadly sects, whom he said were bent on wreaking havoc during and after the period.

    Speaking at the weekend in Igbaye, Osun State, during the church’s Second Session of the Third Synod, ?the cleric said it was unfortunate that the group had made people their target.

    Preempting that the insurgents might devise fresh strategies during the Ramadan, Rev Olaoye urged security agencies, including the military, to be more vigilant.

    He advised the Federal Government to intensify efforts by empowering the army to continue hostilities against the group until the battle was finally won.

    The cleric also called on Nigerians’ support for the government and the troops by being more vigilant and security-conscious by reporting any suspicious movement and strange personalities within their immediate environments and neighbourhoods to the security agencies.

    In order to win the ongoing war against insecurity, the cleric also urged government to provide employment for the youth to checkmate the rising spate of kidnapping and armed robbery attacks in different parts of the country.

    He assured that with God’s ultimate support, all the different forms of menace facing the country would soon be over.

    Lamenting the biting economic hardship, Rev. Olaoye called on the government to implement the 2016 Budget.

    He also urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to give up in his battle against corruption but advised that the recovered funds should be   injected to stimulate the economy.

    The cleric commended the President for his doggedness and commitment in the battle against insurgency and terrorism as well as the high magnitude of successes so far recorded.

    He warned that the battle was not yet over and asked the military not to give up yet.

    His words: “It is not yet uhuru as there are still cases of bombings in the area. Aside from that, pipeline vandalism and militancy in the Niger Delta have been on the rise. The menace of kidnapping, armed robbery and cattle rusting have not also abated. All these must be checked.”

  • No link between IS and Boko Haram – U.S

    No link between IS and Boko Haram – U.S

    United States officials on Thursday said “there is no evidence that Boko Haram has received significant operational support or financing from Islamic State (IS).

    An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in Washington, said more than a year after the group’s pledge of allegiance, it has no link with IS.

    He added that after Boko Haram killed more than two dozen soldiers in Niger last week, it claimed the attack in the name of Islamic State-West Africa Province, a title meant to tell the world that it was an arm of the Syria-based extremist group.

    The official suggested that Boko Haram’s loyalty pledge had so far mostly been a branding exercise designed to boost its international jihadi credentials, attract recruits and appeal to the IS leadership for assistance.

    He said the U.S view of Boko Haram, which won global infamy for its 2014 kidnapping of 276 school girls, as a locally-focused, homegrown insurgency likely to keep the group more to the margins of the U.S. fight against IS in Africa.

    The official said U.S military’s attention was largely centered on Libya, home to IS’s strongest affiliate outside the Middle East and where the U.S carried out air strikes.

    He stressed that “no such direct U.S intervention is currently being contemplated against Boko Haram.

    “If there is no meaningful connection between ISIL and Boko Haram and we haven’t found one so far, then there are no grounds for U.S military involvement in West Africa other than assistance and training,’’ he told Reuters.

    Another official referred to it as an African fight and U.S could only assist.

    The official said “it is not American fight, rather, it is an African fight and we can assist them, but it’s their fight.”

     

     

  • Boko Haram attack town in Yobe, cart away food

    Boko Haram insurgents on Monday night lunched an attack on Kannama town in the northern part of Yobe, state close to the Niger border with Nigeria.

    The attack was  on the first day of holy month of Ramadan.
    Security sources told our correspondent that the attack was a failed attempt by the insurgents to cause havoc on the town as no death was recorded.
    The State Police Commissioner Chika Abubakar Maidama who confirmed the attack disclosed that “no life was lost in the incident”. He however confirmed that three of his men were hospitalized at the Geidam General Hospital but have been discharged.
    The CP also informed that the insurgents carted away with food items and other valuables during the attack.
    The Spokesman of 27 Task Force Brigade, Lt. George Okupe also collaborated that no life was lost in the attack.
    Lt. Okupe said that enough security forces have been deployed to Kannama general area to boost confidence in the locales.
    Shehu Adamu, a resident of Kannama told our correspondent on phone that the “insurgents stormed the town yesterday by 9:00 in the evening shooting sporadically and attacked the divisional police station. They also attack some shops in the town in search of food”.

    In 2014 the Divisional Police Officer of the area was killed in one of the Boko Haram raids  carried  on the border town located some 34 kilometres away from Geidam town also in Yobe state bordering with Niger Republic.

     
  • FG promises to address causes of insurgency, militancy

    FG promises to address causes of insurgency, militancy

    Federal government Tuesday said it was working unearth the root causes of insurgency and agitation in parts of the country with a view to addressing them.

    The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) gave this assurance Tuesday  while addressing aggrieved lawyers, who were in his office to protest what they termed the menace of Boko Haram.

    Malami said the Fed Government was considering constituting a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate how insurgency found its way into the country.

    About 100 lawyers under the umbrella body of Lawyers United for Equality and Human Rights Advocacy (LUEHRA) protested to the office of the AGF to demand the investigation and prosecution of person found to have been sponsoring insurgency in the country.

    Malami was represented by the Director in charge of General Services in the Ministry, Mrs. Lola Uket. She assured the protesting lawyers that the minister will act on their demands.

    “You have made your demands and I am sure the minister will act and act very fast to meet your demands. All will be addressed. I believe you gave a time frame in your demand and I am sure they will all be met.

    “Your demands have not been met before now not because of negligence on the part of the minister but because of certain circumstances.

    “Let us be patient with them because they are also learned men like you. Let us give them the benefit of the doubt that something will be done,”she said‎.

    The lawyers in their position paper asked the minister to ensure the investigation and prosecution of sponsors of the Islamic Terrorist group, Boko Haram and ensure their prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    In the paper, addressed to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, a senior advocate, the lawyers asked the FG to avoid the grave mistake of government in the past that led to the intermittent resurrection of Niger Delta militancy.

    The group’s leader, Samson Esekhaigbe and Publicity Secretary, Nnena Okereke said recent frightening developments in the country were capable of causing serious political upheavals.

    Esekhaigbe said the developments were pointers to the fact that the top politicians in Borno State who created Boko Haram are still in touch with their “foot soldiers”.

    “We are afraid that the senseless killings by this animalistic bunch will not stop unless their sponsors are identified, tried in our local courts or dragged to the International Criminal Court at The Hague and accordingly imprisoned for facilitating heinous crimes against humanity. This is the only way that enduring peace would return to the North and Nigeria in general.

    “A situation whereby no less than 10,000 persons have been killed in various brutal activities spearheaded by the group is alarming”.

    The lawyers said it is their duty as a group of refined legal minds to fight and preserve Nigeria- the country that gave every Nigerian a home and heritage.

    The group condoled with those who lost their loved ones to insurgencies and insisted that the time to end Boko Haram is now otherwise the innocent blood spilt over the years will hunt us.

    The group is an umbrella body of pro-democracy, concerned and patriotic Nigerian lawyers committed to true democratic principles bringing to cognizance equity, fairness and respect for human rights and the rule of law in line with the change mantra of the present administration.

  • U.S condemns Boko Haram attack in Niger

    The United States Government on Tuesday condemned Boko Haram’s June 3 attack on a military outpost in Bosso, Niger.

    The U.S government in a statement also sent its condolences to the families of the 30 Nigeriens and two Nigerian soldiers killed in the attack, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    The government also conveyed its concern to the 67 individuals who were also injured in the attack.

    “The United States condemns in the strongest terms Boko Haram’s barbaric June 3 attack on a military outpost in Bosso, Niger.

    “We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the 30 Nigeriens and two Nigerian soldiers killed in the attack and the 67 individuals who were injured.

    “This latest attack further underscores Boko Haram’s blatant disregard for the people of the Lake Chad Basin area,’’ the statement said.

    The statement restated the U.S government’s continued support for Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon’s efforts at fighting and defeating Boko Haram activities in their countries and in the region.