Boko Haram members are reportedly causing mayhem in Michika town, Adamawa.
The sect members, according to reports, hit the town early on Monday and razed down buildings.
Details later…
Tag: boko haram
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Boko Haram frees over 200 hostages in Yobe
Over 200 Boko Haram hostages, mostly women and children, were released in Yobe State on Friday night, security sources have said.
The release, it was learnt, took place at Katarko in Gujba Local Government Area, where several residents were abducted and others maimed.
Katarko town is 22 kilometres away from Damaturu, the state capital.
A resident of Katarko, who spoke in confidence, told our correspondent on phone that the insurgents released the hostages in two batches.
The source said: “It is true that the incident happened. Some of our people have seen their relatives who were captured. From the information I got, the insurgents only released women and small children. But they killed youths in their captivity and either dumped them in the some wells or by the roadsides. They freed 135 people in the first batch and another 70 in the second batch.”
Another resident, who was reunited with his hitherto abducted family and preferred not to be named, said the insurgents called them to pick their relations at Woron Yinwa village.
The resident said: “They were so lucky to get a lorry that conveyed them to Gazargana village, where we picked them through the aid of some military personnel. The military kept them in a camp and pleaded with us to leave them there for security reason.
“I received four of my five family members abducted. The other one is among the 29 people who are yet to be released by the insurgents.”
One of the captives, a woman who simply identified herself as Kaltume, said the insurgents gathered the captives and asked them to form two groups.
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Curfew imposed on Maiduguri as troops repel Boko Haram
Less than 24 hours after President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit, troops are in fierce battle to repel Boko Haram insurgents from taking over the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
Curfew has been imposed on Maiduguri to enable the troops rout out the insurgents and avoid civilian casualties.
A tweet by the Defence Headquarters confirmed that an ongoing operation around Maiduguri and Mongunu.
The DHQ said: “Troops are repelling a simultaneous attack on Monguno and Maiduguri by Terrorists.
“Coordinated Air and Land OPs being conducted now.
“Meanwhile curfew has been imposed on Maiduguri with immediate effect till further notice.”The sounds of heavy artillery weapons sent some parts of the town into complete confusion as many residents were sighted running out of their houses for some safe locations of the town.
Most of the residents along Jos/Damaturu highway into the town fled from their houses as the insurgents were said to be advancing from Jamtilo junction about 15km to Maiduguri. -
Maiduguri under attack
The Borno state capital has been under attack by the Boko Haram insurgents since Sunday morning.
There have been heavy shooting in parts of Maiduguri with some residents running out of their houses.
Although the military has sent an alert urging residents not to panic, residents who spoke with The Nation says “the situation is very critical and we are not sure of our safety.”
Details later
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Boko Haram kills village leader, 14 others in Borno
Boko Haram gunmen killed 15 people including a village leader near Maiduguri yesterday just a few hours before President Goodluck Jonathan’s arrival in the Borno State capital to canvass votes ahead of next month’s elections.
“The terrorists attacked Kambari village which is less than five kilometres to Maiduguri around 5:00 am. They killed 15 people and set the entire hamlet ablaze,” security sources said.
“After fruitless efforts to enter Maiduguri through Konduga without success, the terrorists took a different route and attacked Kambari,” one of the sources said.
A woman from the village, who simply gave her name as Kyallu, said four of her children were among the dead.
“They killed four of my grown-up children when they attacked our village about the time for the morning prayers,” Kyallu, who is now in Maiduguri, told AFP.
“They shot my children dead without any prompting. I had to leave the village with my grandchildren because we have lost our houses,” she said.
“The insurgents also killed our village head. In fact, I counted 15 dead bodies,” she said.
Security in the city was beefed up ahead of yesterday’s visit of the president.
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Boko Haram: US’s Kerry due in Nigeria tomorrow
US Secretary of State John Kerry is due in Nigeria “in a couple of days” as part of a Washington push to counter extremist groups, including Boko Haram. In an emotional speech at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland on the horrors inflicted by extremist groups Kerry said that in the fight against “terror”, there was “no room for anti- Semitism or Islamophobia”. “Violent extremism has claimed violence at every corner of the globe and muslim lives most of all,” Kerry said even as the National Security Adviser (NSA) Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) claimed that Nigeria does not need the help of the United Nations (UN) or the African Union (AU) troops to take on Boko Haram.
“There is no room for sectarian division. There is no room for anti-Semitism or Islamophobia,” Kerry said. “In the weeks to come we… have to strengthen our efforts in Somalia, intensify our efforts to end violence in Nigeria, that’s why I m going there in a couple of days,” he said. After the speech, a spokesman for Kerry confirmed that he would be in Abuja tomorrow and meet with President Goodluck Jonathan. In his speech, Kerry said countries must devote more resources to fight global extremism but the battle would falter if it becomes consumed by sectarian division or Islamophobia. Speaking against a backdrop of deadly Islamist militant attacks in France, Pakistan, Nigeria and elsewhere, Kerry said: “These kinds of actions can never be excused. And they have to be opposed. With every fibre of our being, they have to be stopped. “We have to take risks, we have to invest more resources,” he said. Kerry described Islamic State militants, who have seized wide swathes of Iraq and Syria, as “a collection of monsters”.
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African states to seek UN mandate on Boko Haram
African nations threatened by the Boko Haram sect will seek the United Nations’ Security Council authorisation for a multinational force to take on the militants, Niger’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Mohamed Bazoum said the countries of the Lake Chad region had agreed during a meeting in Niger’s capital Niamey on Tuesday that the resolution would be presented to the UN by the African Union.
He did not specify when this would be done.
Boko Haram, which is fighting to create an Islamic emirate in northern Nigeria, has increasingly made incursions into neighbouring Cameroon and is also threatening the stability of the region that includes Niger and Chad, Reuters says.
Mistrust and disagreements between the states has however hampered attempts to pool military resources. The countries had agreed to create a multinational force to tackle the insurgents by last November but failed to contribute the troops.
“Contrary to what happened in the past, we agreed with our partners that a resolution should passed by the Security Council that will allow the establishment of the Joint Multinational Force,” Reuters quoted Bazoum as saying to a television channel in Niamey.
The countries also agreed to move the headquarters of the proposed multinational force from the Nigerian town of Baga to the Chadian capital N’Djamena after Baga was seized and ransacked by Boko Haram fighters, he said.
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Abducted Germen released
A German kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Adamawa State in July last year has been released following a operation by Cameroon’s military and allies, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.
“A special operation of the Cameroon armed forces and security services of friendly countries led this night to the release of Nitsch Eberhard Robert, German citizen, abducted in July 2014 in Nigeria by Boko Haram,” Reuters a statement from Cameroon’s presidency as saying on Wednesday.
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22 Army officers face court martial over Boko Haram
The army authorities has ordered a brigadier general and 21 other army officers to face a court martial over alleged sabotage in the war against the Boko Haram, two military sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The charges were not specified.
Some officers have long been suspected of colluding with Boko Haram, with President Goodluck Jonathan saying in May that the sect had “infiltrated the armed forces and police.”
This is the first time senior army officers have been put on trial for offences relating to the fight against Boko Haram.
The militant group killed an estimated 10,000 people last year in its battle to revive a medieval caliphate in Nigeria.
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Boko Haram ‘leader’ claims Baga attack in new video
A man purporting to be Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, on Tuesday claimed an attack on the northeastern town of Baga in which scores of civilians were killed when the insurgents seized a multinational military base.
The insurgents, who invaded Baga at the start of the year, razed many buildings and homes in the week that followed, shooting civilians as they tried to flee, witnesses said.
Some local officials put the death toll as high as 2,000, although the military said it was 150, Reuters says.
The video was in the trademark Boko Haram style, with the bearded man claiming to be Shekau in combat fatigues talking in the northern Nigerian Hausa language surrounded by masked gunmen.
The military claimed it killed the real Shekau.
“We are the ones that carried out the attack and it is just the tip of the iceberg,” the man said, “There are more coming.”
Commenting on weapons seized from Baga, he said they are “enough to annihilate Nigeria.”
Soldiers fled the area after the nearby army base, which is the headquarters of a multinational force comprising troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, by Lake Chad was overrun. Chad and Cameroon are being drawn into the fight against Boko Haram, but mistrust has hampered cooperation.
The main claiming to be Shekau taunted the leaders of Cameroon, Niger and Chad – Paul Biya, Mahamadou Issoufou and Idris Deby.
He also made it clear he doesn’t care if President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, or his main opposition contender in February 14 presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, wins the poll.
“Jonathan you are in trouble,” he said. “And Buhari, do you think he is a true Muslim? He’s an infidel.”