The Nation Newspaper

Tag: hostages

  • Killed hostages?

    Killed hostages?

    • The Jonathan administration owes us a clear and emphatic explanation

    The militant Islamic group, Jama’atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan (JAMBS), popularly called Ansaru has thrown the nation’s security apparati into turmoil since their purported killing of seven foreign hostages (a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese), abducted since February 16, 2013 from a construction camp of Setraco company at Jama’are, Bauchi State. The Islamic fundamentalist sect that is claiming to be “vanguards for the protection of Muslims in Black Africa” has admitted the killing through a video posted on the social media and signed by one Abu Usamatal Ansary on March 9.

    Despite public admission by Britain, Italy and Greece that their nationals have indeed been killed, there seems to be confusion in the Nigerian government circles, as high-ranking ministers, including Mr. Abba Moro, Minister of Interior, and Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, Minister of Foreign Affairs, have been giving conflicting signals by either claiming that the hostages are still alive or that the government is searching for their dead bodies.

    What is incontrovertible is that the al Qaeda-linked Ansaru group reportedly released a web video footage on March 9 that showed a gunman standing next to a pile of bodies with purported Arabic title: “The killing of the seven Christian hostages in Nigeria.”The face of one of the bodies in the video reportedly resembled that of those hostages already named by the authorities. The Nigerian government has not, till date, provided contrary evidence to support its position that the hostages may still be alive. Yet, the government claims to have intensified the search for the location and whereabouts of their bodies.

    Surprisingly, the Joint Task Force, code-named Operation Restore Order, assigned the task of quelling violence in Boko Haram troubled states of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Kano and Adamawa, and its coordinating organ, the Defence Headquarters, have been mum on the whereabouts of the abducted hostages. The inability of government security agencies, including the State Security Service (SSS) to unearth the location of the killed hostages’ bodies amounts to nothing but a failure of intelligence in a country that spends billions of naira annually on security issues.

    The issue now has gone beyond asking why the Ansaru sect struck against the hostages. The country should, more importantly, not belabour matters by joining issues with the criminal sect over whether it actually attempted, with affected countries, a rescue operational raid on the hideout of the sect. All that must be pursued now is how to get at those unscrupulous elements behind this evil plot.

    Boko Haram (western education is sin) and the principal body of Ansaru, sometime last year killed a British and an Italian hostage in Sokoto State during a failed rescue mission by the British and Nigerian forces. A German kidnapped by the Islamist sect in January 2012 was also killed in the same year during a raid on his location. The list of barbaric onslaughts by this devilish group, purportedly embarking on Islamic crusade, is endless.

    The killing of the hostages has shown that the government is not abreast of realities of the country’s security challenges. Otherwise, it would not doubt what was already known to the outside world. This puts a lie to the government’s aversion for security alerts raised by foreign countries, especially the United States and United Kingdom, to their nationals in the country. We hate to say that the official cluelessness on the whereabouts of the hostages or their corpses is a metaphor of surrender to a criminal gang by a sovereign government.

  • ‘FG won’t pay ransom for French hostages’

    ‘FG won’t pay ransom for French hostages’

    •Nigeria, France meet to review situation in Mali

    No ransom will be paid by the Federal Government for the release of the French family of seven captured last month by terrorists in the north, Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr.Olugbenga Ashiru, said yesterday.

    The French including a five-year-old kid were captured while holidaying in Northern Cameroun and moved into Nigeria by their abductors who said their action was provoked by the intervention of France in Mali.

    They demanded that France should quit Mali immediately, failing which the hostages will be killed.

    Paris dispatched its Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Laurent Fabius, to Abuja yesterday to review with Nigeria the situation in Mali and discuss the fate of the French hostages.

    Mr. Fabius met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

    Mr. Ashiru, who briefed journalists on the interaction, said.

    Nigerian security agencies are working round the clock to ensure the release of the hostages.

    He said: “The Federal Government, with all the security agencies, is doing everything possible to ensure that we get the hostages released without any harm done to them. So we are doing everything possible. We want it to end peacefully so that no hostages will not be harmed in the process.”

    On negotiation with the group, he said: “Well, am not saying that. I’m saying that we will do everything possible to ensure that we get the hostages released. As part of our own policy, we don’t pay ransom to terrorists but we will do everything possible to ensure that those terrorists release their captives without any harm done to them.

    On the meeting, he said: “We were able to review the relations between our two countries. We are satisfied with the political relations, quite robust relations between us. On the economic level also a number of French companies are very active here. So we reviewed all these relations and we are happy that we are both doing very well.”

    “At the regional level, we reviewed the security situation in Mali. Of course, I must take this opportunity to again thank France for what they did in Mali, for the decisive intervention because if the French had not taken the steps they did at that time, Mali would have today become a terrorist country and if that happened the target would be to further destabilise the sub-region.

    “Nigeria would be a prime target, but we are happy with the intervention, and of course the Nigerian troops under AFISMA are now on ground, they are pushing forward, they are ensuring that the terrorist are totally destroyed and of course their capability are also being attacked so that we make them inoperative in that region.”

    The French minister said his country needs to be “determined and discrete” in trying to save the lives of his abducted compatriots.

    He said it is important to free the hostages, which include a child younger than five.

    Fabius said in French: “So it is in the name of humanity that they need to be freed both quickly and well.”

     

  • Death and the seven hostages

    Death and the seven hostages

    The news about the supposed murder of seven foreign workers abducted in Bauchi State on February 16 by the Jama’atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan, otherwise known as Ansaru, is a most unusual one. The seven hostages – a Briton, Italian, Greek, Lebanese, two Syrians and one Filipino – worked for a construction company before their abduction and harrowing captivity. Their captors had warned that the hostages would be killed if there were attempts to stage a rescue operation. They reminded Nigerian and foreign security organisations of the raid on Ansaru hideout near Sokoto during which hostages Chris McManus, a Briton, and Franco Lamolinara, an Italian, were killed when a combined team of Nigerian and British forces staged a rescue attempt in March 2012. On Saturday, however, Ansaru released an internet video clip suggesting that the hostages had been executed because the sect feared Britain and Nigeria were on the verge of a rescue attempt. But while the British, Italian and Greek governments have tentatively confirmed the execution, the Nigerian government has been reluctant to confirm the killings.

    What is curious about the murder is not the announcement by Ansaru, which is simple and direct enough, even if somewhat puzzling, nor the confirmation by the three countries of their citizens’ murder. The curious irony is that Nigeria, where the abduction took place, gives the humiliating impression it is unaware of the fate of the hostages, whether they were dead or alive. While Nigerians sympathise with their government, they do not excuse its dispiritedness. The government may not be able to stage a daring rescue, and may even rightly be afraid of staging another fiasco, but it is expected it should at least be able to tell what has become of the hostages. It rankles that foreign governments seemed surer of the fate of the hostages, while Nigeria, where the crisis unfolded, watches quizzically.

    The Nigerian scepticism may, however, derive from the government’s conviction that Nigerian terror groups were not known to execute their hostages except during a rescue attempt. In addition, the government also probably suspects that Ansaru may in fact have contrived the supposed execution as a red herring to throw the government and adventurous rescuers off the scent of the terrorists. A few conspiracy theorists even believe that the foreign governments quickly confirmed the executions in order to give Ansaru the mistaken impression they would do nothing about the hostages since they were dead anyway.

    Whatever the final outcome, whether Ansaru is lying and foreign governments are conniving at the lie, or whether Nigeria is in a quandary, the only group certain to be embarrassed by the whole affair is Nigeria, which has been unable both to tame its violent sects and incompetent to fight them. Nigeria must hope that the hostages are really not dead, and that its wariness is justified. Any other outcome would be disastrous, for it would paint Nigeria as ignorant of happenings within its own borders. However, in the days ahead, the unpleasant truth about the fate of the hostages will be established beyond doubt. But whatever that truth is will not mitigate the appalling image Nigeria has cultivated and continues to nurture of its government’s unpredictability, dithering and slothfulness.

     

     

     

  • ‘No evidence as to status of hostages’

    The Federal Government has insisted that it was not ready to rush into conclusion on the kidnapped seven foreign nationals, who were reported to have been killed by one of the terrorist groups in the North, Ansaru.

    According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Olugbenga Ashiru, there is no conclusive evidence on the status of the hostages.

    The minister yesterday noted that there must be evidence to prove that the foreigners were killed. This is coming 24 hours after the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, was quoted as saying their killing remained unconfirmed.

    Ashiru, who was responding to questions from reporters on the status of the seven foreign nationals reported to have been killed by Ansaru, said: “You see, before you announce that the hostages are either dead or alive, you must have evidence. I believe our security agencies are working hard to ensure that we either find the bodies or we release them alive. For now, there is no conclusive evidence on the status of the hostages.”

     

  • Nigeria begins search for bodies of seven hostages

    Nigeria begins search for bodies of seven hostages

    Video shows four bodies 

    The Federal Government has not made an official statement on the “purported execution of the hostages” because it has not ascertained the truth or otherwise of it, sources said yesterday.

    The only information available to the government is about the illness of three of the seven hostages, it was learnt.

    Security agencies and the embassies had been working round the clock to establish where the killing took place and how to retrieve the bodies.

    A security source, who spoke in confidence, said: “We are working on various clues on the hostages. This is why the Federal Government has not spoken on the purported execution of the hostages.

    “What we are doing now is that we are trying to locate where the hostages were killed and how to retrieve their bodies.

    “More security operatives and intelligence officers have been drafted to Bauchi State and other suspected areas in the Northeast to verify.

    “Going by precedent, we believe we should be able to retrieve their bodies or locate their graves within 48 hours. We have not been able to do that.”

    The source went on: “Intelligence report, as at last Friday, revealed that only three of the seven hostages were ill. These three hostages were one who had surgery; an Italian was hypertensive and a heart-related problem and a Briton who was diabetic.

    “The government knew that these three hostages were sick and efforts were made to send drugs to them through some links.

    “So, if there were casualties, it could be these three hostages who had no access to their drugs.”

    Responding to a question, the source added: “There was no joint rescue operation that failed at all.”

    As at press time, SETRACO Nigeria Limited was yet to issue an official statement on the fate of its seven workers.

    Islamic fundamentalist sect Ansaru, which at the weekend admitted killing seven foreign hostages, yesterday posted the video of the bodies online.

    The video matched still image released earlier by the extremist group, the Associated Press reported.

    The face of one of the bodies in the video also resembled that of a hostages already named by authorities.

    European diplomats said Sunday that the hostages had been killed.

    Interior Minister Abba Moro told the BBC’s Hausa language radio service that Britain, Italy and Greece said that it was “likely” that their citizens had.

    “We hope they’re alive,” Moro said.

    In the video, a gunman stands in sand, holding a rifle near what appears to be bodies. A later shot in the video shows three male bodies, one of whom appears to have been killed by a gunshot wound to the head from a high-powered weapon.

    The video has no sound. An accompanying caption for the video in Arabic calls it: “The killing of seven Christian hostages in Nigeria.” Another description includes the statement Ansaru released Saturday, claiming that it killed the hostages, signed by a man with the nom de guerre Abu Usamatal Ansary.

    Ansaru fighters kidnapped the foreigners on February 16 from a camp for the construction company Setraco at Jama’are, Bauchi State.

    Information Minister Labaran Maku also told reporters at the State House that he had nothing to say to them. “I don’t have brief to brief you,” he said.

     

  • Ansaru: We’ve killed 7 foreign hostages

    Ansaru: We’ve killed 7 foreign hostages

    • Victims from Britain, Lebanon, Greece, Italy and the Phillipines
    • Why we killed hostages –sect

     

    The Islamic group, Jama’atu Ansaril Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan better known as Ansaru, confirmed at the weekend that it executed the seven foreign construction workers abducted last month in Jama’are, Bauchi State.

    The victims—three Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece, Italy and the Philippines – are all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company.

    Ansaru, a splinter group from Boko Haram, said on its website that it executed the seven Christians because Nigerian and British forces had killed some Muslims while trying to free the hostages.

    Army spokesman Col. Mohammed Yerima told the Associated Press he had no information about any Nigerian/British military operation.

    The announcement of the execution was accompanied by screen shots of a video purporting to show the dead hostages.

    One screenshot showed a man with gun standing above several prone figures lying on the ground.

    It said: “(We) announced the capture of seven Christian foreigners and warned that should there be any attempt by force to rescue them will render their lives in danger (sic).

    “The Nigerian and British government operation lead (sic) to the death of all the seven Christian foreigners.”

    Armed members of the group kidnapped the foreigners on February 16 from Setraco compound in Jama’are, killing a security guard in the process.

    Bauchi State Police Chief, Mohammed Ladan said gunmen attacked a police station and a prison overnight before storming the construction firm’s compound.

    “We repelled the attack on police station and the security men at the prison yard also repelled the attack, but [the attackers] burnt two vehicles in Jama’are police station,” Ladan said.

    Setraco Nigeria, a construction and civil engineering company with a road project in the region, is a subsidiary of Lebanese-owned Setraco International Holding group.

    Last December, al-Qaeda-aligned group Ansaru claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a French national who remains missing.

    The French man was, until his kidnapping, working on a renewal energy project in Katsina State.

    Gunmen had in May shot and killed a Lebanese and a Nigerian construction worker in Kaduna State, while kidnapping another Lebanese employee.

    Later that month, kidnappers shot a German hostage dead during a rescue operation.

    Britain linked Ansaru to the May 2011 kidnapping of Christopher McManus, who was abducted with Italian Franco Lamolinara from a home in Kebbi State.

    The men were held for months, before their captors killed them on March 8, 2012 during a failed military raid backed up by British Special Forces in Sokoto.

    The group later denied taking part in that abduction.

    Soon after abducting the seven foreigners it executed on Friday, Ansaru claimed responsibility for the action and threatened their safety should anyone try to intervene and free them.

    It said the abduction was “based on the transgression and atrocities shown to the religion of Allah by the European countries in many places such as Afghanistan and Mali.”

    “It is stressed that any attempt or act contrary to our conditions by the European nations or by the Nigerian government will” endanger the hostages, the statement read.

    In January last year, Ansaru declared itself a breakaway faction from Boko Haram which has launched a guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings across the North killing no fewer than 792 people last year alone.

    Boko Haram is suspected of holding seven French citizens who were kidnapped from neighbouring Cameroun in February where they were holidaying.

    The three adults and four children, all members of a family, kidnapped in northern Cameroon.

    A French official close to the embassy in Cameroon said the group was believed to have been taken from northern Cameroon to Nigeria.

    President Goodluck Jonathan, in a statement 48 hours after the abduction of the Setraco workers condemned the attack and said he had ordered security agencies to “take all necessary action” to locate and rescue the abducted construction workers.

    “He assures the relatives of the kidnapped foreign workers as well as the governments of their countries that the federal government and its security agencies are doing everything possible to find their abductors and ensure the safe release of all those they abducted,” his spokesman, Reuben Abati said in a statement.

    The President on Thursday and Friday visited Yobe and Borno States, the hotbed of the Boko Haram insurgency to assess the destruction it has caused to the socio-economic life there.

    He met with stakeholders on how to deal with the problem.

    However, five hours after he departed Maiduguri, seven explosions were reported in parts of the city.