Boko Haram Leader Abubakar ShekauAppears In New Video, Says He Is Alive

Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, has appeared in a new propaganda video dismissing claims of his killing by the Nigerian military.

'Prisoner Swap Deal': List of Detained Boko Haram Insurgents That The Sect Wants Swapped for Abducted Chibok Girls

The failed high level negotiations between Boko Haram leaders and the Nigerian government team, led by a former Minister of Information, Edwin Clark, would have seen the country swapping 16 detained terrorists for 220 Chibok girls, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.

Red Cross Brokering Secret Prisoner Swap Deal With Boko Haram To Free Abducted Chibok Girls

Abducted Chibok School Girls

The International Committee of the Red Cross has become involved in a secret prisoner swap deal to secure the release of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, the Telegraph has learned.

Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet Missing After Mission In Adamawa

A Nigerian Air Force Alpha jet has been missing for some days now after disappearing in the country 's far northeast , where troops are fighting Boko Haram insurgents , the military has said.

Boko Haram Members Marrying Abducted Girls – Watchlist Report

Boys and girls abducted by Boko Haram, including Christian girls, have been forced to convert to Islam and coerced into marrying members of the group, along with other female abductees, a report by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict noted yesterday.

Watchlist, an international network of
human rights and humanitarian non-
government organizations working to end violations against children in armed conflict, also accused the federal government and other international humanitarian bodies of being slow, fragmented and unable to meet the fast-growing needs of those affected by the conflict in terms of relief response to violations against children.

“Boko Haram abducted these girls and young women from schools and markets, and during raids on villages in areas across Borno State since at least December 2012. Some members of the group raped girls and young women in the camps. None of the girls and women who escaped, and were interviewed by Watchlist, had access to counseling and
other health services”, the group noted.

  - Leadership

Parents Of Abducted Chibok Girls Give Up Hope, Ready To 'Sacrifice' Daughters To End Terrorism

Parents of the abducted Chibok School girls have told President Jonathan and the Nigerian Army to go ahead and end Boko Haram, even if it endangers the lives of the girls.

They said they are ready to turn their daughters into sacrificial lambs, if it will end insurgency and the terror that Boko Haram has being carrying out.

Four months after the captivity of their daughters, the parents are now ready for the military to invade the Sambisa forest no matter the outcome.

Chairman of the Chibok community in Abuja, Hosea Tsambido, stated that he had been in contact with the parents who had given up hope of their daughters returning alive and are only asking that the government return with their bodies so that they can be given proper burial.

He stated this in Abuja during the protest by members of the #BringBackOurGirls the movement to mark 130 days after over 200 girls were abducted from the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok.

Tsambido stated that the Chibok culture requires parents and family members of missing persons to bury their loved ones, if they have been missing for over four months, adding that after three to four months the families must perform the burial ritual and assume that the persons are dead to enable them move on with their lives.

His words: “Culturally in our area, when our child or a person is missing for three to four months and you do not hear anything about the person, we will arrange for the burial ceremony and to take it as if the person is dead and we will perform the burial ritual and forget about the person and try to forge ahead with life.
“Now the parents are saying that it is better for them to bring the girls back, even if it means the corpses so that they will bury them properly.
“Let the girls be the sacrificial lambs, that is what they told me. I spoke with them last night on the issue and
their opinion is that the army should go into Sambisa.

If some of the girls are saved, die or abscond, so be it than all this trauma that the parents are going through
right now.
“They are saying that let the government go into the forest and bring back the corpses of the children so that they can bury them properly.

The leader of the BBOG movement, Oby Ezekwesili, has asked the government to tell the group and Nigerians what is being done to rescue the girls after 130 days.
Her words: “This is 130 days after they were abducted and we are no where closer as to knowing the fate of those girls and having any information on their rescue.
“The challenge that we have is the fact that we are told that a rescue operation is going on but when you connect the dots in the statements that are made, it leaves you within the logical frame without any precise sense of a rescue operation because in the case of abduction, what we know around the world is that people try to rescue through a military operation or they try to rescue through negotiation and and they try to sometimes have a mix of those two options.

“Each time that we have listened to statements from government, including from the President, it has seemed to dismiss any of these options and so that leaves us asking, what exactly is going on 130 days since these girls were abducted.

The Nation

Britain 'To Send Tornado Reconnaissance Jets to Nigeria' To Find Abducted Chibok Girls

The RAF is sending three warplanes to help locate the Nigerian schoolgirls taken by an Islamist terror group, it has been reported.

Four months ago Boko Haram, which is fighting to reinstate a medieval Islamic caliphate in religiously mixed Nigeria, abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok and they remain missing.

Nigerians in Chicago Rally Against Boko Haram Insurgency, Terrorism in Nigeria

Nigerian professionals belonging to the First Nigeria Organisation (FNO), have concluded their rally  in Chicago, aimed at drawing global attention to the atrocities of the murderous terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The rally was a continuation of a series of rallies organised by the same group across major cities in the United States during the recent visit of President Goodluck Jonathan who was in the US to participate in the just-concluded African Leadership Summit hosted by President Barack Obama from August 4-6 in Washington, D.C.

The rally took place from 11am to 1pm at the historic Tribune Towers on Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago featured many seasoned participants including the Clerk of Cook County, Dorothy Brown, Rev. Dr. Janette Wilson, renowned American Civil Rights Activist and Senior Adviser to Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Snr., Dr. Ewa Ewa, Dr. Christian Akiwowo, Pa David Olupitan, Mr. Anthony Cole, Sir Tony Ochiabutor, Hon Uba Light, Joy Oshodi and others.

According to the participants, who carried placards with various inscriptions such as “Boko Haram Stop Killing Nigerians”, “Support President Jonathan to fight Boko-Haram”, “Bring Back Our Girls” and others, the rally was a conclusion of the Washington and New York rallies aimed at telling Boko Haram the world can no longer tolerate their inhuman and murderous tendencies to Nigerians with emphasis on the Chibok girls.

The Coordinator of the Nigeria First Organisation, Linda Oyewopo condemned the wicked acts of the Boko Haram sect imploring everybody to stand up to the murderous instincts of this deadly group.
Dorothy Brown, the Clerk of Cook County denounced Boko Haram for the abduction of the Chibok School Girls calling on the terrorists to release the girls soonest. She thanked the American Government for offering help to Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram and urged Americans to unite and stand with Nigerians so as to send a strong message that the world was united against Boko Haram.

Rev. Dr. Janette Wilson stated that terrorism has no colours and as such all hands – whites, blacks, Hispanics, browns, etc. should be on deck to bring the atrocities of Boko Haram to an end in Nigeria. She condemned the kidnappings of the Chibok school girls and called for their immediate release to their families.

Dr. Ewa Ewa thanked Nigerians and their American counterparts in Chicago for making out time out of their busy schedules to rally with Nigerians for the release of the abducted school girls leaving the assurance that Nigerians all over Chicago would continue to rally against the dreaded terrorist group until they release the kidnapped school girls and an end is put to the murderous activities of the group in Nigeria.

Dr. Christian Akiwowo denounced the terrorist activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria and urged Chicagoans and the global community to continue to support the ongoing efforts of the Nigerian government to bring an end to the activities of the terrorist group. He specially prayed that God should open the eyes of the Boko Haram militants so that they can understand the pains and sufferings they are inflicting on their innocent and law-abiding Nigerian victims and turn away from their evil ways.

Pa David Olupitan called on Nigerians and Americans to unite in the fight against Boko Haram because it was the right thing to do. He stressed that terrorism had no place in Nigeria and as such Boko Haram must be defeated.

In her remarks, Mrs. Joy Oshodi, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwart in Chicago highlighted the accomplishments of the Jonathan Administration. She emphasized that although the Boko Haram insurgency dominates the headlines, that President Goodluck Jonathan remains of the most seasoned leaders Nigeria has ever produced and called on Nigerians of all ethnicities and the American public to continue to support the government of Nigeria in its efforts in putting an end to the activities of the terrorist group.

In their remarks, the organizers – the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS) organizer in the United States, Linda Oloyepo, Otunba Badejo and Anslem John-Miller thanked all Nigerian professionals in attendance for making out time out of their busy schedules to rally in support of the abducted school girls and the efforts of the Nigerian Government to rescue the girls safely. They assured Nigerians that they would leave no stone unturned in their international mobilization to ensure that the Nigerian Government gets all the support she needs in order to rescue the abducted Chibok girls and defeat Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Source:
MetroWatchOnline

United States Surveillance Planes Searching for Boko Haram Abductees Spot Girls in Nigeria

Recent U.S. surveillance flights over northeastern Nigeria showed what appeared to be large groups of girls held together in remote locations, raising hopes among domestic and foreign officials that they are among the group that Boko Haram abducted from a boarding school in April, U.S. and Nigerian officials said.

The surveillance suggests that at least some of the 219 schoolgirls still held captive haven't been forced into
marriage or sex slavery, as had been feared, but instead are being used as bargaining chips for the release of
prisoners.

The U.S. aerial imagery matches what Nigerian officials say they hear from northern Nigerians who have
interacted with the Islamist insurgency: that some of Boko Haram's most famous set of captives are getting special treatment, compared with the hundreds of other girls the group is suspected to have kidnapped. Boko Haram appears to have seen the schoolgirls as of higher value, given the global attention paid to their plight, those officials said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who faces re- election in February, is under political pressure to secure the girls' release, with some people urging him to agree to a prisoner swap.
His government has ruled out a rescue operation, saying it is unwilling to risk the girls' lives, or a prisoner swap.
"We don't exchange innocent people for criminals. That is not in the cards," said Mr. Jonathan's spokesman, Reuben Abati, last week in an interview.

In early July, U.S. surveillance flights over northeastern Nigeria spotted a group of 60 to 70 girls held in an open
field, said two U.S. defense officials. Late last month, they spotted a set of roughly 40 girls in a different field.
When surveillance flights returned, both sets of girls had been moved. U.S. intelligence analysts say they don't have enough information to confirm whether the two groups of girls they saw are the same, they said.

They also can't say whether those groups included any of the girls the group has held since April. But U.S. and Nigerian officials said they believe they are indeed those schoolgirls.
"It's unusual to find a large group of young women like that in an open space," said one U.S. defense official.
"We're assuming they're not a rock band of hippies out there camping."

A wave of intermediaries acting on their own has tried to negotiate the girls' release, Mr. Abati said, adding that the president has neither authorized nor discouraged those efforts. Several of those intermediaries have said Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has ordered his fighters to treat the girls as valuable hostages—not sex slaves—one senior Nigerian security adviser said.

"He gave a directive that anybody found touching any of the girls should be killed immediately," the adviser said.
"If true, it is cheering."
It would also show that Boko Haram is trying to follow an al Qaeda tactic of swapping hostages for money and
political gain.

Boko Haram has used hostages in the past to demand the exchange of its prisoners held in both Nigeria and
Cameroon, which was one of the conditions for the release of a French family from captivity last year.
Now, the group appears to be testing the bargaining power of a group of girls who had been ordinary teenagers at a school—until their abduction on the night of April 14. That night, fighters with the Islamist insurgency—which is opposed to modern education—stormed a boarding school and drove 276 girls away hours before their final exams. Fifty-seven later escaped.

The captivity of the rest became a cause célèbre, prompting a Twitter campaign, #BringBackOurGirls, that was joined by notable figures including Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. It also spurred Boko Haram's latest effort to get its captives released from crowded Nigerian prisons—a long-standing grievance. Three months after seizing the girls, Boko Haram's leader, Mr. Shekau, appeared in a video demanding a prisoner exchange. "You are saying bring back our girls," thundered the bearded gunman, before firing his AK-47 into the air. "We are saying bring back our men!"

Dozens of demonstrators still gather in the capital each day to press for the girls' freedom. Their rallies have become a referendum on whether Nigerian women particularly poor, young, Muslim girls— are valued by a government of mostly wealthy, elderly, Christian men.
Mr. Abati said Mr. Jonathan has worked tirelessly to win the girls' freedom.

It isn't clear how many of the girls Boko Haram can deliver. A former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who has a history of contact with the group, has said some of the girls are likely dead or pregnant. Only about 130 of them—out of 219 missing— appeared in the sole video of the girls that Boko Haram has ever provided.

Meanwhile, the international effort to find the girls has waned: The U.S. military is now carrying out just one
surveillance flight a day, mostly by manned aircraft, totaling only 35 to 40 hours a week, said U.S. defense
officials, as drones have been shifted back toward other operations.

Some accounts suggest the burden of providing for scores of girls has become a point of dissension in Boko Haram's ranks.
In July, four girls and women aged 16 to 22 hid in their bedrooms as Boko Haram fighters broke into their home in the town of Damboa, they each said in an interview last week. They feared they would be kidnapped.
When their aunt, Fatima Abba, argued on their behalf. The roughly 20 Boko Haram insurgents decided not to
kidnap them—and instead began to complain about the scores of schoolgirls they already have.
"They are always crying. They behave like children," Ms. Abba quoted the Boko Haram fighters as saying of the
schoolgirls. "We don't want them around."

Source:
WSJ

President Jonathan Using Third Parties To Negotiate With Boko Haram To Free Abducted Chibok Girls

The president of Nigeria disclosed Monday that his government is using third parties to talk to Islamist
extremists and try to secure the safe release of the 200 schoolgirls they kidnapped, saying military action could prove too deadly.

In an exclusive interview with The Washington Times, President Goodluck Jonathan also said that U.S. help during the schoolgirls crisis has not produced any results.

“They have been with us for over a month, and we have not been able to get the girls out,” he said. “So you really see that the help has not yet resulted [in] something positive. I wouldn’t say they have helped or they have not helped. Basically they are there to help with intelligence gathering and so on.”

In Washington for an African leaders’ summit with President Obama, Mr. Jonathan directly addressed the
criticism both inside his country and abroad to his response to the terrorist group Boko Haram’s kidnapping of the girls from the town of Chibok in April, saying a swift military response likely would have resulted in the death of the children.

“We have not been able to get [an answer]. How do we get these girls out?” he said. “If it is to risk a few dead
bodies, it is easier. You can blast the place and carry the corpses. But is that what we have to do? So it is delicate, and that’s why we are proceeding with caution.”

Mr. Jonathan, who faces re-election in
2015, disclosed that he has authorized third parties to try to secure the girls’ safe release.
“Negotiations from Day One. We have set up a committee — what I call a dialogue committee — [for] the challenge we have in the north, even before the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. We have a team. And we encourage people to assist them. We do negotiate,” he said. “Quite a number of people have come with different information. We encourage them. But none of them have yielded any results.”

Nigerian and U.S. advisers to Mr. Jonathan immediately clarified his remarks after the interview, stating the Nigerian government was not directly negotiating with Boko Haram but instead using intermediaries.

“The president is not negotiating with Boko Haram. He is, however, encouraging dialogue between the sect and the government,” said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton White House adviser who has been advising the Jonathan administration on international media strategy related to the crisis.
“Recently, even before the girls were taken, he set up a committee to dialogue with Boko Haram. Currently,
there are third parties reaching out to Boko Haram to secure the safe return of the girls, and the administration is actively encouraging these backroom
initiatives,” he said.

The kidnappings fueled international outrage and spurred a social media campaign in the West with the
rallying cry of “#BringBackOurGirls.”
Mr. Jonathan, who belatedly accepted offers of help from the Obama administration to find the girls, said
American help hasn’t produced any measurable results.

Mr. Jonathan took baby steps on the carpet of his hotel suite to demonstrate the impact so far of the effort by the US and other global allies to help his country finds the girls — “one fraction of a centimeter.”
“It’s like when we are learning elementary physics in secondary school, and they will define ‘walk’ as ‘effort by distance,’” he said. “No matter what the effort, if you don’t move the load by a distance, the walk is zero. The effort I put, multiplied by zero, is zero. No walk. Yes, they are doing something, but no result yet.”

Mr. Davis, the adviser to President Jonathan, said Nigeria was appreciative of the help offered by numerous countries.

Washington Times

Boko Haram: Nigeria Raises N60 Billion to Assist Terror Victims

The federal government on Thursday realised over N60 billion as individuals and groups donated to the Victims of Terror Support Fund launched in Abuja.

The fund is expected to be used for the rehabilitation of victims of terror attacks across the nation.
Over 13,000 people have been killed in attacks by the Boko Haram sect while hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and thousands of property destroyed.

Spread of Boko Haram Threatens Heart of Nigerian Economy

LAGOS, Nigeria—To understand why Africa's top economy is faltering after five years of Islamist attacks, take a look at Tochukwu Odidigwe's car-parts dealership.

In June, an explosion tore through a traffic jam near his storefront near the port of Lagos, the country's commercial hub. The deadly blast left his street covered in ash and his customers scared to come back. "They are afraid they may be killed," said Mr. Odidigwe.

Chibok Girls: Controversy Brews Over 100million Naira Presidential Gift To Parents

A new controversy is brewing in Chibok village, in Borno State with parents of the abducted girls alleging that they have been shortchanged by Chibok community leaders who received 100 million naira cash gift from the Presidency, on their behalf.

Although a presidential aide denied any such gift to Chibok parents, through their leaders, one parent, Mr Abdu Halidu, told the BBC that he got only N200, 000 from the money.

Now the parents of the missing girls are saying that the amount shared to them is unacceptable.

According to Mr Halidu “I got only N200, 000 out of the said N100 million. Some of us got N300,000 and some less than that. Our leaders in Abuja are using the girls to enrich themselves and this is unacceptable.”

Over 200 schoolgirls were abducted by gunmen who stormed the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, North-East Nigeria in the dead of the night of April 15, ordering all the girls out of their hostels into four lorries.

On July 22, a special presidential meeting was held with the parents of the Chibok girls in the Presidential Villa which afforded the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, the opportunity to empathize with the girls and their parents.

The President, after assuring the Chibok community of his Government’s determination to ensure that the abducted schoolgirls that are still in captivity are brought out alive, reassured them that everything would be done to make things easier for them especially the ones that have already escaped and the ones yet to be rescued.

President Jonathan also assured them that their education would not be allowed to suffer. The statement released by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, after the meeting made no mention of a cash gift to the parents.

Community Leaders Deny

Meanwhile, the leadership of Kibaku community an umbrella body for the Chibok community has denied claims that money exchanged hands after the community’s meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

National Publicity Secretary of  the community,  Mr Allen Manase, said that they also heard from the media that monies were given to the families of the abducted girls and such a story cannot be confirmed because they do not have any knowledge of the said exchange.

He went on to say that even if monies were to exchange hands it should have been given to the leadership of the community to ensure that it gets to all affected persons.

He urged the Federal Government to instead concentrate on rescuing the girls and returning them to their families and then it can decide to help in rehabilitating them.

Channels TV

Abubakar Shekau’s Growing 'Caliphate': Boko Haram Control More Than Half of Borno State

Boko Haram insurgents are daily becoming more daring in their attacks, moving into strategic towns and villages, killing, maiming and sacking residents in northeast Borno State.

The militant group has widened its tentacles and is now in control of more than half of the entire communities in the state.

“The more we thought the security situation would become better, the more the attacks on communities,” says Abba Kakami, Borno State chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Kakami’s view only captures the feelings of Borno residents and others in the two North-east states of Adamawa and Yobe where Boko Haram exert more presence. “Each day is like traveling on a long lonely road in apprehension with a faulty vehicle that could break down anytime,” a resident of Maiduguri who did not want his name in print told Sunday Sun, adding that residents had been living in perpetual fear.

“About a year ago, our hope was brightened when young men with sticks arrested Boko Haram militants. We thought the end has come but it is clear now we haven’t seen the end,” he added. The residents lamented that their initial optimism was gradually waning especially as Boko Haram had found safe havens in southern part of Borno and neighbouring Bauchi state to launch more attacks.

Strategic attacks/movement

Boko Haram insurgents have been very strategic in their operations since 2010 when full scale insurgency was launched in Borno, its birthplace. While in Maiduguri, its initial operational base, the sect expanded its base and camps to Marte, a border community in northern Borno, hilly Gwoza area, southeast of the state, Mubi area in north of Adamawa and Gujba, eastern part of Yobe where it occasionally attacked communities. By late 2011, it began full scale attacks in northern Borno, sacked almost all the communities and by early 2013, it took on the central part of the state, starting from Alao near Maiduguri, Borno State capital. It moved gradually to Konduga, Kawuri, Bama, Pulka junction, to Gwoza. The insurgents burnt down almost all the towns and villages around the area and subsequently moved to the southern part of the state. Residents believed the hilly and good vegetation of the Savannah southern part of Borno provides a fertile ground for Boko Haram activities including establishment of camps and operational base. It stepped up its attacks on communities and educational institutions in Borno and Yobe late 2013 and early 2014, leading to the massacre of over 40 students of College of Agriculture Gujba, Yobe State, over 60 students of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, St Joseph Seminary School, Shuwa, Adamawa State and then, the April 14 abduction of over 200 Chibok schoolgirls, which attracted international outrage. Gujba and Gulani in Yobe and Mubi as well as Madagali in northern Adamawa share border with southern part of Borno where Sambisa Forest, a major Boko Haram camp and Chibok are also situated.

Boko Haram’s new-found haven

Until now, residents of Borno believed the Christian dominated southern part of the state was insulated from Boko Haram attacks but with the kidnap of the schoolgirls in April and subsequent attacks with less restriction from military forces, it became obvious that the terrorists have found a new haven in the friendly southern area. A security source told Sunday Sun that the insurgents shifted their activities to the southern part because of persistent pressure on them and killing of their fighters by Nigerian military troops. “We didn’t give them breathing space. We smoked them out and rooted their camps in Marte. So they decided to move to southern Borno where they can get cover with the vegetation there,” the source explained. He also disclosed that all the nine local governments areas in that axis are easily linked from Sambisa. “I think it was a clear operational strategy by the terrorists. They simply established their camp at Sambisa, a very large area, to continue their terror in the area having been chased out of the northern and central parts. From this point too, they can easily move to Adamawa by the north and Yobe-Bauchi axis by the east,” he stated.

He, however, admitted that the attention of the military “was actually on Sambisa and communities  around the general area,” adding that they “did not consider possible attacks” in places like Chibok, Hawul or Askira-Uba “because of the understanding that their children are not easily recruited into the sect due to their level of education.” That purported wrong assessment of the Boko Haram activities, gave the sect opportunity to plan and execute attacks on communities in the area.

Boko Haram’s newly captured areas

A recent daring attack on a newly established military base in Damboa, also in southern Borno, about 85 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state capital by Boko Haram, presumably gave away the control of the muddy town to the insurgents. Just last week, the insurgents sacked the town, burnt down almost all the houses and killed over 25 people. The northeast zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said 15, 204 people have been displaced. Damboa, mostly peopled by peasant farmers and traders, has a population of about 231, 573, according to 2006 Nigeria census. Fleeing residents of the area said two-third of the total 6, 219 km2 landmass that made up Damboa Local Government, have been taken over by Boko Haram with unverified claims of the sect hoisting its flags in the area. Other communities in the local government taken over by the insurgents include Kimba, Madaragrau, Chikwar Kir, Mandafuma, Bomburatai and Sabon Kwatta.

In Hawul local government area, most communities around the Kwajafa district have been largely deserted after incessant attacks.

Chairman of Hawul Local Government Area, Dr Andrew Malgwi told Sunday Sun on phone that the residents of Gaggirang village are now taking refuge on a road around the area after the insurgents took over their homes last Sunday.

“The attackers burnt a woman in her house, shot many and set the whole village ablaze after carting away their food items and livestocks,” he disclosed.

Boko Haram have also sacked half of communities at Askira-Uba, another major local government area, in the southern part of the state. The insurgents killed over 40 people in Dille recently after previous attacks on five villages while Biu, headquarters of Biu Local Government Area, about 100 kilometres to Damboa, remains the only major town still standing in the area, although it has equally witnessed deadly attacks in the past.

The insurgents have ravaged Gwoza Local Government Area, about 135 kilometres from Maiduguri as all the autonomous communities behind the hill are deserted. These communities, which are located along the Cameroon borders include Attagara, Aghapalawa and Aganjara. Over 2,000 residents of the area are now in two camps in Maiduguri at present.

Only Shani, Bayo and some parts of Kwaya Kusar local government areas out of the nine council areas in the southern Borno are enjoying relative peace.

More than half of the communities in Konduga, Bama, Dikwa and Mafa local government areas in the central district have been destroyed.

So how large is the area destroyed and/or taken over by the insurgents? A lecturer at the University of Maiduguri who preferred anonymity, said Boko Haram have destroyed more than half of the communities in the state. “Geographically, Boko Haram’s presence can be seen and felt in almost all part of the state though with more control of the southern and central districts, which translate to more than half of the state.” He also said there are isolated communities in some instances, which are not attacked by the insurgents because they offer some gifts to Boko Haram to pacify them. He declined to mention the villages. “Mentioning them could be counter-productive because the insurgents may go back there to attack them again for leaking what ought to be an agreement between them but of truth, such accord for protection actually happens in some villages,” he stated.

Military Efforts

Many residents said they believed the military was capable of tackling Boko Haram insurgency but expressed concern over what they described as unwillingness of the authority to nip the terror act in the bud. “The Nigeria military is capable of handling the situation but it appears there is conspiracy on the part of the leaders not to do so,” Abdullah Ahmed, a social crusader said. There is military presence in most of the major towns in Borno but residents said they often said they have not received instruction from their superiors when alerted to Boko Haram attacks in nearby communities. “We found this very awkward because it looks like an excuse not to act and that is why Boko Haram often attack people and communities for hours without resistance from any troops. It happened at Dille in Askira Uba at Chibok Local Government Area and lately in Damboa,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters has stepped up actions against the Boko Haram, while assuring that it would not allow any group to annex any part of Nigeria.

The Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade said the military had ordered troops to up the ante against the sect in Damboa and other vulnerable areas.

He said: “We have put in place necessary machinery, including the patrol of vulnerable areas, to check the insurgents. Activities are being stepped up to curtail the menace.”

Olukolade, however, declined to explain the military activities, saying: “I won’t go into details on the actions we have taken. I cannot disclose military plans.

“We will not say when troops will take charge of Damboa to avoid a repeat of the last ambush of these committed and loyal soldiers. But we are firming up deployment of troops to Damboa and other places.

“We are ready for the insurgents but we will prefer to keep our strategies to ourselves because of the nature of the battle ahead.”

The Sun

Nigeria Ranks High in Global "Terrorism" Casualty Rate - Maplecroft Report

Nigeria has the world’s highest casualty rate from "terrorism'' with an average of 24 deaths per attack out of 146 recorded in the year through June, according to
risk consultancy Maplecroft.

The global average is two deaths per attack, the Bath, U.K.-based group said in a report released today titled
the Maplecroft Terrorism and Security Dashboard.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, recorded 3,477 deaths in those attacks as violence by the Boko Haram
Haram Islamist militants grew in scale and sophistication, it said.
“The increased capacity of Boko Haram is likely to lead to a further loss of investor confidence,” Maplecroft
said in the report. The latest figures represent a doubling of the 1,735 deaths recorded in the previous year through June 2013, it said.

Boko Haram, whose name means “western education is
a sin,” is waging a five-year-old violent campaign that has killed thousands, to impose Shariah, or Islamic law,
in Africa ’s most populous country of about 170 million people. Nigeria, the continent’s biggest oil producer, is
roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.

The group drew global outrage with its April 14 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitories in the northeastern town of Chibok. Though the U.S.,
France and the U.K. joined the search for the girls, most of them are yet to be rescued.
The militant group claimed three bomb attacks this year in Abuja, the capital, that killed at least 120 people.

Maplecroft ranks Nigeria fifth in its list of “extreme risk”.countries topped by Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Somalia. While more people have died in those countries due to more frequent attacks, the average death toll per attack has been lower than Nigeria’s,
according to Maplecroft.

Bloomberg

President Jonathan Meets Parents of Abducted Chibok Girls' for First Time

President Goodluck Jonathan has met for the first time with many parents of 219 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls and dozens of classmates who managed
to escape from their Islamic extremist captors.

Tuesday's meeting came after some parents had refused to meet Nigeria's leader last week. For months, they have been asking to see the president
and he finally acceded to a request from Pakistani girls' education activist Malala Yousafzai, who had met the parents.
Jonathan blamed activists of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign for politicising the abductions and influencing the parents. The parents said they needed time to decide who would attend.

Chibok community spokesman Lawan Abana said there were 177 people in the delegation meeting Jonathan and an AP reporter counted 51 of the 57 girls who escaped in the early days after the abduction on 15 April.
At least 11 of the parents have died since then –seven in a village attack this month and four of heart attacks and other illnesses that the Chibok
community blames on the trauma.

Jonathan was accompanied by the education and finance ministers, and his national security adviser.
Jonathan and his team walked to a stage above the waiting parents and girls, and journalists were asked to leave. Also present was governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state, from where the girls were abducted. Shettima has accused Jonathan of not doing enough to save the girls and has angered the government with his charges that Boko Haram fighters are better armed and more motivated than Nigeria's military.
Some of the parents and community leaders of the Chibok town from which the girls were kidnapped have made public statements urging Jonathan to negotiate with the girls' captors. Boko Haram is demanding a swap for detained fighters in exchange for the girls. So far, Jonathan has refused.

Courtesy:
The Guardian

Boko Haram kills 2,053 Civilians in Six Months - Human Rights Watch

The Islamist insurgency Boko Haram in Nigeria killed no fewer 2,053 civilians in an estimated 95 attacks during the first half of 2014.
The figures are based on detailed analyses of media reports as well as field investigations. The killings and
other abuses were part of widespread attacks on civilians in over 70 towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria, in the federal capital, Abuja, and elsewhere that are apparent crimes against humanity.

There has been a dramatic increase during 2014 in the numbers of casualties from bomb blasts, including several apparent suicide bombings.
Since January, at least 432 people have been reported killed in 14 blasts in crowded marketplaces, a brothel, a
technical college, and, on two occasions, places where people were watching soccer matches.
Three of these attacks were in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital; two in Kano; two in Jos, the Plateau state capital; and three in Abuja, the federal capital.
The Abuja attacks may demonstrate a southward trend of Boko Haram operations, Human Rights Watch said.
“Boko Haram is effectively waging war on the people of northeastern Nigeria at a staggering human cost,” said Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Atrocities committed as part of a widespread attack on civilians are crimes against humanity, for which those responsible need to be held to account.”

The bulk of the attacks and casualties credibly reported and investigated by Human Rights Watch took place in
Borno State, the birthplace of Boko Haram, where 1,446 people died. Attacks killed 151 in Adamawa state and 143 civilians in Yobe state.

Human Rights Watch compiled the figures by analyzing credible local and international media reports, and the
findings of human rights groups, as well as interviewing witnesses and victims of numerous attacks. The media reports generally quoted villagers, hospital and morgue workers, police and military officials, and local leaders who had observed, registered, counted or buried the dead. In the vast majority of cases, Boko Haram forces appeared to deliberately target civilians.
Since 2009, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal- Jihad, Nigeria’s Islamist insurgency popularly known as Boko Haram, has waged a violent campaign against the government to impose its authority under Sharia (Islamic) law. Widespread poverty, corruption, security force abuses, and longstanding impunity for a range of crimes have created a fertile ground in Nigeria for militant armed groups like Boko Haram.
The pace of attacks has dramatically intensified in remote villages since May 2013, when the federal government imposed a state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe.

In many of the attacks Boko Haram gunmen fired on civilians, such as people gathered in busy marketplaces, places of worship, and residential neighborhoods. In three villages in Gwoza Local Government Area, Borno State, in early June, Boko Haram fighters impersonated military personnel to round up hundreds of villagers, then opened fire on them, media reports said. Two local chiefs from Attagara, one of the villages, told journalists they had buried 110 people killed in the attack.
On May 6, Boko Haram fighters allegedly killed 336 villagers in the twin towns of Gamboru-Ngala during an attack in which they used two armored personnel carriers they had stolen from the Nigerian military several months earlier. Residents reported that the villages had been burned to the ground.
Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 girls from a school in Chibok in April was not its only attack on schools in the
northeast. In February, Boko Haram militants locked the doors to a boys’ dormitory of the Federal Government
College of Buni Yadi, a secondary school near Damaturu, Yobe State and set the building on fire, killing 59.

Boko Haram forces have abducted and otherwise abused hundreds of women and girls during the attacks.
Human Rights Watch will release a report in coming weeks on abuses by Boko Haram against girls and women, based on interviews with victims and witnesses in June. The report will also examine the deficiencies in the Nigerian government’s response to these abuses.
The killings and other abuses by Boko Haram appear to rise to the level of crimes against humanity. The Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court, to which Nigeria is a party, defines crimes against humanity as
various criminal offenses, including murder, torture and rape that are “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” Such crimes can be committed by a government or a non-state group. They must be widespread or systematic, but need not be both. “Widespread” refers to the scale of the acts or number of victims. A “systematic” attack indicates “a pattern or methodical plan.”

Since 2009, and increasingly since mid-2013, Boko Haram has carried out several hundred attacks against
civilians and civilian structures in schools, marketplaces, and places of worship in villages, towns and even cities.
The nature and frequency of the attacks indicate the actions of an organized movement. This is evidenced by the presence of convoys of trucks, motorbikes, and occasionally armored personnel carriers with well-armed gunmen; the fashion in which gunmen were seen deploying in and around the target or setting up checkpoints; and the planning required to infiltrate the
cities in which attacks took place.
Human Rights Watch and other national and international human rights groups have also documented abuses by the Nigerian Security Forces since 2009 as they responded to the attacks by Boko Haram.
These include excessive use of force, burning homes, physical abuse, and extrajudicial killings of those suspected of supporting Boko Haram.

Amnesty International found that following a March 14 Boko Haram attack on Giwa Barracks that led to the escape of hundreds of detainees, the security forces executed hundreds of the unarmed recaptured detainees.
Security forces have rounded up hundreds of men and boys suspected of supporting Boko Haram, detained
them in inhuman conditions and physically abused or killed them. Many others have been forcibly disappeared. The Nigerian government should account for the “disappeared” and ensure that all law enforcement operations are conducted in full accordance with international human rights standards.
“No matter how egregious the violence, Nigerian security forces engaged in operations against Boko Haram may not operate outside the law,” Dufka said. “The Nigerian government should recognize that it needs to protect its population both from Boko Haram and from abusive members of its own military and police.”

Courtesy:
The Nation

Chibok Girls, Parents Shun Meeting with Jonathan, Okupe Claims Chibok Girls Issue is a 'Political Chess Game'

AN attempt by President Goodluck Jonathan to meet with the parents and some escapee girls earlier abducted from Government Secondary School (GSS), Chibok, Borno State, Tuesday failed as they shunned the meeting slated for the State House.
The meeting would have been a follow-up to the commitment the President made on Monday to the Pakistani Girl-Child Education Campaigner, Malala Yousafzani, during an audience at the State House, Abuja.

Briefing State House correspondents, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said the meeting was scheduled for 4p.m yesterday following Malala’s request, which the President graciously agreed to.
“Unfortunately, the #BringBackOurGirls# leadership
prevailed on the parents of the girls not to come. What happened was that they actually avoided the meeting with Mr. President, because the foreign media and everybody were waiting for this meeting. They made it expressly clear to us that they were no longer coming,” Okupe said.

He confirmed that the President had authorized that an official letter be written to the parents formally
inviting them to meet him, and it is going to be sometime next week. He said all the rigmarole about the Chibok girls was a prelude to the 2015 general elections, regretting that the plight of the schoolgirls had become a political chess game to the local chapter of the #BringBackOurGirls# campaigners.

Courtesy:
Guardian Newspaper

Boko Haram Leader Shekau Voices Support for Islamic State (ISIL) and Al Qaeda, Taunts #BringBackOurGirls Campaigners

Amid persistent reports of a deep rift between the Islamic State and al Qaeda, the Congregation of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad, aka Boko Haram, is hedging its bets.

“Boko Haram Chief Voices Support for Islamic State’s Baghdadi, al-Qaida,” Agence France Presse, July 13, 2014 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The head of Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists has voiced support for the extremist Sunni Islamic State (ISIL) militants who have taken over large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, in a video obtained by Agence France Presse Sunday.

In the 16-minute video, given to AFP through similar channels as past messages, Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau also claims responsibility for a June 25 bombing in the capital Abuja and an attack hours later in Lagos which the authorities tried to cover up.

He also mocks the social media campaign Bring Back Our Girls which emerged to call attention to the plight of the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped on April 14 by the Islamists from the remote northeastern town of Chibok.

“We were the ones who detonated the bomb in filthy Abuja,” Shekau said, referring to the attack a popular shopping center that killed at least 22 people.

Later that day, a huge blast rocked the Apapa port district of Lagos, which the authorities blamed on cooking gas explosion, with no casualties.

An AFP investigation has revealed the blast was a deliberate attack involving high explosives.

“A bomb went off in Lagos. I ordered (the bomber) who went and detonated it,” Shekau says in the video, which shows him flanked by at least ten gunmen in front of two armored personnel carriers and two pickup trucks.

“You said it was a fire incident,” he added. “Well, if you hide it from people you can’t hide it from Allah.”

Near the beginning of the video he calls several of the world’s most prominent Islamist extremists his “brethren.”

“May Allah protect you” he said, listing IS chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Qaida head Ayman al-Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Omar and several others.

Courtesy:
Jihad Watch

Right Activist Malala Meets Families of Abducted Chibok Girls in Nigeria, Pledges to Help

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Rights Activist who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, has pledged while on a trip to Nigeria to help free a group of school girls abducted by Islamist militants.

On Sunday, 16-year-old Malala met with parents of the more than 200 girls who were kidnapped by militant group Boko Haram from a school in the northeastern village of Chibok in April.

Boko Haram, a Taliban-inspired movement, say they are fighting to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria. The group, whose name means “western education is sinful”, has killed thousands and abducted hundreds since launching an uprising in 2009.

Some of the parents broke down into tears as Malala spoke at a hotel in the capital Abuja on Sunday.

“I can see those girls as my sisters … and I’m going to speak up for them until they are released,” said Malala, who celebrates her 17th birthday on Monday in Nigeria, where she is scheduled to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan.

“I’m going to participate actively in the ‘bring back our girls’ campaign to make sure that they return safely and they continue their education.”

The girls’ abduction drew unprecedented international attention to the war in Nigeria’s northeast and the growing security risk that Boko Haram poses to Nigeria, Africa’s leading energy producer.

A #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign supported by Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie heaped pressure on authorities to act, and President Jonathan pledged to save the girls, drawing promises of Western help to do so.

But several weeks on the hostages have not yet been freed and media interest has waned.

In addition, Boko Haram, now considered as the main security threat to Nigeria, is growing bolder. Police said on Saturday they uncovered a plot to bomb the Abuja transport network using suicide bombers and devices concealed in luggage at major bus stations.

“I can feel … the circumstances under which you are suffering,” she said. “It’s quite difficult for a parent to know that their daughter is in great danger. My birthday wish this year is … bring back our girls now and alive.”

Taliban militants shot Malala for her outspoken views on women’s right to education. She survived after being airlifted to Britain for treatment and has since become a symbol of defiance against militants operating in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

She has won the European Union’s prestigious human rights award and was one of the favorites to win the Nobel peace prize last year, although the award ended up going to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

-Reuters