Abubakar Shekau, Finally Killed?

Nigerian troops might have scored a strategic victory in the current battle against terrorists operating in the North East on September 17. During a desperate attempt to capture Konduga in their delusion to eventually marching on and capturing Maiduguri, the man who had been mimicking Late Abubakar Shekau in recent videos might have been finally killed.

According to senior military and intelligence sources, "it is getting more certain that the terrorists' commander who has been mimicking Shekau in those videos is the one killed in Konduga on September 17, 2014."

The PRNigeria sources said the suspected demise of the Boko Haram leader is responsible for the scattering of the sect members in different independent locations in the neighbouring countries, especially in Cameroon noticed in recent days.

The security sources did not deny the suspicion but cautioned that "the process of confirming that the dead body we have is the same as that character who has been posing as Shekau is ongoing. He is definitely a prominent terrorist commander. I don't want to say anything about this yet please."

Another high ranking military source insisted that the resemblance is too striking to be a coincidence. They cited his facial marks, beards and teeth apart from the recovery by the Nigerian troops of some of the Armoured Vehicles and Hilux jeeps that had featured in previous videos of the prime suspect.

The officers assured that the Defence Headquarters will soon address the nation after full investigation of their latest discovery.

- SR

Nigerian Troops Capture "High Ranking Boko Haram Commander", Kill 60 Insurgents In Konduga

Wednesday, September 17, 2014 was a bad day for stubborn Boko Haram terrorists operating in the North East as they lost scores of their members during repeated attempts to enter Konduga, about 70 kilometres to Maiduguri.

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.

Soldiers Kill Over 400 Boko Haram Terrorists In Borno Villages

At least 400 members of the Boko Haram terrorist group were killed in the last three days by soldiers during separate shootouts in different parts of Borno State, security sources said.

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.

Adamawa State University Shut As Boko Haram Overruns More Towns In North-East

To forestall an attack on students, the Adamawa State Government shut the state university in Mubi as the
insurgents overran Uba, a town five kilometres from Mubi.
Other towns taken at the weekend by Boko Haram fighters are: Michika and Bazza. Both towns, along with Uba, are in Hong Local Government Area.

But the sect suffered a major setback, with no fewer than 50 of its men killed in a military raid in Borno State. The army said yesterday that security forces raided a “hideout” of suspected Boko Haram members in Kawuri, a village about 37km from Maiduguri, the state capital, on Saturday.
The suspected fighters were planning an attack, the military said.
Heavy artillery, including anti-aircraft guns and an armoured vehicle, were seized in the raid. Three soldiers
were injured, the army said.

But the sect’s fighters seized more towns in Adamawa State, following the success they recorded in attacks on some villages on Friday when they took Gulak, the headquarters of Magadali Local Government, Kirchinga, the hometown of Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, Duhu
and Shuwa.

Uba, a town five kilometers to Mubi was also overrun by the sect.
Some Michika residents, speaking on the telephone, said the insurgents commanded some of the youths to join them for the “work of Allah”.
Another resident said: “When the insurgents met me on the road in Michika, they said I should follow them to work for Allah. They asked me to go home and prepare to follow them to fight the cause of Allah but I decided to run and hide.”

A resident of Bazza spoke of how the sect’s fighters stormed the town, “shooting sporadically, using artillery
gun and other heavy weapons but from time to time Air Force jets were dropping bombs”.

The Adamawa State Government on Saturday confirmed that the government had lost to the insurgents many towns, including Gulak and Michika.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Boko Haram fighters seized more towns along Nigeria’s northeastern border with Cameroon. They were adopting a new strategy of encouraging civilians to stay, witnesses told the news agency.
“They assured us that they will not attack us, but people began to run for their lives. Some of us have fled for fear that after subduing the soldiers, the insurgents will turn their [gun] barrels on us,’’ Michael Kirshinga, a resident of Gulak, said after the town was attacked.

  - The Nation

Nigerian Boko Haram, Self-Defence Militia Conscripting Underage Children– Report

An international network of human rights and humanitarian organisations, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, has called on the Federal Government and the United Nations to investigate recruitment and abuse of children in the North-East by both Boko Haram insurgents and self-defence militia known as Civilian Joint Task Force.

According to the report of the group’s investigation into the Boko Haram insurgency released on Thursday, both warring parties in North-East have subjected boys and girls to forced recruitment, detention, attacks at school, abductions, rape, and other forms of sexual violence.

It noted that the gravity and scale of these violations “warrant urgent action from the Nigerian Government,
United Nations, and other child protection actors.”

The 64-page report, entitled “Who Will Care for Us? Grave Violations against Children in Northeastern Nigeria,” detailed grave violations by some parties to the conflict since December 2012 and provided recommendations on how to better protect children.

One of Watchlist’s researchers, Janine Morna, said, “While the abduction of over 200 girls in Chibok, Borno State, has shed some light on how children are affected by the conflict in the North-East, most abuses are still poorly documented, understood, and addressed by key actors. Children as young as 13 are being recruited by both sides of the conflict and have nowhere to turn.”

Though the study considered the activities of all the actors in the ongoing conflict in the North-East, it noted that of particular concern is the forced recruitment of children for spying and assistance during armed attacks by Boko Haram, and the Civilian JTF, which was formed in mid-2013 in Borno State.

  - Punch

Boko Haram Negotiator Maintains Former Governor Sheriff and Ihejirika Are Boko Haram Sponsors, Exonerates Buhari, El-Rufai

An Australian Boko Haram Negotiator Dr. Stephen Davis insists that the duo of former Governor Modu Sherriff and Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika (Rtd), the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, are amongst top Sponsors of Boko Haram but exonerated Buhari and El-Rufai.

DHQ Extenuates Purported 'Defection' Of Nigerian Troops To Cameroon

The Nigerian troops that were found in Cameroun was as a result of a sustained battle between the troops and the terrorists around the borders with Cameroun which saw the Nigerian troops charging through the borders in a tactical maneuver.

Eventually they found themselves on Camerounian soil. Being allies the normal protocol of managing such incident demanded that the troops submit their weapons in order to assure the friendly country that they were not on a hostile mission.

Following necessary discussions between Nigerian and Cameroonian military authorities, the issues have been sorted out. Subsequently, the troops are on their way back to join their unit in Nigeria.

The reference to the incidence as a defection is therefore not appropriate considering the discussion between the two countries’ military leadership and the series of contacts with the soldiers who have confirmed that they are safe.

Meanwhile, troops are repelling a group of terrorists who are trying to enter the country through Gamborou Ngala. A group of them who fizzled into the town are being pursued.

DHQ

Boko Haram Crisis: Hundreds Of Nigerian Troops 'Flee Into Cameroon' - BBC

Some 480 Nigerian soldiers have fled into Cameroon following fierce fighting with Boko Haram militants, Cameroon's army has said.
Army spokesman Lt Col Didier Badjek said the soldiers had been disarmed and were now being accommodated in schools.

Clashes are said to be continuing in the border town of Gamboru Ngala.
Boko Haram on Sunday released a video in which it said it had established an Islamic state in the towns and villages it controls in north-eastern Nigeria.

The group's five-year insurgency has intensified in recent months despite the deployment of thousands of extra troops to the worst-affected areas.
Last week, a group of soldiers refused to follow orders to go and fight Boko Haram, saying the militants were
better equipped.
Insurgents also seized one of Nigeria's two main police training academies, which is near the town of Gwoza, captured earlier this month.
Thousands have fled recent fighting - these people are now living in a school.
The Nigerian soldiers are currently in the Cameroonian town of Maroua, about 80km (50 miles) from the Nigerian border, Lt Col Badjek told the BBC.

Thousands of civilians are also said to have fled across the border.
In May, some 300 people were killed in an attack on Gamboru Ngala, which left much of the town in ruins.
It is near Gwoza, the largest town under control of Boko Haram. In the most recent census, in 2006, it had a population of more than 265,000 people.
In the 52-minute video released on Sunday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said Gwoza was now "part of
the Islamic state".

He did not specify whether his groups now had any links to the Islamic State (IS) group, which has seized much of northern Iraq in recent months, prompting the US to respond with air strikes.
There is no evidence for such links but in July, Mr Shekau congratulated IS on its territorial gains.

Source:
BBC

Boko Haram Retreats From Magadali Town, Borno State

Boko Haram Islamic insurgents have reportedly withdrawn from Madagali town of Borno State, after holding siege to the town for 24 hours, Daily Trust gathered.

Chairman of Madagali Local Government Area, James Waltharda, said the civilian casualty has been minimal so far but that many residents have been scattered across the state.
He added that five churches were burnt down by the Insurgents in Sabongari and Hembla settlements.
“The insurgents spent the night in Madagali, but military operatives are there now, because I spoke with them. I have not heard of any encounter between soldiers and the assailants, so I can say there is peace. But people will not return to their homes until they are certain that the insurgents have left completely. Our people have left the town for Michika and Shuwa and even in those towns, people are running”, he said.

A security operative who spoke to Daily Trust said the insurgents withdrew to their camps in Gwoza and Limankara in Borno State, few kilometers away from Madagali yesterday morning.
It was gathered that after hoisting their flags at the military base located at the secretariat of Madagali North Development Area, the insurgents patrolled streets in the town throughout the night.

Another source told Daily Trust that the siege on Madagali might not be permanent as the insurgent were
there in pursuit of troops from the Nigerian Army who had launched a failed offensive in the early hours of
Saturday in an attempt to reclaim Limankara and Gwoza.

A resident, Ibrahim Madagali, said the insurgents killed three civilians and that the assailants told some trapped
residents that they did not intend to attack residents as their targets were security agents.
“How could we trust them after they killed many people in Gwoza and other places, so we quickly left and are currently in Michika and we intend to move further because the people hosting me here are planning to run
to Mubi due to rumour of imminent attack”, Ibrahim said.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Adamawa, DSP Michael Haa, said security has been restored in the
area. He said he was not aware of any casualty suffered during the attack.

Source:
DailyTrust

DHQ Refutes Boko Haram's Claim of Gwoza Being Part of Its 'Islamic Caliphate', Says Sect’s Claim 'Empty'

The Defence Headquarters on Sunday dismissed as empty, claims by the leader of the Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau that the sect had seized Gwoza from the Nigerian government.

In a statement forwarded to our Correspondent, Defence spokesman, Major Gen. Chris Olukolade insisted that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country remained intact.

The statement said: “The claim is empty. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact. Any group of terrorists laying claim to any portion of the country will not be allowed to get away with that expression of delusion and crime.
“Appropriate military operations to secure that area from the activities of the bandits are still ongoing”

Source:
The Nation

Breaking News: Boko Haram Leader - Shekau Formerly Proclaims ‘Islamic Caliphate’ in Nigeria

KANO ( AFP) – Boko Haram’s leader said he has created an Islamic caliphate in a northeast Nigeria town seized by the insurgents earlier this month, in a video obtained by AFP on Sunday.

“Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in (the town of) Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate,” Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video.

He declared that Gwoza, in Borno state, now has “nothing to do with Nigeria”.
“By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay,” said Shekau, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under Insurgent's control.

Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large
swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state.

Mapping the precise areas which have fallen into Islamist hands is nearly impossible.
There are few humanitarian workers on the ground in the northeast, travel is dangerous and the region, which
has been under a state of emergency since May of last year, has poor mobile phone coverage.

Experts have described Boko Haram’s gains in recent weeks as unprecedented, saying the group was closer than ever to achieving its goal of carving out a strict Islamic state across northern Nigeria.

Source:

Vanguard

How Boko Haram Metamorphosed - Max Siollun

It seems that the public and media missed critical clues in the evolution of Boko Haram in Nigeria.
People seem to think the 2009 clashes between Boko Haram and security forces were the start of the group’s campaign of violence.

However there were clues about the group’s increasing radicalization as far back as 10-12 years ago. In early 2003 a group that advocated implementing a purer form of Sharia law embarked upon a Hijra (migration) away from secular society which they regarded as corrupt, to a remote village in northern Yobe State near Nigeria’s border with Niger. Its members were described as “mostly urban, comparatively well off Nigerians who had moved to a commune-like village to set up their own isolated society”.

Locals nicknamed the group the “Taliban”. Until the “Boko Haram” moniker became part of popular discourse in 2009, the group was known as the “Taliban” for about 5 years.

Who Were The “Nigerian Taliban”?
According to Shehu Sani (who has met Boko Haram members) the “Taliban” group was led by an associate of Mohammed Yusuf called Mohammed Alli. Alli led the Taliban’s migration to a village close to Kannamma in Yobe State. The Taliban were largely peaceful and devoted themselves to their own interpretation of Islam and isolated themselves from the rest of secular
society. Its members included “individuals from wealthy Islamic families in Borno State, unemployed university students and friends and
colleagues from other states including Ogun and Lagos”. The Governor of Yobe State Bukar Abba Ibrahim denied allegations that his son was a member.

Although the Taliban were not violent, a Professor at the University of Maiduguri in Borno State, Abdulmumin Sa’ad, said that the group was on an “idealistic outing in Yobe State,” but that it and other groups could easily become violent and adopt extremist ideology or foreign ties. The Professor and his colleagues noted an increase in
religiously inspired sects on Nigerian university campuses. Professor Sa’ad also said that radical Islamist groups were also emerging from unemployed academics looking to make sense of
their corrupt society.

With Nigeria becoming more corrupt and economically polarised, “radical groups will likely emerge and youth may look to Islamic extremism to strike back at economic and political injustice.” Chillingly, a U.S. diplomatic cable in February 2004 warned that “A small sect could easily turn to terrorism, or be used as a tool by international terrorist groups.”

After living peacefully with their neighbours in 2003, conflict arose after the Taliban got into a dispute with locals about fishing rights. Local leaders asked the Taliban to leave and in December 2003, the police destroyed the Taliban’s camp and arrested several of its members. This interaction with the police marked the first step in the weaponisation of the group that eventually metamophorsised into Boko Haram.

The Slide Into Violence:
The Taliban retaliated by attacking the police station in Kannamma and taking several guns and ammunition from the station. They attacked other police stations in Yobe State before finally being suppressed in the Yobe State capital Damaturu. It is important to note that at this stage, the Taliban’s violence was directed almost entirely at the police and they had little interest in conflict with civilians. One Taliban member called Ismael Abdu Afatahi (a 21-year-old student from Lagos who joined the group) said: “I don’t know the
major reason why we attacked the police posts.

Maybe it is because the police is the protector of the people in Nigeria – But I was not told actually”.
In early 2004 the Taliban took their weapons into Borno State and also battled the police there.

Press reports mentioned that scores of men wearing “red bandanas”, carrying a flag with an Islamic inscription, and chanting “Allahu Akbar!” attacked police stations in Bama and Gworza in Borno State. During their raids they also
kidnapped some locals who they tried to conscript and forced to dig trenches around their camp.

According to Shehu Sani, the Taliban who survived these clashes then joined Mohammed Yusuf’s movement. The movement that eventually became Boko Haram…

Abubakar Shekau assumed leadership of the Sect after the erstwhile leader - Mohammed Yusuf was gunned down in broad daylight.

Culled From:
Max Siollon's website

Boko Haram: Solution Lies With Northern Elders - Aliyat Yakub

A friend wanted to visit the north, and she was so scared of coming that she had to consult her pastors on whether to come or not. It is so unfortunate that this is the situation our region finds itself today.

Gone are the days when everybody in the country wanted to have a feel of the northern culture. That was in the good old days. The security situation has left the North in ruins. As a result, northern political leaders, traditional rulers, elders and religious leaders should not sit by and watch Boko Haram destroy the region completely. It is unfortunate that the group, created by some selfish politicians for their political gains, has grown into a monster they can no longer control.

Today, people are being killed on a daily basis in Borno State. Although majority of Boko Haram’s atrocities are being carried out in Borno and Yobe states, the whole region is suffering from this madness.

Our economic life has been ruined by Boko Haram. Poverty is at an all- time high. Even before the advent of Boko Haram, we were trailing the other regions in terms of economy, education, among others, but today, the gap has
been widened to the extent that if Boko Haram cease all hostilities today, it would take about 50 years to return to the level we were before.
When we finally get back to that level, we will now start working towards running after the other regions, which would have gone far ahead of us.

Many businesses have been ruined, and others have simply relocated to the more stable regions in the country.
It is now time for our leaders in the North to come together and look at ways through which they can encourage the leadership of the sect to stop all its evil activities.

While they are waging a war against the
Nigerian government, and the President
Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, it is the people of the North who are suffering.
Those being killed on a daily basis are not the president’s kinsmen. They are northerners. The Christians being killed are also northerners.
These killings affect Jonathan in no way, and it won’t stop him from completing his term as president, or even from securing another term in office. If there is anybody losing from this heinous crime, it is the northerners.

I hope our leaders can finally convince Mr. Abubakar Shekau and his evil foot soldiers to stop wasting innocent peoples’ lives.

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.

Boko Haram Bent On Seizing Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi And Nasarawa States - Intelligence Source

A high-level Nigerian security source told SaharaReporters that Nigeria’s intelligence agencies have received “credible reports that Boko Haram has
developed an ambitious plan to overwhelm and take over Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa states.”

The source said the Islamist terrorist group plans to carry out its design by intensifying its bombings and choosing locations that would yield high casualty
figures.

“Their move is to encircle [Nigeria’s capital city of] Abuja and increase the level of political instability in the
country,” our source revealed.
The high-level intelligence agent disclosed that the shape of the terror group’s plans have emerged from
the confessions of some Boko Haram insurgents who were captured recently.

“We have also acquired a lot of
information about their [Boko Haram’s] plans through our interrogation of Aminu Sadiq Oguche.” Mr. Oguche,
who was recently extradited to Nigeria from Sudan, is accused of masterminding some of the recent high-
profile bomb blasts in Nigeria, including explosions at a bus station in Abuja that claimed more than 100 lives.

In addition, security agents have gleaned “significant and useful intelligence” from interrogating one
Mohammed Zakari, described as “the chief butcher” of Boko Haram. Mr. Zakari was recently arrested in Bauchi, capital of Bauchi State.

Our source said that Nigeria’s security agencies are stepping up counter-insurgency measures to forestall Boko Haram’s plans to spread its tentacles to the states they are targeting.

“Apart from information we have gathered from interrogating suspects, we are also tracking critical
conversations by the group’s hierarchy and examining sensitive documents recovered after recent raids on their bases in Bauchi, Jigawa and Borno states,” the source said.

Our source added that President Goodluck Jonathan and a few other government officials had been briefed
about the new threats by Boko Haram as well as the outline of the plans to counter the group’s ambitious push.

A senior Islamic scholar in Northern Nigeria, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said his group was
cooperating with the government to defeat Boko Haram. “We discussed with President Jonathan when we met during the end of the Ramadan fast and told him that we are ready to help stop Boko Haram. But we also told him that this is something the government must take action on. We’re doing our own, but we have limitations,” he said.

SR