Boko Haram Retakes Military Camps in Gujba Local Govt Area, Yobe State

Military camps in Buni Yadi, Buni Gari and Goniri, all in Gujba Local Government area of Yobe State have
now been allegedly occupied by the Boko Haram insurgents, according to residents of the area.

It was also gathered that the recent bombing of the Katarko Bridge by the insurgents has temporarily cut-off both vehicular and human movement between Buni Yadi, the capital town of Gujba local government area and the Yobe state capital, Damaturu.

It was however gathered that some bold travellers going into what has become the den of the insurgents have to break their journeys at Katarko and cross over River Katarko to join a waiting vehicle to Buni Yadi or Buni Gari and vice versa.

One of the residents of the area, speaking to journalists anonymously in Damaturu after a ride from the "danger zone", disclosed that members of the Boko Haram sect "now move freely in the area brandishing their guns and weapons."
He lamented that the insurgents "now occupy locations that were previously manned by military in the areas."
“I am just coming from Buni Yadi. I came with my bicycle all the way to this place. I did not use any bush path. I followed the main road.
“We are facing a very terrible situation. There is no single security in our area.

The same in Buni Gari and Goniri. In fact the boys ( yaara in Hausa referring to Boko Haram) have taken over the military camps in the areas."

Details to follow

ThisDay Newspaper

Suspected Boko Haram Militants Kill 10 In Cameroon

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Suspected members of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram killed 10 people and
kidnapped one in a raid on the village of Zigague in remote northern Cameroon on Wednesday, state radio reported.

The heavily armed gunmen arrived in a pick-up truck and on motorcycles at around 2 p.m. local time and stormed the house of a local chief, kidnapping one of his children and stealing a car, an army commander told state radio.
“On their way back, they came face-to-face with Cameroonian soldiers but succeeded in shooting to death nine villagers and a soldier of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR)," Albert Mekondane Obounou, senior divisional officer for the Logone and Chari region, told state radio.

Cameroon has introduced measures to increase security on its long jungle border with Nigeria, deploying more
than 1,000 soldiers, but has failed to stop Boko Haram raids.

President Paul Biya dismissed two senior army officers last month following Boko Haram attacks in which at least seven people were killed and the wife of the vice prime minister was kidnapped.

Reuters

Russian Gang 'Steals' 1.2 Billion Usernames and Passwords

A Russian group has hacked 1.2 billion usernames and passwords belonging to more than 500 million email addresses, according to Hold Security - a US firm specialising in discovering breaches.
Hold Security described the hack as the "largest data breach known to date".

It claimed the stolen information came from more than 420,000 websites, including "many leaders in virtually all industries across the world".
Hold Security did not give details of the companies affected by the hack.
"They didn't just target large companies; instead, they targeted every site that their victims visited," Hold Security said in its report .

"With hundreds of thousands of sites affected, the list includes many leaders in virtually all industries across the world, as well as a multitude of small or even personal websites."

The New York Times, which first reported the findings , said that on its request "a security expert not affiliated with Hold Security analysed the database of stolen credentials and confirmed it was authentic".
"Another computer crime expert who had reviewed the data, but was not allowed to discuss it publicly, said some big companies were aware that their records were among the stolen information," the paper said.

The paper added: "Hold Security would not name the victims, citing nondisclosure agreements and a
reluctance to name companies whose sites remained vulnerable."

The Wall Street Journal later revealed that Hold Security intended to offer website owners the ability to check
whether they had been affected, but only if they paid a fee.
The firm has since posted a message on its site saying it will charge $120 (£71) a month for a "breach notification service".

One computer security expert said he was surprised by this approach.
"This situation is quite unusual in that the company has decided to charge for this information," Dr Steven Murdoch from University College London's computer science department told the BBC.
"Usually they would do an initial disclosure [of who had been affected] for free and then offer their services for a fee at a later stage.
"The company rightly points out that there is going to be a huge amount of work to securely contact all the
affected websites, but a common solution to this is to partner with a government or industry-funded
organisation to help with that."

Despite the large amount of credentials said to have been compromised, Dr Murdoch added that it would be premature to advise the public to reset all their passwords.
"Although there's a large amount of passwords involved, a lot of them could be irrelevant and many of the
websites tiny," he said.
"It's not necessarily the case that a large proportion of internet users have been affected. Until we get more statistics we won't know that.

"So, there's no reason to panic now, but perhaps it's a good reminder to follow best practice of not using the same password on multiple websites, because this will not be the last time such a breach happens."

Multi-pronged attack?
Hold Security, which has previously reported about hacks on Adobe and Target, said it took more than seven months of research to discover the extent of the latest hack.
Other security experts are surprised by the way Hold Security is sharing its information.

The firm claimed the gang initially acquired databases of stolen credentials from fellow hackers on the black market.
"These databases were used to attack e-mail providers, social media, and other websites to distribute spam to victims and install malicious redirections on legitimate systems," Hold Security said.
The hackers also got access to data from botnets - a network of computers infected with malware to trigger online fraud.

Hold Security said the botnets helped the hacking group- which it dubbed CyberVor - identify more than 400,000
websites that were vulnerable to cyber attacks.
"The CyberVors used these vulnerabilities to steal data from these sites' databases," the firm said.
"To the best of our knowledge, they mostly focused on stealing credentials, eventually ending up with the largest cache of stolen personal information, totalling over 1.2 billion unique sets of e-mails and passwords."
The firm is now marketing its breach notification service as a way to "stay ahead of the hackers ".

But one of its rivals expressed surprise at this approach.
"For a long time the security industry has freely shared information on breaches within its own community,"
said Vanja Svajcer, principal security researcher at Sophos.
"Researchers discovering credentials breaches usually help end users either by making the information about
compromised accounts public or by working with the company whose servers were compromised to inform all affected users.
"In this case, the credentials were harvested from thousands of servers and it would be difficult to work
with every server owner to inform the compromised users. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to expect the company to make the information freely available so everybody can check that none of their email addresses have been compromised."

Password tips:
The University of Surrey's Prof Alan Woodward suggests the following rules should be observed when picking a new password.

Don't choose one obviously associated with you:
Hackers can find out a lot about you from social media so if they are targeting you specifically and you choose, say, your pet's name you're in trouble.

Choose words that don't appear in a dictionary:
Hackers can precalculate the encrypted forms of whole dictionaries and easily reverse engineer your password.

Use a mixture of unusual characters:
You can use a word or phrase that you can easily remember but where characters are substituted, eg,
Myd0gha2B1g3ars!

Have different passwords for different sites and systems:
If hackers compromise one system you do not want them having the key to unlock all your other accounts.

Keep them safely:
With multiple passwords it is tempting to write them down and carry them around with you. Better to use some form of secure password vault on your phone.

BBC

Nigeria Declares Ebola Outbreak 'National Emergency'

The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Wednesday described the Ebola outbreak in the country as a “national emergency”.

Mr. Chukwu made the statement at an emergency meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Health over the Ebola outbreak in Abuja. He said that out of six Nigerians diagnosed with Ebola virus, one had died on Tuesday, adding that the other five patients were receiving treatment.
The minister said that everyone in the world now was at risk, adding that the experience of Nigeria had opened the “eyes” of the world to the reality of
Ebola.

Mr. Chukwu faulted a report on the curative powers of Bitter Kola on Ebola. According to him, there was no empirical evidence to show that bitter kola will prevent or cure Ebola.
Commenting on the issue, the Project Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abdulsalami Nasidi, disclosed that 70 Nigerians were currently under surveillance for the disease.
Mr. Nasidi said that Patrick Sawyer arrived Nigeria about two weeks ago, had 70 primary and secondary registered contacts of which 39 were
hospital contacts and 22 airport contacts.
Mr. Sawyer’s contacts, it was disclosed, comprised officers of the State Security Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, airport support personnel and medical personnel that attended to Sawyer.

The Director, Port Health Services in the Health Ministry, Sani Gwarzo, said that restrictions had been placed on the repatriation of corpses of Nigerians abroad into the country.
He said that this was part of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.
Mr. Gwarzo said that more personnel were required by the health ministry to man and screen travelers at the country’s several travel entry.

Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Health, Ndudi Elumelu, said the committee reconvened to find out how many Nigerians were infected with.Ebola.
He explained that the committee also sought to know what the ministry had been doing to curb the spread of the virus.
According to him, Ebola is what most Nigerians are currently worried about; measures must be taken to protect Nigerians.

News Agency of Nigeria

Boko Haram Insurgency: MASSOB Leader Asks Ndigbo Living in The North To Return

Chief Ralph Uwazuruike who is the leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has again requested Ndigbo residents in any part of northern Nigeria to relocate to Igboland with immediate effect so as not to fall prey to the raging Boko Haram insurgency in the region.

Uwazuruike who expressed worries over the constant killing of innocent Igbo sons and daughters doing legitimate businesses in the north, told reporters that, although it was painful for them to abandon their life-time investments in the north to relocate home, their lives were more precious than their wealth.

Speaking at the MASSOB headquarters, Okwe, near Okigwe, Imo State, the MASSOB leader regretted that his previous calls for his kinsmen to return at the beginning of the insurgency were not heeded, stressing that this accounts for why many Igbo sons and daughters have been killed by the insurgents.
He stressed that since the lives of Ndi-Igbo could no longer be guaranteed by the Nigerian security forces, the only option left for them was to return
home for now, warning that this might be his last time to make such a call.

Uwazurike recalled that the late Biafran war hero, Chief
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, had similarly warned Ndigbo to return home before the outbreak of the Nigerian/Biafran civil war, adding that those who heeded the warning returned and saved their lives, while those who disobeyed perished with their investments.

DailyPost

Boko Haram Renders 650,000 Nigerians Homeless - United Nations

Attacks by Boko Haram in the crisis-hit northeast have forced nearly 650,000 people from their homes, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said Tuesday, an increase of nearly 200,000 since May.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on its part reported that about 1,000 people trying to escape the fighting had fled to an uninhabited island on Lake Chad across northeastern border. "The group, mainly women and children, is in urgent need of food, water, shelter and
medical care," the UNHCR said. They reached the remote island of Choua on Thursday after fleeing a Boko Haram attack in their hometown of Kolikolia,
according to the refugee agency.

Chad has pledged to send two helicopters to the island to help evacuate the Nigerian refugees to a nearby area where they can be temporarily settled with host
communities, the UNHCR added. The refugee agency said it was sending staff to the area to coordinate the relief effort. Thousands have fled over Nigeria's borders into Cameroon, Chad and Niger seeking refuge from Boko Haram's relentless violence, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians this year and left scores of villages destroyed.

Relief workers have avoided setting up refugee or internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, but some fear camps may soon become necessary, especially in
Nigeria, as the security forces struggle to contain the escalating Islamist violence. OCHA said 436,608 people have been displaced in the three states - Adamawa,
Borno and Yobe -- that were placed under emergency rule in May 2013.

The agency put the IDP figure at 250,000 in May this year. Another 210,085 have fled their homes in areas neighbouring the state of emergency zone, bringing the total number of people displaced by Boko Haram unrest to nearly 650,000, OCHA reported.

ThisDay

Boko Haram Trails Nigerians To Chad, Kills 6

Gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect Monday crossed over to a village in Chad and killed.six Nigerians who were taking refuge there.

Sources said the insurgents stormed Dubuwa village in Chad from Kirenowa, a border town in Marte Local Government Area of Borno State.
About two weeks ago, the Boko Haram assailants attacked Kirenowa, killed some residents and burnt public and private houses, a development which forced the locals to seek refuge in Chad.

Mohammed Yusuf, a farmer from Kirenowa told our.correspondent in Maiduguri yesterday that the insurgents pursued the fleeing residents to Dubuwa and killed six.
“After the attack on our village two weeks ago, many crossed over to Chad, some to Cameroon and many others to other places in northern Borno. Sadly, the attackers pursued those in Kirenowa and succeeded in killing six people,” Yusuf said.

Some security sources that spoke off record confirmed that like in southern part of the state, the Boko Haram
fighters are attacking villages in the northern part.
“Our troops are intensifying efforts to contain the situation but the truth is that the locals must always volunteer information on the movements of the
terrorists. This is key to achieving positive results,” one of the security officials said.

Kirenowa was the first place that Nigerian forced dislodged a Boko Haram camp in 2013, shortly after the
declaration of a state of emergency.
“From all indications, the insurgents are fully back in Marte and other local government areas along the shores of the Lake Chad. We pray something urgent would be done so that we would not have a repeat of what happened last year when the Boko Haram fighters hoisted their flags in our villages and indoctrinated our children,” Abba Kolomi, a fisherman said.

Courtesy:
Daily Trust

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

Nigeria’s 1,479 Illegal Porous Borders May Hamper Efforts To Curtail The Spread Of Ebola Virus

There are fresh fears that porous Nigerian land borders may thwart the Federal Government’s efforts to check
the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the country.

Saturday PUNCH’s investigations revealed that the porosity of Nigerian land borders exposed the country
to the risk of the deadly disease.
At the last count, there are about 1,479 illegal routes into Nigeria through which smugglers, undocumented immigrants and terrorists have been infiltrating the
country.

Checks also show that port health officials, who are usually deployed by the ministry of health in border points, are not available at many of the unauthorised routes where individuals infected with Ebola virus could access the country without let or hindrance.

Findings revealed that the 114 regular border posts manned by immigration and health officers, were inadequate to protect the country from Ebola virus
which could be imported into the country through infected migrants and even documented visitors.

Although visitors to Nigeria are expected to possess the International Health Certificate (Yellow card), investigations show that most foreigners using the
international land borders do not have the document.
Investigations by Saturday PUNCH indicated that the Nigerian Immigration Service, with 23,000 workers, and other security agencies do not have the manpower, material resources and capacity to secure even the normal legal and massive borders and prevent
infiltration of the country by immigrants infected with Ebola disease.

Thus, infected persons, who do not show symptoms of the virus can easily enter through the land borders as the deadly Ebola disease may not be obvious to the
health officials and immigration personnel at land borders.

Nigeria, being a hub of economic activities in the West African sub-region, is an attractive destination for illegal migrants from Chad, Mali, Niger, Cameroun, Togo, Benin Republic and other countries.

Though the Federal Government had issued a health advisory to port health officers and the immigration service personnel, Saturday PUNCH’s investigation showed that they were not given enough equipment that could assist them in the task of identifying and
isolating infected persons coming into the country.

Ebola is an acute viral illness and often characterised by fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and
sore throat. These are followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.

Experts, including the Medical Director, Clinical Research Physician, United States, Dr. Hezekiah Adesanya, said that Nigeria was at the risk of the disease through land borders.

Adesanya said the Federal Government should set up Ebola quarantine centres at land borders like it did in airports.
He stated that the possibility of the disease spreading through land borders is worse than air and sea ports because more people preferred roads as a mode of transportation.
“Due to the long travel from Liberia to Nigeria in cramped and close proximity, potentially infected people have more time to interact and opportunities to
“touch” and therefore spread to co-travellers,” he stated.

Advising Nigerians going through land borders, he said, “Be careful and observe the same care; no touching of
anyone. If anybody manifests any of the symptoms, inform the driver, evacuate the bus and get the person to the nearest health facility which is to be isolated
immediately.”
According to him, the Federal Ministry of Health should liaise with ECOWAS and the WHO to set up health posts along the ECOWAS highway.

On his part, the Vice -President of the Commonwealth Medical Association and former President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, said, “Indubitably, there is a possible risk of Ebola Viral Disease spreading to Nigeria on account of the highly active migration activities at all of Nigeria’s land borders, including the active and unrestricted movements of immigrants from afflicted African
countries such as Guinea, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Ghana.”

He called for the re-orientation of the Nigerian border patrol and health staff as well as the strengthening of the disease surveillance mechanisms at the land borders.
Enabulele stated, “The spread can further be buoyed through contact by uninfected persons with persons
infected with the Ebola Virus following contact with infected bodily fluids, blood and blood products or the consumption of infected animal meat products by
unsuspecting persons migrating through Nigeria’s land borders.”

Courtesy:
Punch Newspaper

Boko Haram Kills Nigerian Army Captain, 8 Months After His Wedding

Members of the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic Sect, have killed Captain Benjamin Sule, a Nigerian army officer who just wedded eight months ago.

A close military friend of the late Captain Sule told SaharaReporters that Boko Haram gunmen killed the young, newly wed officer in an attack on a military contingent over the weekend.

“Captain Sule was killed in a battle launched by Boko Haram fighters against our troops between Saturday and Sunday,” said his military friend who is based in the Ikom Barracks in Cross River State. The officer, who provided wedding photos of Captain Sule, added that he and other friends of the deceased officer “received the news with utmost shock. He was killed between Saturday and Sunday, but we only got the information today [Monday].”

He said he and Captain Sule had been friends since their days in secondary school. The source said the Nigerian Army later posted Captain Sule to Cross River State. “It was from here that he went on a military duty to the Borno area.”

The source told SaharaReporters that he last spoke with Captain Sule a week ago. “We talked over the phone and he told me that he was fine, but said we should continue praying for him.”

The officer said he was distraught that the captain’s death has made a widow out of the young wife Captain Sule married in November 2013.

Our source disclosed that Captain Sule’s wife and family were aware of his death, even though the Defense Headquarters was yet to officially announce his death at the time of this report.

SR

Magnitude-5.3 Earthquake Hits South Africa, 1 Killed

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — An earthquake shook buildings in Johannesburg and surrounding areas in South Africa's most populous province on Tuesday.
At least one person was killed and three were injured, medical staff said.

The magnitude-5.3 quake was centered in Orkney, 170 kilometers (105 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
One man died when a wall of a disused mining building fell on him, said Werner Vermaak, a spokesman for emergency responders working in the Orkney area, a center of gold-mining operations.

Mine managers ordered the evacuation of workers from shafts and there were no immediate reports of casualties underground, Vermaak said.
Three people were hurt when the quake damaged a training center at a mine, said Phoka Sefali, a receptionist at a hospital in Orkney.

"The roof fell on them, but they haven't got serious injuries," he said.
Hospital staff were on standby, awaiting the outcome of safety checks on miners who were underground at the time of the earthquake, Sefali said.

Quakes are a concern to mining companies that operate around Johannesburg, the biggest city in
Gauteng province. Mining is a traditional pillar of industry in South Africa.

Lindy Sirayi, a guesthouse owner in Orkney, said the tremor broke glass lampshades and cracked a wall, and that dogs started barking during the quake, which lasted about a minute. Aftershocks were felt, but the electricity in the guesthouse stayed on, Sirayi said.

The quake was also felt in Pretoria, the South African capital, and Hartbeespoort, a nearby resort
town. The area has periodic, moderate tremors, though the quake on Tuesday was one of the strongest in recent years.

Courtesy:
USAToday

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

Fight Against Terrorism & Insurgency: Nigerian Air Force Set To Deploy Locally Made Robot

The Nigerian Airforce (NAF) says it would soon finish the manufacturing of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) capable of detonating high calibre improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and intelligence gathering in crisis-prone parts of the country.

The NAF, however, said lack of funds was delaying the speedy completion of the project.
Speaking at a news conference in preparation for the 42nd graduation ceremony of Nigerian Airforce Institute of Technology (NAFIT), Kaduna, its commandant, Toni Adokwe, said the new device would enhance the success of security agents in the fight against insurgency.

According to him, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) known as Gulma, developed by the institute and launched last year by President Goodluck Jonathan, had been deployed in defence headquarters for surveillance and intelligence gathering in crises-prone areas of the country.
“When the project is completed, the robot would go a long way in countering activities of terrorist groups, as detonation of bombs will not require the physical presence of a human being at the scene,” he said.

The UAV, he said, was the first on the African continent, adding that with proper funding, Nigeria was capable of attaining higher pedestal in military aviation and defence-related technology.

The institute, established in 1979, is mandated to conduct research and run postgraduate engineering programmes in various aerospace, aeronautical and allied disciplines, in addition to providing other training programmes as may be required by the Nigerian military.
So far, it has trained a total of 5,000 graduates.

Nigerian Tribune

Emir of Kano - Muhammad Sanusi II Says Security Is A Collective Responsibility

The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has said that the general public should not leave security matters to government or traditional rulers alone, even as he blamed insecurity situation in the country on poverty and illiteracy.

The emir who made the call on Monday, while speaking at a meeting of Kano elders, said ensuring adequate security in the society, should be collective efforts of all Nigerians.

His words: “If you see a 17-year-old carrying bomb, there is a need to ask ourselves a question; was she brainwashed because of illiteracy or how much was she paid because of
poverty.”

He, however, informed that his council had already met with Ulamas in the state over the situation.

Nigerian Tribune

Amnesty International Claims Nigerian Army Committed 'War Crimes'

Nigeria's army has committed atrocities in the north-east in its fight against Islamist militants belonging to Boko Haram, Amnesty International says.

The campaign group said it had seen "gruesome footage" including alleged members of the military slitting the throats of detainees.
The Nigerian authorities said such barbarity had no place in the military and promised to investigate.

Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.
Thousands of people have been killed in a series of bombings and assassinations in the north-east and in the capital, Abuja, this year alone.

Amnesty says footage obtained from multiple sources on a trip to Borno state, in the north, "includes horrific images of detainees having their throats slit one by one and dumped in mass graves".

The perpetrators "appear to be members of the Nigerian military and the "Civilian Joint Task Force" (CJTF), state-sponsored militias," the organisation adds.
"The ghastly images are backed up by the numerous.testimonies we have gathered which suggest that
extrajudicial executions are, in fact, regularly carried out by the Nigerian military and CJTF," says Amnesty
International Secretary General Salil Shetty.

The Nigerian authorities say they are "deeply concerned" about the footage in circulation, adding: "That level of
barbarism and impunity has no place in the Nigerian military."

Guardian