The military says it is analysing the footage to identify fighters and study the group’s internal dynamics.
The Nigerian government has previously spoken of foreign influence
within the ranks of the jihadists but lacked hard evidence to back up
its assertion.
“They [foreigners] carry arms and fight alongside the other
terrorists,” a senior military source, who declined to be identified,
said. “They are also experts and trainers.“
Reuters was not able to establish how many other foreigners were at
the filmed event or what percentage of the militants’ fighting force
they account for overall.
In 2012, Boko Haram was reported to be receiving training from
al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, although there has been little to back
up claims of foreigners at the core of the group beyond anecdotal
evidence from civilians who escaped or soldiers who fought them.
Boko Haram, which loosely translates as “western education is
sinful” in the northern Hausa language, began an insurgency in 2009 to
establish a state adhering to strict sharia law.
The footage shows Boko Haram administering sharia judgments in front
of a big crowd in a field stained with blood with a man speaking in
Sudanese Arabic.
“God ordered all believers to enforce his punishments,” the man,
whose face is completely covered by a white turban, says to camera. “God
ordered us to cut off the hand of the thief and flog the adulterer and
adulteress.”
Standing
in the middle of a circle formed by the crowd and near a preacher
shouting into a loudspeaker in Hausa, the man appeared to be overseeing
at the gathering called to implement sharia law.
A man wearing a black turban stands next to him as he speaks in
Arabic and occasionally nods in agreement while another waves the
group’s black flag behind them. Turbans in this style are not typical in
Nigeria’s north-east.
In other parts of the film, men and women are flogged and several
have hands amputated while the crowd cheers. A man is also stoned to
death after being buried up to his head in a pit.
The military says it believes the events took place in south-eastern
Borno state in or near the town of Gwoza, Boko Haram’s former
headquarters. The distinctive Mandara mountain range can be seen in the
background. There was no time stamp to indicate when the half hour of
video was filmed but a shorter, edited version of the film was released
after the group took over Gwoza last summer.
The discovery of the footage was reported in local Nigerian media
and Reuters made a request to view the footage, which was granted by the
military. The Nigerian military has not publicly released the footage
while its analysts worked on identification and the workings of the
group.
“It [footage] helps document their atrocities as evidence in the
event of any trial,” a senior military source said, adding: “To
understand their pattern or mode of operation ... and equipment in their
possession with other information, is vital for intelligence.”
Reuters was unable to independently authenticate the footage and Boko
Haram could not be reached for comment. Reuters viewed four separate
videos.
Boko Haram started as a clerical movement in Nigeria’s Borno state
capital, Maiduguri, with a core membership from the Kanuri ethnic group
spread around the Lake Chad basin.
Boko Haram is less media savvy than Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, to which it pledged allegiance in March.
Isis is known for its slick, technically proficient propaganda videos, which attracted fighters from around the world.
Far less is known about Boko Haram’s internal structure or how it
ran the towns it took, though survivors recount rapes, starvation and
beatings.
Reuters also saw raw footage of a video titled “Harvest of Spies”,
released in edited form in March, which copied Isis videos and showed
the beheading of two men accused of being undercover government agents.
The six-year Boko Haram insurgency has seen thousands killed and
many abducted. Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls near the
northern village of Chibok in April 2014, causing international outcry.
Nigeria’s army said it has freed more than 700 women and children in
the last month during an operation to wrest back the Sambisa forest, a
vast former colonial game reserve.
The group, notorious for violence against civilians, controlled an
area roughly the size of Belgium at the start of the year but has since
been beaten back by Nigerian troops, backed by Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Nigeria
has regained most of the territory since February and launched an
offensive last month to root the militants out of their last stronghold
in the Sambisa forest.
Boko Haram has been splintered but is not completely quashed. There
are signs already that it is returning to its old guerilla-style tactics
after attacking Maiduguri and hitting several other towns, including with suicide bombers.
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