Nigeria And State Complicity With Terrorists, By Dr Ann Mcgregor

State complicity with terrorists and organized crime gangs are at the heart of instability in the Sahel, Sahara and Lake Chad regions, fomenting conflict and fuelling the rise of Boko Haram kidnapping.

Boko Haram Still Dangerous, May Attack Lagos, Kano States - Ex US Ambassador To Nigeria

Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, has warned that Boko Haram terrorists will likely regroup, becoming more radical, violent and may attack Kano and Lagos states.

Nigerian Security Agents Arrest Ansaru Members And Boko Haram Weapon Manufacturer

Three men with suspected link to the terror sect, Boko Haram, are now being interrogated by the Department of State Services (DSS) for allegedly manufacturing arms for the insurgents and for seeking a foreign embassy’s help to fight terrorist activities in Nigeria. Also in the custody of the agency are three other men suspected to be members of Ansaru, another terror sect.

United States Mission Issue Security Alert to American Citizens in Nigeria

The U.S. Mission in Nigeria issues the following security message for the attention of all U.S. citizens in Nigeria.

Following the June 25 bombing in the Wuse II neighborhood of Abuja, the Government of Nigeria has increased security measures in Abuja. This weekend also marks the commencement of the month of Ramadan. Given the history of bombing attacks on weekends (some associated with holidays), as well as the recent bombing at Emab Plaza in Wuse II, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria urges all U.S. citizens living and traveling in Nigeria to take extra precautions for your personal security and safety. The U.S. Mission urges against non-essential travel to or within Abuja during the upcoming weekend.

The U.S. Mission advises all U.S. citizens to be particularly vigilant around churches and other places of worship, locations where large crowds may gather, government facilities, and areas frequented by expatriates and foreign travelers during the upcoming weekend. Security measures in Nigeria remain heightened due to threats posed by extremist groups, and U.S. citizens should expect additional police and military checkpoints, additional security, and possible road blocks throughout the country.

We recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Nigeria enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. If you do not have internet access, enroll directly with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

Courtesy:
US Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria

UN Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Adds Abubakar Mohammed Shekau, Ansaru To It's Sanctions List

On 26 June 2014, the Security Council’s Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee approved the addition of Ansaru and Abubakar Mohammed Shekau to its list of individuals and entities subject to the targeted financial sanctions and the arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2161 (2014), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

The Committee stresses the need for robust implementation of the Al-Qaida Sanctions Regime as a significant tool in combating terrorist activity, and urges all Member States to participate actively by nominating for listing additional individuals, groups, undertakings and entities which should be subject to the sanctions measures.

As a result of the new listings, any individual or entity that provides financial or material support to Ansaru and Abubakar Mohammed Shekau, including the provision of arms or recruits, is eligible to be added to the Al-Qaida Sanctions List and subject to the sanctions measures.

The details of the new listings for both names are listed below:

A. Individuals associated with Al-Qaida

QI.S.322.14 Name: 1: ABUBAKAR 2: MOHAMMED 3: SHEKAU 4: na
Name (original script): أبو بكر محمد الشكوى
Title: Imam  Designation: na DOB: 1969  POB: Shekau Village, Yobe State, Nigeria  Good quality a.k.a.: Abubakar Shekau  Low quality a.k.a.: a) Abu Mohammed Abubakar bin Mohammed b) Abu Muhammed Abubakar bi Mohammed c) Shekau d) Shehu e) Shayku f) Imam Darul Tauhid g) Imam Darul Tawheed  Nationality: Nigerian  Passport no.: na  National identification no.: na  Address: Nigeria  Listed on: 26 Jun. 2014   Other information: Member of the Kanuri tribe. Physical description: eye colour: black; hair colour: black. Photo available for inclusion in the INTERPOL-UN Security Council Special Notice. Leader of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) (QE.B.138.14). Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram has been responsible for a series of major terrorist attacks.

B. Entities associated with Al-Qaida

QE.A.142.14. Name: ANSARUL MUSLIMINA FI BILADIS SUDAN
Name (original script): أنصار المسلمین في بلاد السودان
A.k.a.: a) Ansaru b) Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan c) Jama'atu Ansaril Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan (JAMBS) d) Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis-Sudan (JAMBS) e) Jamma’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis-Sudan (JAMBS) f) Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa g) Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa  F.k.a.: na  Address: Nigeria  Listed on: 26 Jun. 2014   Other information:Terrorist and paramilitary group established in 2012 and operating in Nigeria. Associated with the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) (QE.T.14.01), Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) (QE.B.138.14) and Abubakar Mohammed Shekau (QI.S.322.14).

For further details relating to the listings, please refer to the narrative summaries of reasons for listing of the above-mentioned names annexed to this release.  In accordance with paragraph 17 of resolution 2161 (2014), the narrative summaries of reasons for listing the above-mentioned names are also available on the Al-Qaida Committee’s website at: http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/NSQI32214E.shtml; http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/NSQE14214E.shtml.

Courtesy:
United Nations Security Council

United States Slams $18m Bounty on Boko Haram, Ansaru and 3 African Militants

WASHINGTON  (AFP) – The United States posted $18 million in rewards Friday for the capture of four African militants involved in the kidnapping of foreigners and attacks on Western targets.

Some $5 million each was offered for a former member of Nigeria’s Boko Haram and two founding leaders of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) based in the Maghreb region.

A fourth reward of $3 million was set for an Egyptian extremist who has plotted against the US, the State Department said.

Khalid al-Barnawi was named as a leader of the Nigeria-based group known as Ansaru that split from Boko Haram in early 2012, the agency’s Rewards for Justice program said in a statement. The group has close ties to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and was behind the kidnapping of seven foreigners in a raid on a construction site in restive northern Nigeria in February 2013. The seven from Britain, Greece, Lebanon and Italy were later executed by their captors.
Barnawi also reportedly helped plan the May 2011 kidnapping by Ansaru of a British and an Italian engineer, who were both killed 10 months later.

“Ansaru originated as a faction of Boko Haram, has close ties to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and has sought to target Westerners, including US citizens,” the State Department said.

It also named Hamad el-Khairy and Ahmed el-Tilemsi as founding leaders of MUJAO, and former members of AQIM. Tilemsi took part in the kidnapping of two French nationals in Niamey, Niger in January 2011. The men were later executed in Mali after an attempt by French special forces to rescue them failed.
As a military leader of MUJAO, Tilemsi also aided the abduction of three European aid workers in Algeria from a refugee camp in Tindouf, in October 2011.
MUJAO claimed to be behind that kidnapping — the first time that the group emerged to the fore saying it was an offshoot of AQIM.

The three Europeans were finally released in July 2012 in Mali in exchange for three Islamists held by Mauritania.
While still a member of AQIM, Khairy planned attacks in Mauritania and took part in the December 2008 abduction of UN envoy and Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler in Niger.
He had also ordered the 2011 kidnapping of the three European aid workers in Algeria, in which two people were also wounded.

Khairy has also claimed responsibility for the April 2012 kidnappings of seven Algerian diplomats in Mali. At least one of the hostages were later killed, and three were freed.

Rewards for Justice also offered $3 million for Egyptian explosives expert Abu Yusuf al-Muhajir, a former member of the Tawhid w’al Jihad Egypt, described as an extremist group active in the Sinai Peninsula from 2004 to 2006. "Abu Yusuf was involved in attack planning against a variety of targets in Egypt, including US interests,” the State Department said.

Yahoo News

Is this the Sudanese University Radicalising Nigerian Militants?

Security agencies are getting worried about the possible role of Sudanese universities in the radicalisation of Nigerians linked to Boko Haram.

The most recent example is that of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, who allegedly masterminded the April 14 Nyanya bombing which claimed 75 lives.

Ogwuche studied Arabic at Sudan’s International University of Africa, which has also trained over 1,000 Nigerians in the last 10 years.

“Increasingly, many Nigerians are travelling to Sudan for education ─ some of them sponsored by northern state governments. There is a serious cause for worry,” a top security chief told TheCable.

The official said there is yet no “concrete evidence” linking radicalism with the universities “but there are high possibilities that they are serving as recruitment points for al-Qaeda agents”.

A case in point is that of “Mujahid Abu Nasir”, believed to be the pseudonym of a top commander of al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru ─ a Nigerian militant group that broke away from Boko Haram but still works closely with the Abubakar Shekau-led insurgents.

Nasir  told an American newspaper last year that he also attended the university in Khartoum where he ─ like Ogwuche ─ studied Arabic.

In a very revealing interview, Nasir said he first attended an Islamic college in Kano, and then “for the zeal of seeking knowledge”, he went to Khartoum, Sudan, where “al-Qaeda propagators initiated me into the clique”.

He said the recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and then to Mauritania for a “rigorous training course” by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

AQIM has been linked to terror activities in Nigeria and Somalia.

Nasir said he trained directly under Abu Zeid, a key commander of AQIM who was eventually killed by French forces in northern Mali last year.

He said although five of them left Sudan for the AQIM training, two died in the process because of the rigour involved.

Nasir returned to Nigeria in 2008, spent some time “underground” in Lagos before launching out with the militants who say they want to impose Islamic law on Nigeria.

He also said there are thousands like him in Nigeria, some of whom he said were working in government, “some businessmen, some teachers”.

The International University of Africa was founded as the Islamic African Centre in 1977 but was upgraded to a university in 1992.

It has six faculties: Sharia, engineering, medicine, education, economics and political science, and arts.

It  is owned by the government of Sudan, a country once classified by the US as a sponsor of international terrorism.

Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, was resident in the country for five years in the 1990s. He set up construction and trading companies there, and built bridges and roads all over the country.

But the attraction of Sudan is not mainly religious ─ according to a father whose son is also studying in that country.

“They have a stable education system. There are no strikes, the campuses are conducive to learning, and the fees are far cheaper than what Nigerian, European or American universities are charging,” he told TheCable. “And their standards are quite high.”

The annual tuition fee is $400 for economics and political science, and sharia; $500 for education and arts; $2500 for engineering; and $5000 for medicine.

Source:
The Cable