Social Media Savvy Terrorists Send ‘90 Tweets Per Minute’ - Saudi-Based Group

An average of 90 tweets from terrorists are sent each minute, according to a survey conducted in October by the Saudi-based Sakinah awareness campaign.

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

Cameroon Villages Bordering Nigeria Live in Terror of Boko Haram

Yaounde (Cameroon) (AFP) - In the villages that line the border with Nigeria, even those charged with protecting Cameroonians from Boko Haram fighters fear the fall of
darkness.
"When night falls, we tremble. We don't sleep," said a Cameroonian policeman from a far-northern border
town, on condition of anonymity.
The Nigeria-born Islamist group has stepped up raids into northern Cameroon in recent days, murdering and stealing with impunity despite military efforts to clamp down on their bloody insurgency.

On Sunday local police said one of their officers was killed during an attack on the village of Nariki, 500 metres from Boko Haram's Nigerian stronghold of Tarmoa, adding to scores of deaths from raids on local towns this month.
The militants have long used Cameroon to launch attacks on Nigeria as the border between them is extremely porous, with no buffer-zone clearly separating the two countries.
Earlier this month they stole a pick-up truck and weapons in a raid on a police post in Bomberi, Cameroon, only to abandon it on Nigerian territory where it was found by troops days later, said another Cameroon police officer.

Weapons and goods cross the border freely too: the remote northern Cameroon town of Amchide has
become a hotbed for Boko Haram fighters and a hub for trafficking to finance their recruitment.
Cameroon, like other west African countries, has beefed up its operations against Boko Haram since the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls three months ago sparked an international outcry.
The army claims to have killed many militants in recent weeks and suspected members and collaborators have
been arrested and sent to the capital, Yaounde.

Cameroon's elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) recently destroyed one Boko Haram camp during a foray
across the border into Tarmoa, said the second officer.
Supported by international governments, they have also targeted the Sambisa forest near the shared border where Nigerian authorities believe the kidnapped schoolgirls may still be hidden in the militants' camps.
But Cameroon's efforts have done little to stem Boko Haram's bloody five-year insurgency or stop almost daily attacks that have left local communities living in constant fear.

"Boko Haram is disorganised because of joint operations by the Cameroonian and Nigerian armed forces, but its activists carry out attacks here and there in Cameroon," the second officer said.
The first policeman said the insurgents can easily escape as "they know very well" where the Cameroonian troops are located.

The Islamist group, blamed for slaughtering more than 2,000 civilians already this year, has increasingly targeted remote border communities, razing entire villages.
Two Cameroonian shepherds were killed and 200 cattle stolen by militants on July 10 during a raid in the village of Bame, less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Nigerian border, said the first police officer.

Foiled attack -
And suspected Boko Haram fighters kidnapped a 20-year-old Cameroonian earlier this month from the village
of Balgaram after an attack was foiled by the army.
Senior local figures are also being intimidated to stop them from helping the government against Boko Haram.
In Limani, which lies in the flashpoint zone between Nigeria's Tarmoa and Amchide in Cameroon, militants
kidnapped the sons of a traditional chief who has been a go-between for the group.
"They were intimidating the father," said the second police officer. "He's a go-between for Boko Haram, which suspects him of collaborating with Cameroonian forces."

A lack of coordination by military forces -- particularly between Nigeria and Cameroon -- has hampered the efforts to stop the insurgents.
That was made clear during a botched attempt to rescue 10 Chinese road workers who were kidnapped in May.
A negotiator was hurt when a team of Cameroonians sent to bring back the workers in early July was fired on
by the Nigerian army, which was unaware of their operation, said the second officer.

"There is currently a tacit agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon to let soldiers from both countries cross
the border either way during actions against Boko Haram," he added.
But officially, the Yaounde government does not allow any right of pursuit by Nigerian forces on its territory.

Courtesy:
Yahoo News

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: Scores of Soldiers Desert Nigerian Army Within Last Week Due to Low Morale and Battle Plans Routinely Leaked to Sect

MILITARY commanders fear that as many as 162 soldiers deserted the Nigerian Army last week as morale
sinks to an all-time low due to the ongoing success terrorist sect Boko Haram is enjoying in its war with
the army.

A headcount of soldiers serving with the Seventh Mechanised Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri showed that 162 rifles were abandoned by soldiers who were suspected to have left their duty posts during the week. Ministry of defence officials said that is being treated as a routine case of deserters as the authorities are convinced the terrorists did not capture any of its soldiers alive.

Apparently, the soldiers are unhappy about the seeming advantages Boko Haram terrorists are enjoying over the
military in their ongoing battle across northeastern Nigeria. Sources within the army say that soldiers are not only unhappy about the fact that Boko Haram is a better fighting force but they are particularly annoyed about the regularity with which military plans are leaked to the sect.

One army source said: “Routine troop deployment, withdrawals from positions are known to the terrorists even before the soldiers on the ground are briefed. This leak is surely traceable to the officer cadre within the division."
Commanders of the Seventh Mechanised Division only got to know the extent of the problem yesterday afternoon, when a mop-up operation recovered the abandoned rifles. These weapons have now been returned to the division's armoury and the military authorities are battling to raise troops’ morale, which has reached a new low.

This has been the single largest desertion in a week in recent times as the growing disaffection with the
Nigerian Army appears to reached fresh heights. Over recent months, Boko Haram have ramped up daring assaults as its fighters seem to be more motivated.

Courtesy:
Nigerian Watch

British Government Probes Nigeria's Opposition Party- APC’s Alleged Link with Boko Haram

Opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) may have come under the spotlight of the British government over allegations that it has links with the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group. Feelers from the British parliament gave this indication at the weekend.

Reports had it that the United Kingdom (UK)’s Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (otherwise known as foreign secretary), Mr William Hague, was, last week, questioned by an influential member of the British parliament, Mr Andrew Rosindell, on the UK’s engagement with the APC over the Boko Haram problem confronting Nigeria.

Information pieced together by Sunday Tribune from the website of the British parliament, www.parliament.uk, indicated that Rosindell, a conservative representing Romford, listed numerous questions regarding terrorism in Nigeria and some other affected countries of the Commonwealth for the foreign sectary, under “notices for written answers” section of the House of Commons Business Paper.

Some of the questions Rosindell, who is also a member of Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, want Hague to answer, according to the Business Paper, are: “To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the rise of Islamic terrorism in Northern Iraq. 

“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the rise in Islamic terrorism in Nigeria. (204387)

“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department plans to offer to Nigeria in tackling the threat of Boko Haram. 

“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of links between Boko Haram and other Islamic extremist groups in Africa.

“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss with his counterpart in Cameroon the need for constructive dialogue between that country and Nigeria in tackling Boko Haram; and if he will make a statement.

“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his US counterpart on tackling the threat from Islamic extremism in Northern Africa.

“To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department have had with leading members of the Nigerian opposition party, the All Progressives Congress; and if he will make a statement.

“ To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will commission an inquiry into the international support network for Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon; and if he will make a statement.”

Reports added that the development came after a debate in the parliament in which a Labour member, Sandra Osborne asked the House to examine allegations of links between APC and the insurgents.

It was also noted that increasing questioning of the government of the UK by legislators over the issue may force an enquiry into the allegations.

Sunday Tribune also learnt that at a recent meeting of the parliamentarians, led by Henry Jackson Society and chaired by John Glen, who is a close adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, similar allegations were raised that key APC members were supporters and financiers of Boko Haram “for ideological and political means.”

The UK is now said to be showing more interest in the Boko Haram menace, especially after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in April.

Hague, at an international summit on rape in warzones held in London in June, was said to have reaffirmed the UK’s “strong and united commitment to defeat Boko Haram and to end the scourge of terrorism in Nigeria.”

When Sunday Tribune contacted, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for reaction, he said the party was still studying the development, adding that it would react to the allegations appropriately in due course.

Courtesy:
Tribune Newspaper

Exclusive: Iraq Tells U.N. that 'Terrorist Groups' Seized Nuclear Materials

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Insurgents in Iraq have seized nuclear materials used for scientific research at a university in the country's north, Iraq told the United Nations in a letter appealing for help to "stave off the
threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad."
Nearly 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of uranium compounds were kept at Mosul University, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the July 8 letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
"Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state," Alhakim wrote, adding that such materials "can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction."
"These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts," said Alhakim. He warned that they could also be smuggled out of Iraq.

A U.S. government source familiar with the matter said the materials were not believed to be enriched uranium and therefore would be difficult to use to manufacture into a weapon. Another U.S. official familiar with security matters said he was unaware of this development raising any alarm among U.S. authorities.

A Sunni Muslim group known as the Islamic State is spearheading a patchwork of insurgents who have
taken over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. The al Qaeda offshoot until recently called itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
"The Republic of Iraq is notifying the international community of these dangerous developments and asking for help and the needed support to stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad," Alhakim wrote.

Iraq acceded to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material on Monday, said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The convention requires states to protect nuclear facilities and material in peaceful domestic use, storage and transport.
"It also provides for expanded cooperation between and among states regarding rapid measures to locate and recover stolen or smuggled nuclear material, mitigate any radiological consequences of sabotage, and prevent and combat related offences," according to the IAEA.

Courtesy:
Reuters

United States warns of 'Specific Terrorist Threat' to Uganda's Entebbe Airport

The United States warned its citizens in Uganda on Thursday about a "specific threat" of an attack within hours on Entebbe International Airport, which serves the capital Kampala.

A message posted on the U.S. Embassy website said information from Uganda's police indicated that the attack could take place between 9 p.m and 11 p.m. local time, adding that citizens planning to travel at that time might consider reviewing their arrangements.

As one of the countries that contributes forces to an African Union peacekeeping mission battling the radical group Al-Shabab in Somalia, Uganda has suffered attacks in recent years, with the feared armed group threatening more.

Ignie Ugundura, a spokesman for Uganda's Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed the authority had issued an alert on Wednesday that "informed the airport community,” but did not offer more details.

A Ugandan police spokeswoman said security had been stepped up at Entebbe, but that the police were not aware of a specific threat to Uganda.

The U.S. Embassy message said it had "received information from the Uganda Police Force (UPF) that according to intelligence sources there is a specific threat to attack Entebbe International Airport by an unknown terrorist group today, July 3, between the hours of 2100-2300.”

The warning came a day after American authorities said they would require increased security at overseas airports with nonstop flights to the United States. U.S. officials cited concerns that Al-Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen were developing bombs that could be smuggled onto planes.

There are no nonstop flights from Uganda's Entebbe airport to the United States.

Courtesy:
Aljazeera

Boko Haram Writes Girls School in Nasarawa State, Threaten to Abduct School Girls

The Nasarawa State government yesterday confirmed reports of a letter purportedly written by Boko Haram insurgents threatening to abduct girls from a school in the state.
The Commissioner for Education, Barrister Yakubu Na’Hauwa, confirmed that there was a letter from Boko Haram to the principal of GSSS, Lafia, threatening to abduct his female students. He said the letter sought the principal’s cooperation with the insurgents to avoid bloodshed during the operation. He could not confirm receipt of such letters by the other schools which were also said to have been written.
“I was not in the state, but I returned to receive a complaint from the principal of GSSS Lafia about the purported threat letter Boko Haram to abduct female students from the school,” he said, adding that he had to urgently instruct the ministry’s permanent secretary to do a formal complaint to the state government, drawing attention to the letter on the need to quickly act on it.

The letters were said to have been received yesterday from dispatch riders who stopped at the gates of three schools in the state.  State police spokesman ASP Ismaila Umaru said his office had no information on the incident and did not confirm the threat letters.

Courtesy:
Daily Trust

BREAKING News: Bomb Blast Rocks Kaduna

Barely 24 hours after bomb blast rocked a market in Maiduguri, another explosion just hit a location in Kaduna town.

According to Sahara Reporters, the explosion occurred around the Asikolaye/Bakin Ruwa area, along the Kaduna western bypass.

Details of fatalities, casualties and other damage in the area are sketchy at the time of filing this report, but sources said the late night explosion shattered many of the glass windows of some of the business premises around the area where the explosion occurred.

Courtesy:
Sahara Reporters

Boko Haram: National Conference Delegate Receives Message of 'Imminent' Attack

A revelation by a member of the National Conference that he had received a threat message from terrorists caused a scare at the confab on Monday.

The delegate, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), told the conference that he received a message on his telephone threatening an “attack bigger than Nyanya blast” and sought the permission of the Chairman of the confab, Justice Idris Kutigi (retd.), to read the message.

Kutigi granted the permission and Ozekhome accordingly read the text.

The message, which Ozekhome also forwarded to our correspondent later, read, “News got to us that our enemy is planning something bigger than Nyanya blast between Tuesday and Wednesday, in Abuja. Mind your movement and be careful. The date is still unknown. Please, pass it around to save loved ones.”

After listening to the text of the message, one of the delegates, who asked not to be named, shouted, “We are in trouble in this country. Bombing everywhere; when will this stop? Even here, we don’t know what is going to happen. Things are so bad in the country. Things are so bad.”

Many of the delegates were seeing discussing the development in hushed tones but with panic on their faces.

None of them was willing to speak with The PUNCH on the matter on Monday.

Another delegate, Obi Onoliefo, had on Thursday last week, raised the issue of safety of delegates when, having looked at the perimeter of the National Judicial Institute, observed that there were no security operatives manning them.

Onoliefo, therefore, called for security operatives to be drafted to the perimeter fences to forestall insurgents from breaking into the premises and causing bloodshed.

Courtesy:

Punch Newspaper

How Boko Haram 'Outsmarts' U.S. Efforts to Choke its Financing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Washington imposed sanctions in June 2012 on Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, he dismissed it as an empty gesture.

Two years later, Shekau’s skepticism appears well founded: his Islamic militant group is now the biggest security threat to Africa's top oil producer, is richer than ever, more violent and its abductions of women and children continue with impunity.

As the United States, Nigeria and others struggle to track and choke off its funding, Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials who closely follow Boko Haram provide the most complete picture to date of how the group finances its activities.

Central to the militant group’s approach includes using hard-to-track human couriers to move cash, relying on local funding sources and engaging in only limited financial relationships with other extremists groups. It also has reaped millions from high-profile kidnappings.

"Our suspicions are that they are surviving on very lucrative criminal activities that involve kidnappings," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview.

Until now, U.S. officials have declined to discuss Boko Haram’s financing in such detail.

The United States has stepped up cooperation with Nigeria to gather intelligence on Boko Haram, whose militants are killing civilians almost daily in its northeastern Nigerian stronghold. But the lack of international financial ties to the group limit the measures the United States can use to undermine it, such as financial sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury normally relies on a range of measures to track financial transactions of terrorist groups, but Boko Haram appears to operate largely outside the banking system.

To fund its murderous network, Boko Haram uses primarily a system of couriers to move cash around inside Nigeria and across the porous borders from neighbouring African states, according to the officials interviewed by Reuters.

In designating Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation last year, the Obama administration characterized the group as a violent extremist organisation with links to al Qaeda.

The Treasury Department said in a statement to Reuters that the United States has seen evidence that Boko Haram has received financial support from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), an offshoot of the jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden.

But that support is limited. Officials with deep knowledge of Boko Haram's finances say that any links with al Qaeda or its affiliates are inconsequential to Boko Haram's overall funding.

"Any financial support AQIM might still be providing Boko Haram would pale in comparison to the resources it gets from criminal activities," said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Assessments differ, but one U.S. estimate of financial transfers from AQIM was in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. That compares with the millions of dollars that Boko Haram is estimated to make through its kidnap and ransom operations.

LUCRATIVE KIDNAPPING RACKET

Ransoms appear to be the main source of funding for Boko Haram's five-year-old Islamist insurgency in Nigeria, whose 170 million people are split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In February last year, armed men on motorcycles snatched Frenchman Tanguy Moulin-Fournier, his wife and four children, and his brother while they were on holiday near the Waza national park in Cameroon, close to the Nigerian border.

Boko Haram was paid an equivalent of about $3.15 million by French and Cameroonian negotiators before the hostages were released, according to a confidential Nigerian government report later obtained by Reuters.

Figures vary on how much Boko Haram earns from kidnappings. Some U.S. officials estimate the group is paid as much as $1 million for the release of each abducted wealthy Nigerian.

It is widely assumed in Nigeria that Boko Haram receives support from religious sympathizers inside the country, including some wealthy professionals and northern Nigerians who dislike the government, although little evidence has been made public to support that assertion.

Current and former U.S. and Nigerian officials say Boko Haram's operations do not require significant amounts of money, which means even successful operations tracking and intercepting their funds are unlikely to disrupt their campaign.

Boko Haram had developed "a very diversified and resilient model of supporting itself," said Peter Pham, a Nigeria scholar at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington.

"It can essentially 'live off the land' with very modest additional resources required," he told a congressional hearing on June 11.

LOW-COST WEAPONS

"We’re not talking about a group that is buying sophisticated weapons of the sort that some of the jihadist groups in Syria and other places are using. We’re talking AK-47s, a few rocket-propelled grenades, and bomb-making materials. It is a very low-cost operation," Pham told Reuters.

That includes paying local youth just pennies a day to track and report on Nigerian troop movements.

Much of Boko Haram's military hardware is not bought, it is stolen from the Nigerian army.

In February, dozens of its fighters descended on a remote military outpost in the Gwoza hills in northeastern Borno state, looting 200 mortar bombs, 50 rocket-propelled grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. [ID:nL3N0OD3BU]

Such raids have left the group well armed. In dozens of attacks in the past year Nigerian soldiers were swept aside by militants driving trucks, motor bikes and sometimes even stolen armoured vehicles, firing rocket-propelled grenades.

Boko Haram's inner leadership is security savvy, not only in the way it moves money but also in its communications, relying on face-to-face contact, since messages or calls can be intercepted, the current and former U.S. officials said.

"They're quite sophisticated in terms of shielding all of these activities from legitimate law enforcement officials in Africa and certainly our own intelligence efforts trying to get glimpses and insight into what they do," a former U.S. military official said.

U.S. officials acknowledge that the weapons that have served Washington so well in its financial warfare against other terrorist groups are proving less effective against Boko Haram.

"My sense is that we have applied the tools that we do have but that they are not particularly well tailored to the way that Boko Haram is financing itself," a U.S. defence official said.

Courtesy:
Reuters

Rampaging Boko Haram Razes Police Station, Kills Council Boss's Son in Fresh Attack in Bornu State

Suspected members of the Boko Haram Sect  Monday invaded Shani Local Government Area of Borno state setting ablaze the Divisional Police Station and many other building in the town.

They were said to have razed down shops and vehicles using Improvised Explosive Devices and petrol bombs.
The caretaker  chairman of Shani council, Alhaji Modu Walama who was said to have escaped series of attacks by assassins and terrorists in recent past, narrowly  escaped being killed by the terrorists who were poaching for him.

They were said to have attacked the council boss family house in Walama and killed one of his sons  when they discovered that the Chairman was not in the house.

It was gathered from sources that the heavily armed terrorists invaded the town on motorcycles  and bombed the Divisional Police Headquarters at about 2:45pm on Monday, after they realized that almost all the policemen on duty had fled the area.
They were said to have snatched one of the patrol vehicles of the police and set it ablaze after they discovered that the engine is not in perfect order.

They went from there into the town and shot sporadically aimlessly in the town before fleeing towards Gwaskara village.
Shani is the southern part of the troubled state and about 245 kilometres drive from Maiduguri and shares boundary with some parts of Adamawa state.

Mallam  Aliyu Usman , a resident of Shani who was among those who fled out of town during the attack told journalists that they got news of the terrorists lurking around the town at about 8am when they were sighted by some women on their farmlands around Walama, an outskirt of the town.

They had scared off the women from their farms, telling them that they have deadly mission to execute in some places in Shani.
All effort to get the Police Public Relations Officer, Gideon Jubrin for confirmation was not successful as his phone line was inaccessible as at the time of filing the report.

Courtesy:
ThisDay Newspaper

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

Bomb Blast At Bauchi Soccer Viewing Center Kills 10, Injures 14

At least 10 people have been killed while 14 others sustained injuries from a bomb blast at People's Hotel brothel in Bayangarin area of Bauchi township on Friday night.

An eyewitness told SaharaReporters that five men in military uniform perpetrated the heinous act.

The witness said he was at a viewing centre close to the hotel when the men arrived, detonating explosives and then shooting at random to  kill those trying to escape.

“Those of us who saw them thought they were soldiers who wanted to come and enjoy replays of the World Cup goals that we were all watching," he said.

“All we noticed was that when they entered, four of them took positions each at the four corners of the wall. After the explosion, these people began to shoot at those who did not die immediately and were trying to escape."

Spokesman of the Bauchi State Police Command, Mr. Haruna Mohammed, also confirmed   news of the attack.

He said the entire building had been cordoned off, and the scene secured while  investigations has commenced to ascertain the cause, even though no one has been arrested yet.

The corpses of the bombing victims have been deposited at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, while 14 persons who sustained injuries are also receiving treatment there.

Courtesy:
Sahara Reporters

Kenya: Governor Charged With Terrorism over Lamu Attack

A Kenyan regional governor has been charged with terrorism and murder over attacks in the coastal Lamu district in which scores of people were killed.

Issa Timamy was charged over the attacks on the Mpeketoni town area. He faces several charges including murder.

Kenya's president has blamed the attacks on political networks, despite Somali Islamist group al-Shabab claiming responsibility.

Opposition parties have dismissed the president's claims.

Most of the dead were ethnic Kikuyus, like the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Non-Muslims were singled out to be killed.

Mr Timamy belongs to a political affiliate of Mr Kenyatta's governing Jubilee coalition.

He will remain in police custody until 30 June, while investigations continue.

Locals blockaded roads in protest against insecurity after the attacks
The attacks earlier in June killed at least 60 people, as gunmen descended on hotels and a police station.

It was the most deadly attack in Kenya since last September, when at least 67 people were killed by al-Shabab fighters at Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre.

BBC

Mysterious Snakes, Bees Attack Boko Haram in Sambisa Forest

Some members of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, arrested yesterday at Mairi ward behind University of Maiduguri by members of the Civilian JTF vigilante group, have confessed that most of them are fleeing the Sambisa Forest to areas across Borno State owing to what they believe is spiritual attacks from mysterious snakes and bees, which had killed many of their leaders.

According to Kolo Mustapha, one of the arrested insurgents, “most of us are fleeing because there are too many snakes and bees now in the forest. Once they bite, they disappear and the victims do not last for 24 hours.
“We were told that the aggrieved people who had suffered from our deadly mission, including the ghosts of some of those we killed, are the ones turning into the snake and bees.”

‘Our leaders fled, too’
He said some of their leaders have escaped to Cameroon because they are known to the Nigerian authorities and could be easily identified. According to him, those of them who lived all their lives in Maiduguri have nowhere to run to. So they returned and tried to sneak into town.
He said they came in last night and were trying to hide in some uncompleted buildings, when some members of the Civilian JTF saw them.
He said: “We are pleading with them to spare our lives. We were forced into the sect. But we know that it is not the right way. I personally have never killed anyone, but I have my friend here who had killed many people.”
Umar Abor, the other arrested sect member said Kolo Mustapha was lying as they had participated in all heinous acts of the sect.
He said: “We have fought together since 2010. We have fought in Marte, Bama, Buni Yadima and Gwoza. We were not in Chibok. We have not seen the girls, but we heard about the issue.

“Our leaders have been talking about it and we have been following all news from the radio. We decided to flee when almost all our comrades are leaving the Sambisa because of constant attacks by snakes and bees, which we were told was as a result of Chibok abducted schoolgirls.
“They (our leaders) told us that it was our enemies and aggrieved people that are hunting us through diabolical means. We were in the forest in 2010 and 2011. We left and came back last year but we have never experienced such attacks.
“That is why they believe the Chibok people are using juju to pursue us because of their children said to have been taken by our leaders.”

Courtesy:
Vanguard Newspaper

Boko Haram Gets Funding From Outside Nigeria —Ethiopian Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, on Wednesday, observed that funding for terror organisations operating in Africa, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Shabab in East Africa, come from outside the continent.

Speaking at a joint press conference with President Goodluck Jonathan in State House, Abuja, to round off his two-day visit to the country, he also said the resort to suicide bombing by terrorists was an indication that the war on terror was succeeding.

The Ethiopian leader noted that the East African region had been fighting terrorism for the past 10 years, while stressing the need for cooperation by leaders of worst hit countries in the effort to drive the process of the war on terror on the African continent.

'You know terrorism is not African agenda only. There has been terror attack in Boston, United States and many parts of the globe. So, it is not something that is new to Nigeria, Ethiopia and other African countries. It is a global phenomenon and you see that there was terror attack in Iraq recently and is expanding.

'We have to see it as a global phenomenon that has to be tackled together in unison. It should not be left to this or that region or this or that country. We have to bear in mind the genesis of this terrorism,' he said.

Desalegn said Nigeria and Ethiopia had reached an agreement on the fight against terror with the countries' chiefs of staff working on the modalities adding that 'we are working as one with Kenya to fight this terrorism and the chiefs of staff are in Nairobi, discussing how to fight this issue as we speak.'

In his remarks, President Jonathan observed that Ethiopia had a longer history of terrorism than Nigeria, adding that the country had a lot to learn from the East African country's experience.

The two leaders commended the exchange of high level visits between their countries and resolved to maintain this in order to promote and deepen mutual understanding and cooperation.

Courtesy:
The Nigerian Voice

More than 50 Suspected Boko Haram Insurgents Arrested in Enugu, South East Nigeria

Reports reaching DailyPost show that no less than 50 suspected members of the Boko Haram sect have been arrested at Obollo-Afor in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State.

Obollo-Afor is the gateway between the South-East and the Northern part of the country.

A police source said the suspects would be fully interrogated at the Enugu State Police Command to ascertain their true mission.

Details shortly…

Daily Post

Wanted Boko Haram Terror Gang Leader Killed In Shootout

 The Defence headquarters Friday disclosed that a wanted notorious gang leader of the Boko Haram who has led many attacks against the military and the police including the killing of two soldiers along Lokoja Kaduna road in 2013 has been killed.

In its blog of Friday, June 20th, DHQ said, “A notorious terrorist who has led serial attacks on security personnel, Mallam Husaini has died in an encounter between his group and a military convoy along Jos – Bauchi highway”.

“Husaini who leads a cell of the terrorists billed to operate in the Plateau is known to have led an attack on Headquarters, Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Abuja, in November 2012”.