Nigeria’s military has denied reports that over 20 of its troops are missing, following a clash with Boko Haram militants in the northeast of the country.

The confrontation between militants and troops took place on Saturday in the Bama area of Borno, the state worst hit by the jihadist group which has killed more than 30,000 people since 2009 when it launched an insurgency to create an Islamic caliphate.

Three soldiers told Reuters more than 20 were missing. “We lost some of our soldiers in the attack. It is possible those missing are dead. We haven’t seen about 23 of them now,” said an officer who did not want to be named.

Another soldier involved in the clash said the troops were ambushed while conducting a “clearance operation”, adding that “over 20 soldiers have not been seen up till now”. He said five military vehicles were taken.

The militant group carries out suicide bomb attacks in crowded places, such as markets, as well as gun raids and attacks on military bases.

Nigeria’s army denies its ‘missing soldiers’

At a news conference on Monday, the military said media reports of the soldiers being missing were untrue.

An army spokesman said suspected Boko Haram militants had tried to seize military vehicles in an attempted attack on troops in Bama but they had been repelled by troops backed by the air force.

“About 22 members of Boko Haram terrorists were neutralised while several others escaped with gunshot wounds. Efforts are being intensified by the troops to get the fleeing members of the Boko Haram terrorists,” said a military spokesman.

Boko Haram is ‘technically defeated’

Boko Haram held territory around the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria for several months until being pushed off much of that land in early 2015 by Nigeria’s army and troops from neighbouring countries.

Bama, about 60 km (40 miles) southeast of Borno’s state capital Maiduguri, was held by Boko Haram from September 2014 until March 2015.

Nigeria’s government has said since December 2015 that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”. Yet attacks continue in the northeast while another group, an Islamic State ally that split from Boko Haram in 2016, holds territory.

REUTERS

An 11-year-old artist named Waris Kareem is creating waves with his unique creations in Lagos, Nigeria.

From a makeshift studio in a poor neighborhood in Lagos, Waris Kareem produces incredibly life-like works of art.

Waris began drawing at the age six and turned professional at the age of eight, becoming the youngest professional artist in Nigeria. He describes his art genre as “hyper-realism.” His drawings pay great attention and emphasis even the minutest of details.

(Source: AP)

At least five people have been killed and six others injured after Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists launched an attack on a village in Nigeria’s northeast.

Residents said Saturday that a bomber, suspected to be a member of the Takfiri terrorist outfit, detonated his explosives among a group of residents sleeping in the open in Tungushe village, which lies six kilometers (nearly four miles) north of the provincial capital of Maiduguri, at about 12:15 a.m. (2315 GMT) on Friday.

Mustapha Muhammad, a civilian militia leader in the area, said the blast was followed by gunfire from Boko Haram militants lurking in the dark.

Tungushe resident Umara Kyari also said the attackers torched eight thatched houses and three vehicles.

The Nigerian government has insisted on several occasions that Boko Haram has technically been rooted out from its bastions in northern Nigeria. However, attacks have continued unabated in crowded places, mostly by female recruits. The attacks have targeted mosques, markets and camps housing displaced people.

On Wednesday, 15 people, including military personnel, were injured when two bombers targeted a market on the edge of a military base in Maiduguri.

On June 16, six young girls killed 43 people in bomb attacks in the town of Damboa.

Since 2009, acts of terror by Boko Haram have left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless. The group pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in 2015.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden,” has used kidnapping as a weapon of war, seizing thousands of women and young girls as well as men and young boys.

The United Nations warned late last year that areas affected by Boko Haram face humanitarian crisis. Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in northeast Nigeria are the three states most affected.

A wealthy man in Nigeria has reportedly buried his deceased father in a brand-new luxurious BMW to fulfill a promise he once made to buy him a car.

Pictures have gone viral on social media showing a group of men burying the deceased person inside of an 88,000-dollar BMW X5 in a deep grave in the remote poor village of Ihiala.

The man, who was identified only as Azubuike, had reportedly promised his father to buy him a car but lost his father before he could do so. He then decided to use the car as his coffin, according to locals.

The move, however, has struck locals as well as social media users with shock and anger, with some people describing it as a waste of money in the severely impoverished country.

“This is the sort of thing that keeps us poor as black people,” said a village resident, while another local described the move as an act of “insanity and selfishness.”

Social media news website Elite Readers even speculated that the images may have been staged. It argued that the “lack of information” around the ceremony suggested that it might have been a hoax.

A similar burial made headlines back in 2015, when a billionaire buried his mother in a brand new Hummer in the Nigerian state of Enugu.

Nigeria, the seventh-most populated country in the world — with a population of approximately 200 million — was declared the world’s poverty capital last year.

Culled from Presstv

The use of political gangs has returned to the spotlight in Nigeria after suspects in a violent armed robbery claimed they had been recruited by the leader of the country’s Senate.

Twenty-two young men were arrested after heists on six banks killed 33 in the town of Offa, in the central state of Kwara, on April 5.

On Sunday, the police summoned Bukola Saraki, a former Kwara state governor and now head of the upper chamber of parliament, for questioning.

Five of those held “admitted and confessed” they were “political thugs… sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles” by Saraki and his successor as governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, according to a police statement.

The gang allegedly operated for Saraki as political enforcers under the name Youth Liberation Movement or “Good Boys” but used the weapons and vehicles to carry out the heists, it said.

Saraki has rejected the allegation as “baseless” and claimed he was being set up.

Political enforcers – free-wheeling gangs providing security for their boss at public meetings or to intimidate opponents or more – have a long and sinister history in Nigeria.

But the latest incident has fuelled warnings the phenomenon could increase in the run-up to elections in February next year.

“Even in the 1960s during the First Republic, we had ‘Operation Wetie’ in western Nigeria, where politicians used thugs to burn houses and kill their opponents,” said Don Okereke, a security expert.

Since then, ethnic militia emerged such as the Oodua People’s Congress in the southwest, the Bakassi Boys in the southeast and the Niger Delta Vigilante Service in the south.

Northern equivalents sponsored to do the bidding of political godfathers include Sara-Suka, Yan Daba and Kauraye operating in Gombe, Kano and Katsina states.

Power struggle

Okereke blamed the practice on a loss of values in society and widespread economic hardship as well as desperation on the part of politicians to acquire and cling to power.

“Our youths have lost their moral values for good behaviour. It’s also a question of poverty and unemployment,” he told AFP.

“The youths have become willing tools in the hands of desperate politicians who capitalise on their poor condition to achieve their political ambition.”

Public affairs commentator Chris Ngwodo agreed: “Political thuggery is deeply entrenched in our politics because of the high stakes involved in the struggle for power.

“These thugs foment trouble, create tension and unleash violence on behalf of their patrons who are usually the big men, the senior government officials and politicians in society.”

Over time they can move from threats, intimidation and ballot stuffing into organised crime – or worse.

“That explains why there is a direct link between political thuggery, violence and organised crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism (gang membership) and assassinations,” said Ngwodo.

Former members of the ECOMOG gang recruited by the ex-Borno state governor Ali Modu Sheriff then dumped when he left office have allegedly gone on to join Boko Haram.

The hardline Islamists, who funded their activities in their early days through bank robberies and extortion, have killed at least 20,000 people in northeast Nigeria since 2009.

Boko Haram has been repeatedly accused of having political sponsors, although no link has ever been established.

‘Unwholesome practice’

Lagos police recently warned parents about their children being recruited as political touts, given the risks of them falling into other criminal activities, including kidnapping.

Buhari is hoping to secure a second, four-year term of office at elections in February next year against a backdrop of worsening security from ethnic and religious tensions.

Eradicating the practice may not be easy given Nigeria’s system of patronage politics and the lure of ready cash and status to legions of disaffected and jobless young men.

“The trend will continue as long as there are willing boys to do the bidding of politicians who have the resources to adequately reward them,” said Ngwodo.

“As we move towards the 2019 election, we are going to see more manifestation of this unwholesome practice.”

One way out is to make public office less attractive to reduce access to slush funds that could be deployed to hire thugs to serve selfish political interests, he argued.

(AFP)

The conviction of former governor Jolly Nyame has boosted hopes of change in Nigeria which has battled against corruption for a long time.

Nigerian lawyers and activists on Thursday welcomed the jailing of a former state governor for corruption, hoping it will set a precedent for a string of other high-profile suspects.

Jolly Nyame was sentenced to 14 years’ jail on Wednesday for looting millions of dollars as governor of northeastern Taraba state between 1999 and 2007.

The judge at the court in Abuja condemned his crimes, which included inflated contracts for office equipment and stationery, “outright theft”. Nyame, a church pastor, was one of more than a dozen governors who left office in 2007.

They were questioned at the end of their tenures by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Theirs and dozens of other high-profile graft cases, some dating back to the early 2000s, are still before the courts, having been delayed by repeated adjournments.

‘Conviction will boost anti-corruption efforts’

But EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren said Nyame’s conviction would boost anti-corruption efforts and potentially help to speed up pending cases.

“There are a number of former governors still being prosecuted by the EFCC for corruption,” he told AFP. “Some of the cases have progressed substantially.’‘

“With the diligence of the EFCC in prosecuting these cases, hopefully the nation will witness more conviction of former political office holders.”

The Buhari factor?

President Muhammadu Buhari, a no-nonsense former military ruler, has vowed to recover what he said were “mind-boggling” sums of public money looted by officials over decades.

The Nigerian statesman is the African Union’s anti-corruption champion, with the continental body having chosen to dedicate this year 2018 to the fight against the vice.

The EFCC, the country’s main anti-corruption agency, has been at the forefront of efforts to stamp out the practice, and has brought dozens of high-profile individuals to court.

But with many of them members of the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party, Buhari has been accused of conducting a political witchhunt.

The conviction of Nyame whose prosecution began before Buhari took office, and the renewed spotlight on the other outstanding cases from more than a decade ago indicate that corruption is not just a recent phenomenon.

Two years ago, Buhari’s government claimed just 55 people stole more than $6 billion between 2006 and 2013.

Nigeria’s highest-ranking judge, Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, has instructed courts to devote more time to hearing corruption cases across the country.

AFP

In July 2011, the Nigerian government unveiled plans to make telecommunications companies dedicate toll-free phone lines so civilians could report Boko Haram activity. Months later, insurgent spokesman Abu Qaqa threatened to attack service providers and Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) offices.

“We have realized that the mobile phone operators and the NCC have been assisting security agencies in tracking and arresting our members by bugging their lines and enabling the security agents to locate the position of our members,” Qaqa announced, according to a 2013 article by Freedom Onuoha on the E-International Relations website.

Eight months later, Boko Haram made good on Qaqa’s threat. The militant group launched a two-day attack on telecommunications towers belonging to several providers in five cities: Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Maiduguri and Potiskum. Qaqa announced that Boko Haram launched the tower attacks “as a result of the assistance they offer security agents.” Of the 530 telecommunications base stations damaged in Nigeria in 2012, Boko Haram was responsible for 150.

The attack on telecommunications providers illustrates an important aspect of Boko Haram messaging. The group often has used its public messaging as a harbinger of things to come. Although it might sound foolish to telegraph likely attack targets, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) researcher Omar S. Mahmood told Africa Defense Forum the gambit could help Boko Haram achieve two important goals. First, it can help gain a concession through intimidation, such as the release of detainees.

“The other is I think it’s a pretty powerful message if Boko Haram comes out and says, ‘I’m going to attack X because of this,’ and then they go out and they do it,” Mahmood said. “It just serves to make their next warning even more intimidating and effective.”

MESSAGES PORTEND ATTACKS

Mahmood, in his March 2017 paper for the ISS titled “More than propaganda: A review of Boko Haram’s public messages,” showed that a significant number of Boko Haram messages between 2010 and 2016 issued warnings and threatened violence. In fact, warnings and threats constitute the second-most-common theme of the group’s messaging out of the 145 messages studied.

“Given the proliferation of warnings in Boko Haram messaging, especially during [leader Abubakar] Shekau’s extended rants in which he accuses essentially all opposed to him, it can be difficult to discern between a legitimate threat and bluster,” Mahmood wrote. “But a careful reading of the situation may determine what Boko Haram’s next target could be, which is more likely to result in action when linked to a specific and articulated grievance.”

Boko Haram demonstrated this tendency further in its threat against schools. In January 2012, Shekau complained publicly about alleged mistreatment of Islamic schools and students, and he threatened to launch attacks.

Again, Boko Haram followed through. From January to early March 2012, militants destroyed at least a dozen schools in the Maiduguri region of Borno State. About February 20, 2012, the first three schools were set ablaze. Six days later, Boko Haram said the attacks were in retaliation for state raids on Islamic schools, according to Human Rights Watch. From February 26 to 29, militants burned at least four schools, and on March 1 torched another five.

Ties between messaging and attacks also can be seen in Boko Haram’s assault on Nigerian media and the nation’s oil industry. As Qaqa complained that the media misrepresented Boko Haram, insurgents bombed This Day newspaper offices in Abuja and Kaduna in April 2012. Boko Haram’s anger at This Day stemmed from a 10-year-old column on the Miss World pageant published in the paper, which some Muslims found to be blasphemous. Peaceful protests already had taken place in the runup to the pageant, but the column sparked violent clashes between Christians and Muslims that resulted in about 250 deaths, according to Human Rights Watch.

The 2002 pageant, originally scheduled to be held in Nigeria, eventually was moved to London, but Boko Haram’s anger culminated in the attack years later.

A month after the This Day attack, Boko Haram issued an 18-minute video that sorted Nigerian media into three groups based on its perception of their transgressions. This Day stood alone in the first tier because of the Miss World incident and other perceived offenses. The second tier included several newspapers and a radio station. These outlets would be attacked soon, the narrator stated. The third category included media organizations that faced attack if they were not careful, listing more newspapers, an international radio service and a website.

In June 2014, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb outside a Lagos oil refinery. Mahmood wrote that the decision to attack the refinery so far from Boko Haram’s home base likely was an assault on government wealth sources rather than evidence of a grievance with the oil industry. Similar attacks did not follow, and oil interest messaging rarely has been repeated. “Rather than emerging out of nowhere, the assault was foreshadowed in Boko Haram messages in February, March and May that year [2014], indicating its commitment and ability to follow through even on pledges considered to be unrealistic at the time,” Mahmood wrote.

HOSTAGES AND PRISONERS

Boko Haram’s highest-profile action is the kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in 2014. On April 14, militants attacked a boarding school in Chibok, Borno State, in the middle of the night. Insurgents raided dormitories, loaded girls into trucks and drove away. Some girls jumped into bushes as trucks rushed away, leaving 219 children held captive. The atrocity drew worldwide condemnation and parallels a long-standing grievance of Boko Haram: the desire for the release of incarcerated members.

Negotiations and conditions comprise the third- most-frequent theme appearing in messages Mahmood studied. “Specifically, the demand for all incarcerated Boko Haram members to be set free has been a recurrent refrain in messaging,” he wrote.

In the rampup to the Chibok abductions, Shekau referenced the wives and children of insurgent detainees no less than seven times in 2012 and 2013, and accused federal officials of kidnapping insurgents’ family members. In 2012, spokesman Qaqa stated: “We would soon start kidnapping the wives and children of all the people that have had hands in the arrest of our wives and children.”

In October 2016, after months of negotiations, Boko Haram released 21 of the Chibok girls in exchange for a monetary ransom, Daily Trust reported. In May 2017, insurgents swapped another 82 of the girls for five militant leaders.

EXPANDING VIOLENCE, JOINING ISIS

Boko Haram grew as a local insurgency from 2009 to 2012. In 2013, a willingness to expand into regional operations emerged with the kidnapping of a French family in Cameroon, the insurgent group’s first foray across the border of Nigeria’s neighbor. The kidnapping, the group said, was a response to the arrest of Boko Haram members in Cameroon. From there, operations increased in Cameroon in 2014, and by early 2015, Shekau was openly taunting the presidents of Chad and Niger as well.

“This coincided with the first violent Boko Haram operations in both countries in February 2015, again demonstrating the close convergence between messaging and group action, and confirming the extension of its struggle to the Lake Chad region,” Mahmood wrote.

It was about this time that the insurgent group pledged its allegiance to ISIS. A new Arabic-language Twitter account claiming to be the official outlet for a new Boko Haram media group launched, called Al-Urwah al-Wuthqa, the BBC reported.

The ISIS alignment was the beginning of big changes in messaging for Boko Haram. Until then, messaging was closely associated with what the group was going through or accomplishing. Ernest Ogbozor, a Nigerian doctoral student at George Mason University in the United States, said his research points to three distinct phases of Boko Haram messaging, culminating with the ISIS alignment.

The first phase, roughly from 2009 to 2012, focused on grievances, recruitment and revenge. In 2009, Nigerian forces killed founder Mohammed Yusuf, destroyed mosques and disrupted a micro-credit lending scheme. “Now the group was left with nothing,” Ogbozor said, adding that messaging sought to parlay these grievances into popular support.

Boko Haram’s most powerful period was from 2013 to 2015, when it was capturing and holding territory, and dealing setbacks to military forces. Messages at this time focused on praise for territorial and military achievements.

By late 2015 and through 2017, Nigerian and regional military assaults began to take their toll on Boko Haram. “So instead of praising itself, the message changed to seeking relevance,” Ogbozor said. “This is when Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State.”

GROUP, MESSAGING SPLIT

In August 2016, Boko Haram split into two factions: One is led by pugnacious spokesman Shekau; the other by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, ISIS’ choice for leader. Although Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015, the group soon grew tired of his management of the war against regional forces and his propensity for targeting civilians, Mahmood said. The al-Barnawi faction broke off, and with this change came differences in messaging.

Shekau had been featured prominently in Boko Haram messages. Soon after pledging allegiance to ISIS, that ended. Al-Barnawi’s faction started releasing themed batches of photos through social media that highlight nonmilitary aspects of the group’s struggle, such as governance, justice and services that Boko Haram can provide as part of ISIS.

The split also has left al-Barnawi’s ISIS-aligned faction the clear winner in terms of potential longevity and lethality, Mahmood said. Shekau’s wing is just trying to survive, but it still uses ISIS logos in messages.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION

Mahmood said more research is needed to see how Boko Haram messaging resonates with local populations. It’s possible, he said, that Boko Haram messaging might not be particularly effective locally. If so, then countermessaging efforts may not work either. However, he writes: “Boko Haram messaging provides a window into a group that otherwise remains largely enigmatic and obscure. … Messaging can thus expose important insights beyond simply serving as a propaganda tool, and thus should be closely monitored.” He suggests that observers:
Continue researching the effects of Boko Haram messaging on local populations, focusing on recruitment. Doing so will lead to more effective programs to reduce this influence.
Analyze Boko Haram messages to see changes in group divisions or the identification of new targets.
Continue frustrating Boko Haram messaging by detaining media operatives or removing social medial posts. Such tactics can reduce messaging or discontinue certain practices, such as social media use.
Reduce penalties and stigmatization for those who watch Boko Haram messages to keep from enhancing its appeal. Long-winded rants may actually present the group as negative and volatile.
Balance factual press coverage of Boko Haram messages with the need to limit its outreach. Careful reporting guidelines can keep the media from becoming a propaganda tool.

“The messaging says a lot about their strategy,” Mahmood said. “It goes hand in hand, so it’s important to really look at these aspects because they can tell you a lot about the movement.”

Culled from Defenseweb

Fighting between armed bandits and militiamen left 45 dead in northern Nigeria, police and a local militia said Sunday, amid escalating rural violence often involving cattle rustling, robbery and kidnappings.

“The 45 bodies were found scattered in the bush. The bandits pursued residents who mobilised to defend the village after overpowering them,” said a vigilante who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

“The dead included children abandoned by their parents during the attack” in the village of Gwaska, in Kaduna state.

“The attackers were obviously armed bandits from neighbouring Zamfara state who have been terrorising Birnin Gwari area,” he added.

He could not break down the casualties, saying only: “For now all we know is that 12 people were buried yesterday and 33 today.”

The vigilante said the bandits struck at about 2:30 pm (1330 GMT) Saturday and stayed for three hours before retreating to their base in the forest in Zamfara.

“They burnt down many homes,” he said.

The killings follow the death of 13 people in prolonged clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara last week.

The attacks underlined the diversity of Nigeria’s security threats that persist because of an overstretched army and security forces.

Rural communities in Zamfara have been under siege for several years from cattle rustlers and kidnapping gangs, who have raided herding communities, killing, looting and burning homes.

To defend themselves, villages and herdsmen form vigilante groups, but they too are often accused of extra-judicial killings, provoking a bloody cycle of retaliatory attacks.

Adding to the proliferation of violence due to these criminal groups, Nigeria is in the grip of a security crisis as nomadic herders and sedentary farmers fight over land in an increasingly bloody battle for resources.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticised for failing to curb the violence, which is becoming a key election issue ahead of presidential polls in 2019.

The military and police are fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the north, militants and pirates in the oil-rich south, a simmering separatist movement in the east as well as the bloody conflict between herdsmen and farmers spanning the vast central region.

(AFP)

Some 45 people have been killed in an attack by armed bandits on villagers in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna.

Civilian militia members in Kaduna said on Sunday that bandits who attacked Gwaska village a day earlier were from the neighboring Zamfara state.

“The attackers were obviously armed bandits from neighboring Zamfara state who have been terrorizing Birnin Gwari area…,” said a vigilante on condition of anonymity, adding, “The 45 bodies were found scattered in the bush. The bandits pursued residents who mobilized to defend the village after overpowering them.”

The vigilante said those dead in the attack which took place at about 2:30pm (1330 GMT) Saturday included children abandoned by their parents.

“They burnt down many homes,” he said, adding that the bandits returned to their base in the forest in Zamfara after staying in the area for three hours.

Kaduna state police confirmed the attack with Mukhtar Aliyu, a spokesman, saying it was carried out by armed bandits. Two similar attacks killed 25 people last week in northern Nigeria, most of them in clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara.

Nigeria is faced with a diverse range of security threats in its northern regions where police and judicial system have failed to function properly.

Thousands have been killed in attacks by Takfiri terrorist group Boko Haram since the group launched its militancy in 2009. The region has also seen a surge in rural violence which often involves cattle theft, robbery and kidnappings for ransom.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is facing growing criticism over the insecurity in the north and other regions. Many say his administration’s inability to contain the violence might cost him dearly in the upcoming presidential polls in 2018.

Source: Presstv