A total of 111 schoolgirls are missing after Boko Haram Takfiri militants attacked Dapchi village in northeast Nigeria, police say.

“Eight hundred and fifteen students returned to the school and were visibly seen, out of 926 in the school,” the police minister of Yobe state, Abdulmaliki Sumonu, told reporters on Wednesday. “The rest are missing. No case of abduction has so far been established.”
Earlier in the day, two sources said that a roll-call at the girls’ school in the village on Tuesday showed that 91 students were absent.

“I saw girls crying and wailing in three Tata vehicles and they were crying for help,” a witness from the nearby village of Gumsa, who was reportedly forced to show the terrorists the way out of the area and then released, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, seven parents said their daughters were among the missing.

“I hope my daughter is not one of those abducted as we learned that over ninety of them were not seen after going through their register book,” one parent said.

The two sources, several parents and other local witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity as Nigerian security and government officials warned them not to disclose the disappearance.

Eyewitnesses said on Monday that a convoy of pickup trucks belonging to Boko Haram descended on Dapchi in the Bursari area of Yobe state around 6 p.m. (1700 GMT). The militants went directly to the Girls Science Secondary School, and began shooting sporadically, forcing students and teachers to flee, according to the witnesses.

Since 2009, the Boko Haram militancy has left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless.

If confirmed, the girls’ disappearance would be one of the largest since the Takfiri terrorist group kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014. The mass kidnapping triggered global condemnation and intense criticism of Nigerian officials in the country as well as an international “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign.

Of the 276 originally abducted students, nearly 60 escaped soon after the incident and others have since been released after mediation. Some 100 are still believed to remain in captivity.

Source: Presstv

Takfiri Boko Haram militants have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria, unsuccessfully attempting to kidnap girls at a boarding school there.

Eyewitnesses said on Monday that a convoy of pickup trucks belonging to Boko Haram militants descended on Dapchi Village in the Bursari area of Yobe State around 6 pm (1700 GMT).

“When they stormed the village, they began shooting and setting off explosives,” said resident Sheriff Aisami. “This drew the attention of the girls in the Girls Science Secondary School, so the girls and the teachers were able to escape before the attackers got into the school.”

Unable to kidnap the girls, the Boko Haram fighters looted the school before fleeing.

It was not clear whether the violence caused any casualties.

“Obviously, the attack was meant to abduct school girls, but luckily they found none of the girls as they were taken away by teachers before they (the militants) arrived,” said a member of a local civilian militia battling the extremists.

Boko Haram notoriously kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in April 2014.

Separately, Nigeria’s Justice Ministry announced on Monday that more than 200 people have been convicted in Nigeria on charges related involvement with Boko Haram.

The convictions of 205 people in mass trials marked the conclusion of the second stage of the country’s biggest legal action against Boko Haram, which began a militancy in 2009 aimed at toppling the government.

“Most of them were convicted for professing to belong to the terrorist group, (or) concealing information about the group which they knew or [were] believe[d] to be of material assistance that could lead to the arrest, prosecution or conviction of Boko Haram members,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

Jail terms ranged from three to 60 years, said the ministry.

It also said a total of 526 people allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram had been released for rehabilitation during the second stage, and said 73 cases had been adjourned.

Since 2009, the Boko Haram militancy has left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former general, came to power in 2015 on a platform of stamping out the Boko Haram militancy. But despite retaking swathes of territory from the group, it continues to stage attacks targeting both civilians and military targets.

Source: Presstv

Some 19 people have been killed and dozens more wounded when three bombers blew themselves up in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, the hardest hit by Daesh-inspired Boko Haram militancy.

Damian Chukwu, police commissioner for Borno State, said on Saturday that the explosions occurred at a fish market about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the center of Maiduguri on Friday evening.

Babakura Kolo and Musa Ari, from the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) assisting Nigeria’s military against Takfiri militants, also said the bombers were all men.

“We have 19 dead and about 70 others injured… Two of the bombers attacked the Tashan Kifi fish market. Then four minutes later, a third bomber struck nearby,” said Kolo.

“The victims included 18 civilians and one soldier. The Tashan Kifi is an informal market which serves as an eatery, market and also hang-out for residents,” the official added.

Kolo further said 22 out of the 70 injured are in critical condition, blaming the attack on the Boko Haram militant group.

“There is no question as to who did it: Boko Haram has targeted Konduga several times,” he said.

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon as well.

Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri group in 2015, has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government.

The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there. The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

Source: Presstv

Nigeria has been trying to contain the insurgency confronting it with all possible means. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has started playing a major role in this mission and has intensified air operations in North Eastern Nigeria.

NAF operations from December 20-22, 2017 neutralized scores of Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) in Tumbun Rago, a settlement in the northern fringes of Borno state, bordering Lake Chad. The operations started with an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission. This was followed by air interdiction to strike the identified targets. Then came Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) missions after the strikes to assess the nature and extent of damage to the targets. Finally, follow on mop up operations by helicopter gunships at multiple locations enhanced the degree of target neutralisation. A similar operation was carried out by NAF in conjunction with the Nigerian Army (NA) on January 3-4, 2018 in Sambisa, Njimia and Camp Zairo. These operations constitute a classical example of air power employment in anti-insurgency operations.

Nigeria is one of the most affluent and powerful West African countries, with the highest GDP in the continent. It shares land boundaries with four countries — Niger, Benin, Chad and Cameroon. The cumulative combat power and national power of these four neighbours is less than that of Nigeria by a large margin. The differential in combat air power between Nigeria and these four countries is even more glaring. Consequently, the prime focus of Nigeria’s creation and employment of air power has been to manage internal conflicts and insurgency, besides ensuring the protection of the coastline and exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The country is nearly square shaped (1100 km long and 1000 km broad). The three military air bases are strategically located and over 30 airstrips evenly spread across the country allow an efficient application of air power.

The only combat aircraft in the NAF inventory at present are 14 Chinese built F7 procured in 2005-08. MiG-21s and Jaguars have been phased out. For counter insurgency (COIN) operations, it has 13 Alpha Jets, 23 L-39 and 12 MB-339 aircraft, besides 11 attack helicopters made up of Mi 24/Mi 35s. The further growth trajectory of Nigerian air power can be assessed by analysing its defence budget and likely procurements. The proposed defence budget for 2018 with an allocation of $1.5 billion has nearly 77 per cent earmarked for salaries and overheads. This limits the funds available for modernisation and up-gradation. Out of this limited modernisation budget, an allocation of $66.32 million is planned for aviation assets, including payment for three light utility helicopters for the army, two helicopters for the air force, one UAV for the navy, and for the maintenance of two Alpha Jet aircraft and one C-130 transport aircraft. Nearly 53 per cent of the money earmarked for aviation assets is for part payment for the acquisition of three JF-17 Thunders from Pakistan.

A significant event took place on December 27, 2017 when the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, presented the Letters of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) in respect of 12 A-29 Super Tucano Aircraft to the NAF. This will no doubt boost the NAF’s airpower potential. The Trump administration’s offer reverses the Obama administration’s decision to block the sale of military hardware to Nigeria. The LOA represents the official US Government offer to sell defence articles and services to the Nigerian Government. It is expected that the LOA would be signed and necessary payments made before February 20, 2018, to ensure the commencement of the production of these aircraft.

The $593 million deal includes aircraft, weapons, training, spare parts, aviation and ground support equipment, hangar, facilities, and infrastructure. These aircraft will augment the NAF effort in operations against the Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa, as well as Nigerian efforts to counter illicit trafficking both within the country and in the Gulf of Guinea. The deal also includes $29 million worth of weapons including 200 GBU-12/58 Pave Way II tail kits, 400 laser guided rockets, 2,000 MK-81 (250lb) bombs, 6,000 unguided rockets, 20,000 rounds of .50 calibre machine gun ammunition, seven AN/AAQ-22F electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor and laser designators. In addition, all aircraft sold will include weapons software to support forward-looking infra-red (FLIR). Nigeria’s defence budget of 2018 will have to provide for this deal at the expense of some other equipment.

This deal, on fructification, will permit sustained and effective round the clock COIN operations by the NAF. The combination of sensors and precision weapons will be difficult for the insurgents to beat. Precision strikes by the proposed low-calibre guided weapons will also reduce the probability of collateral damage. However, the mission can be effective only when it is supported by adequate ISR and suitable communication grids. NAF is presently not very well equipped in this regard. With the available ISR resources, it will not be possible to fully exploit the offensive assets on its inventory. NAF has a large area to cover for surveillance and monitor activities in specific sectors on a round-the-clock basis. The time lag between the initial ISR mission and follow-on mop-up attacks in December 2017 and January 2018 is of the order of 24 hours. With the kind of mobility available to insurgents, this time is adequate to relocate safely, thus staying ahead of the ISR cycle. Operational necessity is to shrink the sensor-to-shooter time.

To upgrade its ISR capabilities, NAF is looking intently at UAVs. These provide an optimal low cost and safe solution for long duration, repetitive missions. A benign air defence environment makes a perfect backdrop for UAV operations. The issue however is of the availability of resources to fund this need. And the answer lies in a re-look of the operational environment and reassessing the combat equipment requirement. One deal that stands out in this regard relates to the JF-17. With practically no conventional threat on its borders, should NAF be equipping itself with the high-cost JF-17s at this juncture? Its existing fleet of F-7s is barely a decade old and adequate, along with ground-based radars, to ensure air superiority in its neighbourhood against known threats for another decade. The financial resources earmarked for the three JF-17s could optimally be utilised to upgrade the surveillance and communication network and reduce the sensor-to-shooter time for COIN operations.

Building up the capability to douse the current insurgency should ideally take precedence over the necessity to tackle a hypothetical conventional threat. Additionally, the procurement of just three JF-17s will not stand professional scrutiny with respect to its maintenance. A fighter platform like the JF-17 will necessitate the setting up of first and second lines of maintenance facilities for unhindered operations. This will tantamount to a sub-optimal utilisation of the investment in the project for just three platforms. In the absence of these facilities, the aircraft will be non-operational for a prolonged duration owing to the scheduled maintenance servicing. Either way, the cost of operation of the three JF-17s will further bloat the already burgeoning revenue expenditure. That will, in fact, prevent further modernisation. [Editor’s note – Nigeria may buy more JF-17s at a later date, and may have only budgeted for an initial three, with more funding possibly allocated later.]

Governments all over the world can allocate only finite resources for their armed forces. It is incumbent on the armed forces to assess the operational environment in a realistic manner and then draw out an appropriate equipment procurement strategy. Assets to tackle the existing security challenges must be provided for and only thereafter capabilities for tackling future threats should be built up. Unless reprioritised, the Nigerian defence budget will come under severe strain in the next three years.

Source: Defenseweb

Twelve people have been killed and 48 others wounded in an attack by suspected Boko Haram bombers on Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Officials from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for Borno said two assailants struck a market in the Muna Garage area in the vicinity of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, on Wednesday afternoon.

Muna Garage, the site of a camp for displaced people, is a frequent target of Boko Haram attacks.

Witnesses reported that parts of the market were still ablaze in the wake of the assault.

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

On January 8, at least 20 loggers were killed near Maiduguri after Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists opened fire on them.

On Monday, a Boko Haram faction released a video purporting to show some of the girls abducted from a school in the town of Chibok in 2014, as well as a downed Nigerian helicopter and a group of policewomen captured last year.

Nigerian Police Force, NPF,  has explained  that leaders of Cameroon’s Separatist Movement who were arrested within Nigeria’s territory flouted the nation’s laws by operating training camps in Nigeria. IGP-Idris Vanguard’s investigation revealed that members of the Cameroon’s Christian Secessionist group, who were agitating an “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB-styled” independent movement were arrested in both Taraba and Cross River states. The two states have boundaries with the Southern parts of Cameroon hence there is easy access to Nigeria.

According to a Police source, “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be habouring separatists from a neighbouring Country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east.

“Moreover, it is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country.”

A security source confirmed to Vanguard that the arrested leaders were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with the Cameroonian authorities. It was gathered that the separatist leaders would be moved to Force headquarters, Abuja, since the issue of training camps across borders have become an international and diplomatic issue. There was also indications that officials of Nigeria’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cameroon’s Embassy in Nigeria were already holding discussions over the arrest.

Source: Vanguard

At least 20 loggers have been killed in northeast Nigeria after Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists opened fire on them in the militants’ latest attack against civilians.

Residents and anti-Boko Haram militia said on Friday that gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a group of loggers while they were collecting firewood at Kaje village, near the capital of Borno State, Maiduguri, on Monday.

“They (Boko Haram) killed 20 people in the attack. Fifteen others are missing and presumed kidnapped by the attackers,” said civilian militia leader Ibrahim Liman.

Details of the attack have been slow to emerge because of limited communications infrastructure after years of fighting in the remote region.

Shuaibu Sidi, a resident of Kaje, confirmed Liman’s account and said his brother was among the victims.

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

Liman said they believe that the perpetrators of the Monday’s attack are “the same gunmen” behind the murder of 25 loggers at Maiwa village, which is three kilometers (nearly two miles) from Kaje, back on December 30.

He noted that the assailants were believed to have come from the terrorist group’s main enclave in the Sambisa Forest area.

Loggers have been increasingly targeted by Boko Haram, which accuses them of spying for the military and the civilian militia, which assists troops with security.

At least 31 loggers have gone missing since January 2 and are believed to have been kidnapped near the town of Gamboru, on the border with Cameroon.

Source: Presstv

Nigeria has started evacuating thousands of its citizens trapped in Libya amid reports of rampant abuses against Europe-bound refugees in the North African state.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told reporters during a visit to Tripoli on Saturday that he expected an estimated 5,500 Nigerian citizens to be repatriated as part of the process, but noted that the situation on the ground made it hard to ascertain the exact number.

“Our president has made available all the resources necessary to repatriate all the Nigerians here,” said Onyeama, adding that two planes had been assigned for the task.

Thousands of Nigerians have been stuck in Libya after failing to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, Nigerians in Libya have conveyed horrific accounts of abuses ranging from imprisonment and torture to slavery and rape.

Citizens of Nigeria make the largest national group among African refugees traveling to Libya in the hope of crossing from there to Italy by sea en the route to other European states.

Around 500 Nigerians were brought in by the government in the first round of the evacuation process over the weekend.

“They talked about various abuses – systematic, endemic, and exploitation of all kinds,” said Onyeama. “There were obviously interests that wanted to keep as many of them there as possible because they were commodities.”

In November 2017, the CNN aired footage, showing live auctions in Libya where black youths were being sold for hundreds of dollars to buyers as farmhands.

The footage drew global outrage, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying the reported auctions of refugees as slaves amount to “crimes against humanity” and calling for an immediate investigation into the matter.

Several protests were also held in European cities to condemn the slave markets, with the participants blaming the European Union’s support for a 2011 NATO military intervention in Libya for the current chaotic situation in the African country.

Libya has faced a power vacuum since the NATO military intervention resulted in the downfall of its longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since then, the country has been grappling with chaos and the emergence of numerous militant groups, including the Takfiri Daesh terror group.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 171,635 asylum seekers entered Europe by sea during 2017.  Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Spain were the main destinations, with nearly 70 percent arriving in Italy.

Source: Presstv

Nigeria’s military has announced in a statement that its soldiers have rescued one of the 270 schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 by Daesh-linked Boko Haram terrorist group from the town of Chibok.

The statement declared on Thursday that Salomi Pagu was discovered by troops deployed in the town of Pulka along with another girl and a small child, noting that the second girl was not among the Chibok pupils abducted by the notorious terror group.

“They…are in the safe custody of troops and receiving medical attention,” said the military statement without elaborating on the circumstance of their rescue.

The mass kidnapping of more than 270 female students triggered global condemnation and intense criticism of Nigerian officials in the country as well as an international “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign.

Of the 276 originally abducted students, nearly 60 escaped soon after the incident. Some 100 are still believed to remain in captivity.

This is while the Takfiri terror group released 82 of the young girls last May following a swap deal involving a ransom payment to the terrorists and the release of a number of the group’s imprisoned senior members. Prior to that, 24 of the kidnapped girls had been freed or found in 2016.

While the mass abduction in Chibok attracted international attention, aid groups insist that Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands more adults and children, whose fate have largely been neglected by local authorities.

The development came amid earlier reports that at least 31 loggers were believed to have been abducted by Boko Haram militants after they went missing in northeast Nigeria.

Security sources were cited as saying on Wednesday that the alleged kidnapping took place just days after 30 troops vanished following a raid on a military base in the same area.

Boko Haram fighters still operate in hard-to-reach rural areas where military operations are minimal.

Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency against the Nigerian government has further spilled into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead and displacing over 2.6 million more.

Most of the displaced rely on food handouts from aid agencies while others have turned to logging in the arid region for firewood which they sell to purchase food.

The Takfiri terrorists have increasingly targeted loggers in their armed campaign, accusing them of spying and relaying information to the military and the local militia battling them.

On Christmas Day, the militants killed 25 loggers at a logging site outside the city of Maiduguri.

Source: Presstv

A leader of the militant group Boko Haram has released a video claiming it carried out a series of attacks in north-east Nigeria over the Christmas period.

Abubakar Shekau, the head of one of Boko Haram’s three factions, declared the group active and operational a day after the Nigerian president said the militants had been defeated.

“We are in good health and nothing has happened to us,” he said in the video released on Tuesday. “Nigerian troops, police and those creating mischief against us can’t do anything against us, and you will gain nothing.

“We carried out the attacks in Maiduguri, in Gamboru, in Damboa. We carried out all these attacks.”

There has been a surge in violence in recent months, with dozens of people killed in suicide bombings and attacks on military bases in the region. Authorities have put this down to desperate insurgents trying to find food, weapons and ammunition.

Three people were reportedly burned to death on Christmas Day in Molai, a village near Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram. On Saturday 25 loggers were killed 13 miles from the state capital.

It is unclear to which Gamboru attack Shekau was referring, but he may have meant an ambush of an aid convoy on the Gamboru road in which four people were killed.

His declaration that the self-styled Islamists are alive and well contradicted the Nigerian president’s new year message which was broadcast the day before.

“We have since beaten Boko Haram,” said Muhammadu Buhari. “Isolated attacks still occur, but even the best-policed countries cannot prevent determined criminals from committing terrible acts of terror.”

In mid-December the government announced it was releasing $1bn from its excess oil account to pay for military equipment and training to fight the insurgency. Later it said not all the money would be spent on fighting Boko Haram alone.

Nigeria has recently announced a plan to combat Boko Haram by making villagers living in insecure areas move to garrison towns – although this was in effect how the military operated for most of 2017.

It is unclear how villagers who have always made their living farming, herding and fishing will be expected to survive when they are living on lands not their own and are not permitted to leave.

It is impossible to build up a clear picture of what exactly is happening in north-east Nigeria and across its borders in Cameroon and Chad.

According to a security tracker set up by the Council on Foreign Relations to monitor deaths reported in the media, more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict since May 2011. There are thought to have been large numbers of unreported deaths in inaccessible regions.

For the past two years, the Nigerian government has insisted it is winning or has won the war. According to the Nigerian army’s latest pronouncement, 700 Boko Haram captives recently escaped to Monguno, one of the local government areas of Borno state, after military operations in the region.

Pouring scorn on declarations of his death or capture, Shekau periodically releases video messages aimed at the government, the Nigerian people or a global audience. In the most notorious of these, he paraded the Chibok girls, a group of 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by his men, and vowed he would “sell them in the market”.

Culled from The Guardian