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Tag: boko haram

  • ‘We were kidnapped accidentally by Boko Haram in 2014’ – Chibok girls

    ‘We were kidnapped accidentally by Boko Haram in 2014’ – Chibok girls

    The over 200 school girls abducted from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State by the Boko Haram insurgents in 2014 have said their abduction was the accidental outcome of a botched robbery.

    The Chibok girls made the surprise revelation in secret diaries they kept while held prisoner and a copy of which has been exclusively obtained by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

    Recalling the night of their kidnapping in April 2014, Naomi Adamu described in the diaries how Boko Haram had not come to the school in Chibok to abduct the girls, but rather to steal machinery for house building.

    Unable to find what they were looking for, the militants were unsure what to do with the girls.

    “One boy said they should burn us all, and they (some of the other fighters) said, ‘No, let us take them with us to Sambisa (Boko Haram’s remote forest base) … if we take them to Shekau (the group’s leader), he will know what to do,’” Adamu wrote.

    She was one of about 220 girls who were stolen from their school in Chibok one night April 14, 2014 – a raid that sparked an international outcry and a viral campaign on social media with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.

    Championed by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and the U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama – along with a diverse cast of media celebrities – the campaign won international infamy for Boko Haram and helped galvanise the Nigerian government into negotiating for the girls’ release.

    Adamu was among 82 of the Chibok girls released by Boko Haram in May – part of a second wave after 21 of them were freed in October. They are being held in a secret location in Abuja for what the government has called a “restoration process.”

    A few others have escaped or been rescued, but about 113 of the girls are believed to be still held by the militant group.

    The authenticity of the diaries, written by Adamu and her friend, Sarah Samuel, cannot be verified, nor their intended role as the government negotiates with Boko Haram for more releases.

    The diaries shed light not only on the horrors the girls endured under Boko Haram, but their acts of resistance, and their staunch belief that they would one day go home.

    The girls said they started documenting their ordeal a few months after the abduction, when Boko Haram gave them exercise books to use during Koranic lessons.

    To hide the diaries from their captors, the girls would bury the notebooks in the ground, or carry them in their underwear.

    Three of the other Chibok girls also contributed to the undated chronicles, which were written mainly in passable English, with some parts scribbled in less coherent Hausa.

    “We wrote it together. When one person got tired, she would give it to another person to continue,” Adamu, 24, said from the state safe house in the capital, where the girls are being kept for assessment, rehabilitation and debriefing by the government.

    Life in the Sambisa involved regular beatings, Koranic lessons, domestic drudgery and pressure to marry and convert.

    The girls’ spirits remained intact, as they devised amusing and mocking nicknames for the fighters, the diaries show.

    Yet cruelty and brutality were ever present.

    When five girls tried to escape, the militants tied them up, dug a hole in the ground, and turned to one of their classmates.

    The jihadists handed her a blade and issued a chilling ultimatum: ‘cut off the girls’ heads, or lose your own’.

    “We are begging them. We are crying. They said if next we ran away, they are going to cut off our necks,” Adamu wrote.

    On another occasion, the militants gathered those girls who had refused to embrace Islam, brought out jerry cans and threatened to douse them in petrol then burn them alive.

    “They said, ‘You want to die. You don’t want to be Muslim,(so) we are going to burn you,” read the diary entry.

    As fear set in, the militants cracked into laughter – the cans contained nothing but water, the girls wrote.

    One of the most striking excerpts illustrates the pervasive fear spread by Boko Haram in the North-East, where the group has killed 20,000 people and uprooted at least two million in a brutal campaign that shows no signs of ending soon.

    During their captivity in the Sambisa Forest, some of the Chibok girls escaped, and ended up in a nearby shop where they asked the owners for help, as well as food and water.

    “The girls said, ‘We are those that Boko Haram kidnapped from (the school) in Chibok,’” Adamu wrote. “One of the people (in the shop) said: ‘Are these not Shekau’s children?’”

    The shop owners let the girls stay the night.

    But the next day they took them back to Boko Haram’s base, where the girls were whipped and threatened with decapitation.

    Despite being flushed with relief at her own freedom, Adamu worries about her closest friend and co-author, Samuel, who is still with the group, having married one of its militants.

    “She got married because of no food, no water,” Adamu said from the government safe house in Abuja.

    “Not everybody can survive that kind of thing,” she added. “I feel pained … so pained. I’m still thinking about her.”

  • Boko Haram: 16 killed, 82 injured in Borno suicide attack ‎- Police

    The Police in Borno on Wednesday said 16 persons were killed and 82 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a market in Konduga Local Government Area of the state.

    The commissioner, Damian Chukwu, confirmed the attack in a text message sent to journalists on Wednesday in Maiduguri.

    Mr. Chukwu said that the incident occurred at a market at about 5: 30 p.m. when three suicide bombers hit the market.

    He said the suicide bombers, a male and two females, who detonated the explosives at the busy market blew up themselves and killed 16 people.

    Mr. Chukwu said that 82 other persons sustained various degrees of injuries in the attack, adding that the wounded were evacuated to the Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri.

    According to him, the command has deployed a bomb disposal team to sanitise the area.

  • Boko Haram: Army searches UN staff house in Maiduguri

    The Nigerian Army on Friday said it had conducted condone and search operation at a building housing the United Nation (UN) staff in Maiduguri following alert on high profile Boko Haram members.

    Lt. Col. Samuel Kingsley, the spokesperson, 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, said in a statement released in Maiduguri that the army had intensified condone and search operation in Maiduguri and its environs to clear remnants of Boko Haram insurgents.

    “On 10th August 2017, the Theatre Command received information from credible sources that some high profiled Boko Haram insurgents infiltrated into Pompomari-ByePass area of Maiduguri.

    “It, therefore, became expedient to take preemptive action by combing the general area through a cordon and search operations.

    “The operation was successfully conducted as over 30 houses were searched.

    One of such building included a property which was said to be occupied by United Nations Staff, although the property did not carry a UN designation.

    “On the whole, operation in the general area was successfully concluded but no arrest was made because the suspects were not found,” Kingsley said.

    Kingsley noted that troops under the Operation LAFIYA DOLE had been conducting several clearance as well as cordon and search operations in urban and rural areas within the Theatre.

    He said that the clearance operations effort had yielded significant successes in the past weeks.

    According to him, the operation had forced Boko Haram insurgents to change tactics and resort to suicide bombing targeting military locations and the populace.

    Kingsley stressed that the operation was necessitated by the need to intensify Cordon and Search in Maiduguri metropolis and environment.

    He listed other areas affected by the operation as Jiddari –Polo, Muna Garage, Jakana among others.

    “The command wishes to assure the general public that the operations are being conducted to safeguard lives and properties but not targeted at any individual or group.

    “Members of the public are cautioned against peddling rumours which may cause disaffection and to remain law abiding”.

  • Boko Haram launches fresh attack in Adamawa, many feared dead

    Many people were feared dead on Thursday in a fresh attack by Boko Haram Islamists in Ghumbili community in the Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the attack comes a few days after a similar incident in a neighbouring village in the Local Government, known as Mildu, where seven people were killed by the insurgents.

    Confirming the attack, the Chairman of Madagali Local Government Council, Mr Yusuf Muhammed, told newsmen that the attack lasted from 11 p.m. on Wednesday to 3 a.m. on Thursday.

    He said that the jihadists burnt no fewer than 60 houses and looted foodstuff.

    “They looted foodstuff, killed livestock and burnt the village completely,” he stated.

    Muhammed said that the exact number of dead and injured people had yet to be ascertained and that villagers who escaped the attack were currently taking refuge at Gulak, the headquarters of the council.

    But the Spokesman of the Police Command in Adamawa, Mr Othman Abubakar, who also confirmed the attack, said that no life was lost.

    He said, however, that houses were destroyed in the attack–the latest in a string of deadly blows on mainly soft targets in Nigeria’s troubled northeast.

    Speaking on the development, the Executive Chairman of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Haruna Furo, said that only one person was killed and that many houses were destroyed.

    Boko Haram appears to have raised its onslaught in recent weeks in its eight-year bloody insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

     

    NAN

  • Boko Haram: One million houses, 5,000 classrooms, N1.9 trillion properties destroyed in Borno – Official

    The Borno Government on Tuesday said about 1 million houses and public structures were destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents in the 27 local government areas of the state.

    The insurgents also destroyed properties worth over N1.9 trillion in the past six years.

    Yerima Saleh, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Resettlement, disclosed this at a news conference in Maiduguri.

    Saleh also said that the insurgents razed down 986, 453 residential homes; 5, 335 classrooms, 201 health facilities, 1, 630 water facilities and 726 power distribution stations and transformers.

    He added that 800 public structures such as offices, prisons, police posts and other structures were destroyed by the sect members.

    “The quantum of destruction caused by insurgents is monumental resulting in serious humanitarian crisis.

    “The damage calls for serious intervention from government, development and humanitarian organisations.

    “The destruction has rendered 22 out of the 27 local government council areas uninhabitable,” he said

    To mitigate the problem, the permanent secretary said the state government had established the ministry to facilitate rapid rehabilitation and re-settlement of ravaged communities.

    He said that the ministry had so far rebuilt and rehabilitated public and private buildings in 14 councils in the state.

    He disclosed that the state government had so far constructed about 25, 000 houses in the liberated communities.

    Mr. Saleh said that more than 10,000 houses were reconstructed in Bama, while 7,000 others were completed in Gwoza.

    He listed other projects to include classrooms, clinics, police posts, markets, slaughter slabs, roads, palaces, courts and places of worship in the liberated communities.

    “We are going into total reconstruction and rehabilitation in Bama, Dikwa and Ngala.

    “The projects have reached between 50 and 75 per cent completion in the affected areas,” he said.

    Other projects, he said, were ongoing in Mafa, Dikwa, Ngala, Damboa, Chibok, Askira Uba, Mobar, Biu and Hawul local government areas.

    The permanent secretary reiterated the commitment of the state government to provide humanitarian support services to persons displaced by the insurgency.

    “The state government is collaborating with Federal Government and development organisations to address the humanitarian crisis in the state,” he added.

     

  • Boko Haram: Osinbajo launches 5 Super Mushshak aircraft to boost fight against insurgency

    … seeks more foreign support to tackle insurgency

    Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday in Kaduna unveiled five Super Mushshak trainer aircraft acquired by the Federal Government to boost the capacity of Nigeria Air Force personnel in the country.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the five aircraft are among the 10 acquired by the government from Pakistan.

    Osinbajo, who was represented by Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, said Nigeria would welcome more support from friendly nations in its efforts to mow down Boko Haram insurgency.

    “I will not fail to mention that the decision to acquire the Super Mushshak aircraft from Pakistan has greatly promoted the existing bilateral relations between the two sister countries.

    “It is our hope that we will continue to have the support and collaboration of other friendly nations, especially as we continue to combat insurgency and other security challenges in our country.’’

    The Acting President, who also witnessed the graduation of 16 young Student Pilots from 401 Flying Training School, for the first time in 30 years, pledged that the administration would continue to invest in the country’s air arsenal.

    He recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had two years ago pledged to build the capacity of the armed forces to effectively address Boko Haram insurgency and other national security threats.

    “These achievements are a demonstration of the commitment and visionary leadership of the administration,’’ he said.

    Osinbajo stressed that the administration had remained committed to its desire of ensuring a peaceful country.

    “This has been a major security policy thrust of this administration.

    “We have since embarked on qualitative training and acquisition of new platforms and other supporting equipment for the Armed Forces and security agencies.

    “We have also sanitised the procurement process of military hardware with a view to eliminating corruption and inefficiency.

    “I make bold to say that we have achieved remarkable savings and infused quality into the system.

    “This has contributed in no small way to the acquisition of these new aircraft without any encumbrances.

    “It is now your responsibility to make good use of the aircraft as we await the delivery of the last batch by the end of the year.

    “I have no doubt that the acquisition of the Super Mushshak aircraft would add impetus to the training efforts of 401 FTS.’’

    He lauded the achievements and transformations taking place in the military, linking the feat to “focused and visionary leadership.”

    “It is heart-warming to see the Nigerian Air Force striving to meet the nation’s security needs through the sacrifices, dedication of the officers, airmen and airwomen,’’ he added.

    Earlier, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar said the NAF has attained 70 per cent aircraft serviceability as against 30 per cent two years ago.

    He said that the training of several combat pilots and other capacity building initiatives had raised the morale of air personnel and their efficiency.

    “We now have the capability to embark on and sustain major operations simultaneously within and beyond our national boundaries,’’ he said.

  • Boko Haram kill 31 fishermen in Borno

    At least 31 fishermen have been killed by Boko Haram jihadists in two separate attacks on islands in Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, fishermen and vigilantes fighting the Islamists told AFP late Monday.

    Armed jihadists stormed the fishing islands of Duguri and Dabar Wanzam in the freshwater lake Saturday, attacking fishermen working in the area and shooting and hacking their victims.

    “Boko Haram attacked Duguri and Dabar Wanzam islands and killed 31 people,” a member of a local militia fighting the jihadists in Maiduguri, Babakura Kolo told AFP.

    “They (Boko Haram) killed 14 in Duguri and another 17 in Dabar Wanzam,” Kolo said.

    The fishermen had returned to the fishing hub of Baga on the lake’s shores days earlier and had paddled out to the two islands in wooden canoes on Friday, looking for fish, said another militia Musa Ari, who gave similar account.
    News of the attacks was slow to emerge with communication in the area difficult as Boko Haram has destroyed telecom masts in the region in attacks over the last few years.

    The Boko Haram jihadists first attacked Duguri island where they killed 12 fishermen and injured two others who later died, said fisherman Sallau Inuwa.

    “The attackers split into two groups. While the first attacked Duguri the second went to nearby Dabar Wanzam where they laid in wait for those who fled the attack in Duguri. They killed 17 in Dabar Wanzam,” Inuwa told AFP.

    The attackers spared one fisherman in Duguri and loaded the 12 bodies of the men they killed in a canoe and ordered him to take them to Baga as a warning that no one should fish in the lake, said another fisherman Dauda Tukur.
    “They told the man they spared to inform the troops in Baga that they were waiting for them on the islands,” he said.

    The military and Nigerian officials have not yet commented on the attacks.
    The attacks happened a week after military authorities lifted a two-year ban on fishing in the freshwater lake that straddles Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

    Nigerian military banned fishing on the Nigerian side of the lake following accusations that Boko Haram was using proceeds from fishing to fund its armed campaign.

    The ban left thousands of displaced residents impoverished, forcing them to rely on food handouts from government and aid agencies.

    The lifting of the ban drew many fishermen back to the area.

    Although the military reclaimed Baga from Boko Haram in February 2015 allowing some residents to move back, jihadists continued to launch sporadic attacks from their hideouts on several islands dotting the lake, where dense vegetation provides cover against military attacks.

    In November 2014 Boko Haram killed 48 fishermen near Baga who were on their way to neighbouring Chad to buy fish, in one of the deadliest attacks against fishermen by the jihadists in the area.

  • Three suicide bombers killed in Borno foiled attack

    No fewer than three suicide bombers were killed by the military yesterday at Simari area of Maiduguri.

    The incident occurred at Simari, outskirt of Maiduguri at about 10p.m. when a male and two female suicide bombers tried to infiltrate the town.

    The attack came barely 16 hours after dogs foiled attempt by two suicide bombers who tried to hit a hospital at Moloi area of Maiduguri.

    A witness, Amin Audu, said that the insurgents took advantage of the night to gain access into Maiduguri.

    Audu said that the insurgents were intercepted by military personnel deployed to the area.

    He said that the soldiers shot the male suicide bomber, forcing the explosive strapped to his body to detonate.

    “The powerful blast also made the explosives strapped to the other ladies to detonate and killing them instantly,” he said.

    According to him, two members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) also sustained various degrees of injuries from the blast.

  • Boko Haram: DHQ blasts Fayose, dismisses US report on its operations

    Sequel to a report indicting the Nigerian Army of being unable to hold down recaptured territories in the Boko Haram troubled North East, the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, on Thursday dismissed the reports insisting that it captured the situation for 2016 and not as currently obtainable in 2017.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the report, published on July 19, highlights the successes and failings of the Nigerian Army in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists.

    It indicates that the Federal Government’s progress report on the fight against terror is merely a duplication of failed efforts carried over from the end of last year’s fighting season.

    The DHQ further noted that some people, who deliberately misinterpreted the report, wanted to pit the American government against the Nigerian military.

    The Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, said this on Thursday in a release. He said the US report was not for January to July 2017 and hence could not be taken as the current security situation.

    The US Department of State Bureau for Counter-Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism had in the “Country Reports on Terrorism 2016” accused the military of not holding and rebuilding the North-East after clearing the Boko Haram terrorists, adding that security agencies failed to share intelligence reports on the terrorists.

    But Enenche said the work of “holding and rebuilding the North-East” as noted in the US report was not for the military, but for the state governments, paramilitary organisations and other stakeholders.

    He said, “Contrary to the picture given to Nigerians, the report did not cover only Nigeria; it included Niger, Cameroon and Chad. That is, it covered all the countries affected by Boko Haram terrorists’ menace. The report is not being objectively analysed by some mis-informers because of their ulterior motive.

    “The report was for 2016 and not January to July 2017. Hence, attributing the assertion that the military failed to hold and rebuild the North-East to be current is rather wicked and should be disregarded. After the decimation of the terrorists’ strongholds, other security agencies such as the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps have been taking hold of areas cleared by the military.”

    “Furthermore, rebuilding of civilian structures and institutions is not a military task. It is purely the responsibility of government of which a lot is being done. The efforts of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states are evident in this regard. Equally important are the efforts of the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative.”

    Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army on Thursday lashed out at the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, over his comments on corruption in the military and the upsurge of the Boko Haram terrorists, urging the governor to seek other avenues for his relevance.

    The Army’s reaction is contained in its official Twitter handle. It alleged that Fayose, who is the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum, had politicised security issues and military operations.

    Fayose had on Wednesday in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said the United States “Country Report on Terrorism 2016” and the Transparency International report revealed corruption in the military.

    Fayose had noted that it confirmed his earlier position that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government lied to Nigerians that the Boko Haram terrorists had been technically defeated.

    “With over 120 Nigerians killed by the Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State last month alone, it is necessary for the Federal Government to face the reality that it has a very long walk to victory in the fight against the insurgents. The report by the US Government has further lent credence to earlier revelation by the TI that despite President Muhammadu Buhari government’s anti-corruption fight, corruption in the military is weakening Nigeria’s efforts to battle Boko Haram,” Fayose had said.

    But the army replied on its official Twitter handle that the governor was seeking relevance.

    “Governor Ayodele Fayose should stop politicising the military and military operations. Seek other avenues for your relevance. The army today is not corrupt,” the Army tweeted.

  • Suicide bombers, heroic dogs die in foiled Boko Haram attack

    Two dogs on Friday foiled an attempt by two suicide bombers to detonate bombs at the Moloi General Hospital in Maiduguri, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    The foiled attack is the latest in a string of deadly attacks on soft targets by the Boko Haram group in Nigeria’s northeast, the hotbed of the Islamic insurgency.

    The Chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Fatomi Ahmed, confirmed the development in an interview with a NAN correspondent after the attack.

    Ahmed said that the agency had deployed a rescue team to evacuate debris at the scene of the foiled attack.

    The Spokesman of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), Malam Bello Danbatta, who also confirmed the incident, said that the dogs and the bombers died instantly in the attack but that no other life was lost.

    An eye-witness, Mr Rilwan Isah, told NAN that persistent barking by the two dogs prevented the suicide bombers from gaining entry into the hospital premises.

    He explained that the insurgents, a male and female, were attacked by the dogs, forcing them to detonate the explosives strapped to their bodies.

    Isah said that the dogs belonged to members of the CJTF and had been deployed to the area for rescue operations.

    The eye-witness said further that the dogs attacked the suicide bombers when the animals sensed that the two persons were strangers.

    Isah said that the explosion blew the suicide bombers to pieces and killed the dogs.

    “We heard the male suicide bomber shouting in his dialect and the dogs barking and going after them.

    “Only the suicide bombers and the dogs were killed in the attack,” he stressed.

    Insurgents have been packing bloody punches in Maiduguri and other northeast cities in recent weeks, although the military authorities had said that the group had been degraded.

    Thousands of lives have been lost in several communities in northern Nigeria since the insurgency started more than eight years ago. (NAN)