Tag Archives: Boko Haram

Buhari Visits Cameroon as Boko Haram Attacks Continue

In the past few days alone, Boko Haram activity has killed at least 60 people in Cameroon. The local government in the Far North region, where the attacks took place, has closed some mosques, banned burqas, and forbidden begging as a means to control the violence. The group has also continued to kill people in Nigeria, taking the lives of 29 people in Christian villages in the northeast on July 27.

The attacks come as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari visits Cameroon for the first time since he assumed office. He intends work on a strategy for countering Boko Haram while also strengthening ties between the his country and Cameroon, which borders Nigeria in the east.

Nigeria and Cameroon have had a poor relationship for decades, after conflict arose out of a border dispute in 1993. Cameroonian President Paul Biya did not attend Buhari’s inauguration. Buhari visited Chad and Niger, two other countries involved in the fight against Boko Haram, two months prior to this trip to Cameroon. Cameroon extended an invitation to visit in June when he visited the other two countries and was insulted when he turned it down; a spokesman for Buhari said that he had a prior commitment in Germany.

Nigeria has accused Cameroon of complacency in regards to Boko Haram by allowing the group to use its territory as a safe haven. In return, Cameroon says that Nigeria will not let troops pursue Boko Haram militants across their shared border, but that Niger and Chad are allowed to do so.

However, in a month, another coalition force composed of 8,700 troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria will become active. The force has had difficulty starting its operations due to funding disputes. Additionally, Cameroon announced on July 28 that it would send 2,000 more troops to its northern border with Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.

As the Center for Security Policy has previously stated, “There is a dire need for meaningful progress and cooperation between all countries involved in this coalition against the jihadist militant group.” Boko Haram was forced out of much of its territorial holdings earlier this year, but it has started seizing land again and is capable of killing many more civilians. The countries involved in the fight against the Boko Haram must work together to secure victory. Undermining each other in an attempt to revive old political disputes will only hurt their greater mission and cause further damage to their countries and people.

23 Killed In Cameroon As Boko Haram Continues Jihad Rampage

On Sunday, July 19, Boko Haram, the West Africa Province of the Islamic State, attacked the city of Kamouna in Cameroon and killed 23 residents. Nine of the 23 were students who were burned to death and left in the nearby bush.

At the time of the attack, only seven Cameroonian soldiers were stationed in the city, despite residents’ request of the government that more protection be sent in light of a raid last week of a nearby village suspected to be the work of Boko Haram. Additional protection was denied, and the seven soldiers present were easily overrun by the 80+ jihadists who took part in the assault. According to Nigerian news:

The “UN’s agency for refugees (UNHCR) said in a report that there have been 18 recorded attacks by Boko Haram in northern Cameroon in 2015 alone…”

Nigerian-based Boko Haram has increased attacks on Cameroon after the country joined an anti-Boko Haram coalition that includes Cameroon, Nigeria, and Chad. The US has pledged $5 million to aid the coalition, and France has given military assistance and access to their airbase in the Nigerian capital of N’Djamena.

The coalition has undoubtedly seen success, killing hundreds of Boko Haram militants and forcing many out of the Sambisa Forest in northeastern Nigeria. While this is a good start in the fight against defeating Boko Haram, there is still much work to be done.

If Nigerian President Buhari wishes to fulfill his campaign promise of implementing a significantly stronger force against Boko Haram than former president Goodluck Jonathan, action must be taken sooner than later.

President Buhari began a four-day visit to Washington, DC to meet with President Obama. The two presidents reportedly “discussed Boko Haram and noted the US commitment to working with Nigeria to help counter ‘disruptive terrorist activities’”. There was also talk about the necessity of the Nigerian government “to improve its human rights record.”

As previously discussed on Free Fire, “the Obama Administration’s embrace of Buhari as he undertakes to defeat Boko Haram is hypocritical in its timing, but nonetheless necessary.”

There is a dire need for meaningful progress and cooperation between all countries involved in this coalition against the jihadist militant group. Boko Haram’s Jihad must be halted.

Boko Haram Continues Use Women and Children as Human Bombs as Nigerian President Seeks Aid

On July 17, two suicide bombers killed nine and injured fifteen in Damaturu, Nigeria at the Muslim festival for Eid, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. One bomber was a ten-year-old girl and the other was an elderly woman. The bombs were detonated next to locations where volunteers were checking attendees for explosive devices. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, Boko Haram is suspected to be behind the attack.

On Thursday, there were two explosions in a market in Gombe, Nigeria that killed at least 49 people, in a market filled with people preparing for the Eid al-Fitr festival that commemorates the end of Ramadan. This year’s Ramadan has been particularly violent since Islamic State encouraged its affiliates, including Boko Haram to escalate attacks during this month.

Boko Haram’s increased manipulation of women and children to carry out lethal attacks is directly correlated with the kidnappings of an estimated 2,000 women and girls since the beginning of 2014. According to witnesses and victims, Boko Haram takes abducted children and women directly to training camps and immediately begins to indoctrinate abductees with the group’s Islamist views. A young woman named Aisha, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram in September 2014, explained during her captivity she was trained to shoot guns, how to use bombs and to attack villages.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to visit Washington, DC next week. On Buhari’s itinerary is to discuss, “strengthen[ing] and intensify[ing] bilateral and international cooperation against terrorism in Nigeria and West-Africa,” particularly the fight against Boko Haram. Relations between the United States and Nigeria have been flawed in the past, as the U.S. State Department repeatedly accused the Goodluck Jonathan administration of incompetence and corruption. During his campaign, Buhari ran on the platform of anti-corruption,  however Buhari has first hand knowledge of how truly corrupt Nigerian politics can be.

In the 1990’s Buhari served as the head of the Petroleum Trust Fund under Sani Abacha, who is accused of stealing billions of dollars from Nigeria during his reign of power. As head of the PTF, Buhari lead an organization that acted without government oversight and committed massive fraud. Former associates, including Gilbert Chagoury, Abacha’s corrupt business partner, funded Buhari’s “anti-corruption” campaign.

The Obama Administration’s embrace of Buhari as he undertakes to defeat Boko Haram is hypocritical in its timing, but nonetheless necessary. As previously explained by the Center for Security Policy, Boko Haram, which originated in Nigeria, deeply rooted itself there during a period when the U.S. was hesitating in assisting the Jonathan administration. But Boko Haram cannot be countered elsewhere unless their main operations in Nigeria are cut off.

Boko Haram Intensifies Violence with Highway Raids

Along the Maiduguri –Damaturu highway in Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram militants have been intensifying their presence and attacks. The highway, which links the respective capitals of Borno and Yobe states, has been blocked by Nigerian security officials after a Boko Haram attack left 15 dead. This is the fourth such attack carried out by Boko Haram along the major transportation route in the past week.

On Monday, Aderemi Opadokun, the Borno state police commissioner confirmed a Boko Haram attack in the villages of Kalwa and Gwollam that killed 43 villagers last weekend. The insurgents raided the villages, opened fire on the residents, and slit the throats of villagers who surrendered. The villages are just a few in a  long list of recent targets in the Borno area known as Monguno that have seen daily attacks by Boko Haram militants since they seized Nigerian military barracks in the area on January 28.

As twilight approached Northern Nigeria on Monday, Boko Haram raided the Mainok village, which is just outside Maiduguri. Hundreds of militants reportedly spent hours slaughtering villagers, destroying vehicles and burning homes. This was the third attack in Mainok by Boko Haram, and officials are still trying to locate missing teenagers.

Tuesday evening, Boko Haram carried out three consecutive attacks in Maiduguri, killing 30 people. The militants first set up a barricade on the Maiduguri–Damaturu highway, killing 20 motorists as they travelled on the highway. The militants then returned to the Warsala village, and burned the half of the village that was salvaged when they raided the village last week. At the same time, Boko Haram militants also attacked the village of Damasak. The militants recklessly opened fire on villagers, killing more than a dozen and injuring many others.

This surge in violence along the Maiduguri – Damaturu highway can be associated with an overall surge in Boko Haram attacks over the past few weeks. Boko Haram recently announced they are willing to release the Chibok schoolgirls, who were infamously kidnapped in April 2014, in return for the release of imprisoned Boko Haram leaders. The recent surge of violence since the end of May may be part of Boko Haram’s effort to increase leverage on the Nigerian government to heed their demands.

With that said however, the nature of the recent attacks can be ascribed to Boko Haram shifting its tactics after 10 of their camps were destroyed in the Sambisa Forest by the anti-Boko Haram African coalition. The coalition’s success in the forest forced jihadists to disperse and retreat to their former guerrilla warfare operations. As previously stated by the Center For Security Policy, new challenges for the Nigerian military would arise out of the apparent “victory” in the mountains. Boko Haram was forced to transform their approach, and the Nigerian military is now once again faced with attempting to develop methods of defeating Boko Haram’s ever-changing tactics.

Boko Haram launches new attack in Chad, highlights faults in opposing coalition

Boko Haram furthered its reign of terror in Chad over the weekend when a suicide bomber detonated himself in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital. The blast killed 15 people, and injured over 80 Chadians. Several witnesses say the bomber was clad in a traditional woman’s burqa. Last month, the Chadian government banned the burqa because militants have utilized such articles to conceal weapons including suicide bombs. Following this past weekend’s attack, Chadian police forces have announced they will more heavily enforce the ban.

This attack follows two bombings on June 15th , which killed 38 and injured over 100, the first of its kind following Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau’s open threats against Chad.

Four days before the June 15th attack, leaders form Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon announced a coalition, based out of N’Djamena, in order to fight Boko Haram. The coalition has received assistance from France in the form of military assistance to Cameroon, and air strikes out of France’s airbase in N’Djamena. Furthermore, the US has pledged $5 million in assistance to the African coalition.

The coalition, led by 5,000 Chadian soldiers, has claimed to have killed hundreds of Boko Haram militants. The Nigerians have also claimed responsibility for the success, following the military offensive against Boko Haram.  Although seeing much success in the Sambisa Forest, which housed ten Boko Haram camps, the Chadians have been openly critical of the Nigerian’s unwillingness to fight. The Nigerian military has been struggling to improve its reputation, with newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari claiming that he intends to  rid the military of corruption. On Monday, Buhari relieved various military leaders, including the heads of the army and the navy.

Tens of thousands of Nigerians have sought refuge in Chad, and local government officials in Chad have banned travel through Lake Chad because Boko Haram militants have used that route to enter Chad through Nigeria. The latest deadly attack proves that despite the coalition’s supposed success against Boko Haram, the militants continue to have no intention of surrendering or stopping its terrorist activities in northern Africa. Chad had the right idea in banning the burqa in order to enhance its security measures against Boko Haram’s tactic of utilizing females, or bombers dressed as females to carry out suicide attacks. However, in order for such enhanced measures to be successful, they must be enforced.

Moving forward, the Chadian military must remain the leading force in the coalition against Boko Haram. It is likely Boko Haram will continue to stage attacks in Chad, as the jihadists recognize Chad’s strength and will attempt to deter their involvement in the coalition. With that said however, the African coalition will struggle to effectively defeat Boko Haram if the Nigerian military cannot overcome its past struggles. As shown in attacks in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram, the jihadist militants are still deeply rooted in the nation and cannot be countered elsewhere unless their main operations in Nigeria are cut off.

Boko Haram Willing to Swap Chibok Girls for Imprisoned Leaders

Boko Haram is willing to free the Chibok girls…if Nigeria releases its imprisoned leaders.

The girls were famously kidnapped in April 2014 from a school in the town of Chibok, located in the northern Borno State. They were between 16 and 18 years old, and they were taken while preparing to take final exams at their school. The kidnapping sparked the #bringbackourgirls social media campaign. Dozens were able to escape, but over 200 remain within the folds of the terrorist group. Other women who were captured by Boko Haram and saw the girls have claimed that many were indoctrinated by their captors and now carry out killings on behalf of the group.

In May 2014, Boko Haram released a video featuring its leader Abubakar Shekau holding an assault rifle, officially claiming the organization’s responsibility for the kidnapping, and threatening to sell the girls into slavery. Addressing the Nigerian government, he said, “If you want us to release your girls we kidnapped, those of them that have not accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers. And we treat them well the way the prophet would treat any infidel he seized. They are staying (with us). We will never release them until our brethren are released.”

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan faced fierce criticism for his failure to bring about their rescue last year. At the time, the Nigerian government did not appear to have a cohesive stance on how to best defeat Boko Haram. While Jonathan said that the Nigerian government does not negotiate with terrorists, at least one of his government ministers said that all options were being considered to secure the girls’ freedom. The new prisoner-exchange offer is meant to be similar to the one refused by Jonathan last year, in which Boko Haram would have traded the 219 girls still held by the group for 16 of its jailed members.

The number of Boko Haram suspects being detained by the Nigerian government is unclear, and thousands have died in prisons. Some of the detainees who the terrorist organization is currently trying to free may be among those dead, presenting a potential problem for negotiations.

Fred Eno, who assisted the Jonathan government with Boko Haram negotiations and is now helping the new President Buhari, said that the recent increase in violence perpetrated by the group is normal and expected when it prepares to enter negotiations. It has killed hundreds of people in the past few weeks as it wants to both be seen as a more dangerous threat and make the government more receptive to its demands.

If the Nigerian government agrees to a prisoner exchange, dangerous Boko Haram leaders will be freed at a time when the group is facing significant loss of territory, a move that would motivate its fighters and perhaps put them back on the offensive. However, if the government is able to secure the release of the girls, their freedom would be a huge political victory for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who only recently assumed power on a campaign promise to do a better job dealing with Boko Haram than Jonathan. If Boko Haram does not free them, the government will not be fulfilling its word to the people. Unfortunately, no matter which path the Nigerian government chooses to follow, it can only lose in its current situation.

Boko Haram Returning to Terrorist Tactics after Loss of Territory

This spring, media outlets reported that Boko Haram, the jihadist group terrorizing Nigeria, was being pushed out of the land it held by forces from Chad, Benin, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. At the beginning of 2015, Boko Haram controlled 20 districts in Nigeria that, in total, became a territory the size of Belgium. By mid-March, they controlled three.

Despite this loss of land, the threat posed by Boko Haram remains significant. The group is ideologically driven by a divinely-conceived mandate to bring Islam to the world, so setbacks, such as loss of territory, will not cause the group to disappear completely. Instead, loss of ground simply requires a change in tactics. Rather than acting like a state, which provides services to its people and protects its borders, terrorist organizations without territory use more conventional tactics – bombings, gunmen, assassinations, and kidnappings.

These changes in method are evidenced by a number of recent attacks attributed to Boko Haram in Nigeria and nearby countries. Last week, two explosions in Chad killed 11 people. A few days later, approximately 150 people died in Nigeria when nearly 50 people were killed in a shooting in Monguno and almost 100 were killed in Kukuwa. The group has been trying to smuggle weapons through Chad but Chadian police forces have raided two weapons arsenals in the past eight days, seizing massive amounts of arms and information.

On July 5, a restaurant and a mosque in Jos were both targeted and more than 40 people were killed. Boko Haram is suspected to be behind the attacks. A planted bomb blew up at the Shagalinku restaurant, whereas a gunman and suicide bomber attacked the Yantaya mosque. The mosque’s imam, Sheikh Muhammad Sani Yahya Jingir, was likely the target, as he has a history of criticizing Boko Haram while preaching a doctrine of religious tolerance. In the northeast, militants believed to belong to Boko Haram burned down 32 churches and 300 homes.

This resurgence in violence is likely an effect of the group’s affiliation with the Islamic State (IS). Even as Boko Haram lost militarily early this year, it strategically pledged allegiance to IS in March. This affiliation has helped Boko Haram tremendously, adding to its media presence and recruitment efforts while also giving it millions of dollars every month in increased funding. This support has allowed Boko Haram to increase its use of violent tactics. With less territory to control, it has more money that can be used to fund terrorist attacks.

The return of Boko Haram to conventional terrorist tactics provides a small case study of the effects of pushing a terrorist group out of lands it controls. When a group that was once entrenched in an area is forcibly removed, it does not disappear. Boko Haram will follow in the footsteps of Al Shabaab, which has reemerged and become increasingly violent in Somalia after being pushed out of most of its territory. It is not going away; instead, it is changing its methods, moving from symmetric warfare and fighting on battlefields to asymmetric warfare, bombings, and guerrilla attacks. As the US and its allies move to destroy IS and its affiliates, they must be aware of the fluid nature of these organizations in order to be adequately prepared to fight them.

Boko Haram Violence Surges Despite Major Arrests

On June 28, security forces in Chad arrested Bahna Fanaye (also known as Mahamat Moustapha), one of the leaders of Boko Haram. Fanaye coordinated weapons trafficking for the organization between its members in Nigeria, Chad, and Cameroon. The forces recovered weapons, communications, documents, and 50 SIM cards in Fanaye’s home. In a separate operation, security forces arrested a man described as Boko Haram’s financier. Additionally, 74 suspects have been detained. The arrests were part of a security sweep which took place following a June 15 series of bombings in N’Djamena that killed 27 and injured approximately 100.

On June 29, two explosions in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, killed at least 11 people. Five police officers were among those dead, and others may have been militants who blew themselves up rather than letting themselves be captured.

Boko Haram never officially claimed the attack on June 15 or on June 29, but is suspected of being behind both of them.

The bombings are just the latest in a series of Boko Haram attacks. On July 1, accounts began emerging of a Boko Haram shooting in Monguno, a village in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. The shooting reportedly occurred the previous day. Residents fleeing the militants said that 48 people were killed when Boko Haram arrived, asked all the men to stand in one area, and then opened fire upon them. Last month, 23 people died in an explosion in Monguno during a celebration marking a successful operation against Boko Haram.

Also on July 1, fighters suspected of being members of Boko Haram killed 97 people in the town of Kukuwa, a town near Lake Chad in Borno. The attack occurred in the early evening, and the people killed were praying in mosques.

Despite promises made by the new Nigerian government to immediately crack down on down on Boko Haram, the organization is nowhere near disappearing. Its Shura Council, the decision-making part of the group, is still generally unharmed. It has operations in multiple countries, making it more difficult to dismantle. When it pledged loyalty to the Islamic State, it gained access to foreign trainers, fighters and funding.

Given its high capacity for carrying out rapid-fire attacks, crushing the Boko Haram insurgency becomes both more difficult, and more important. As this terror group continues to kill civilians day after day, public confidence in the government’s ability to combat it will decrease. This may result in Boko Haram finding it easier to expand by retaking territory that it once held but lost.

Is Sudan Permitting Students to Join Islamic State?

12 students, who previously attended the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum, Sudan, have been reported missing since Friday, June 26. These students reportedly left Sudan sometime during the day on Friday in an effort to travel to Syria to join ISIS. The students were able to fly out of Sudan, and were scheduled to travel through Turkey and then head for Syria.

While more foreigners traveling to join the Islamic State’s fight is worrisome and troubling in and of itself, there is another significant component of this incident. This component is the role that Sudanese top officials may have played.

Ali El Sadig, spokesman for the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported that “the travel was an organized event with high officials involved, otherwise it would have been impossible for them to travel without being caught”.

Sadig is father to one of the students who has fled Sudan. After learning of his daughter’s departure, Sadig went to the Khartoum airport in hopes of learning more about how she was let out of Sudan. After speaking with airport personnel and security, Sadig found no trace of his daughter on any airport registration documents. Sadig knew that his daughter did not have an “exit stamp”, which one needs in order to be able to leave Sudan, nor did she have a visa for Turkey. Sadig’s daughter was also not checked by customs and immigration officers before boarding.

The only evidence available that confirmed his daughter’s departure was security footage showing her walk past all airport personnel and right aboard the aircraft, an extremely abnormal situation under the highly autocratic Khartoum government, raising the question of whether top officials may have been involved in altering the normal rules and regulations.

This is not the first time students from Sudan have left to join the IS cause. In March of this year, 9 students who also attended UMST, left Sudan to head for Turkey. Syria and the Islamic State were also their end destinations.

“Neighbors and friends [of the 9]…all seemed to lay at least some of the blame on the Islamic Civilization student organization which brought clerics like Jizouli to deliver sermons calling for jihad,” according to one report.

After speculations about some of the activities and guests the organization was hosting rose, the university “halted the activities of the clerics” and “introduced awareness programs”. The university’s response to the speculations did not include shutting the organization down, however.

The Jizouli mentioned refers to Sheikh Mohammad al-Jizouli, a well known Islamist cleric the university had previously hosted. It’s logical to assume that characters such as Jizouli and other guests may have initiated conversations with students about leaving Sudan and taking up jihad. Al-Jizouli is well known cleric who has openly supported the Islamic State, and called for jihadist attack, including against civilians. Al-Jizouli has  been a mainstay on Sudanese television, which is tightly controlled by the government. While Al-Jizouli has been repeatedly arrested after his vocal statements in support of Islamic State have made international news, he has also been later quietly released by Sudanese security forces. Despite his run-ins with security forces, Al-Jizouli is the president of the El Jereif Mosques, which was reportedly founded by President Omar Bashir himself.

It should come as a surprise to no one that Khartoum, a State Sponsor of Terrorism, known for waging multiple genocides, blocking international relief aid and food to its citizens, and bombing businesses and hospitals within its own borders, would be willing to involve itself in recruiting individuals for the Islamic State. The Sudanese government is also a known supporter of “Arabization and Islamization” of Africa.

Sudan has also reportedly played a role in training and support for Boko Haram, now Islamic State’s West African province, according to Nigeria’s former ambassador to Sudan, and in May of 2014 it was reported that a masked man speaking Arabic with a Sudanese accent could be seen providing instruction for Boko Haram fighters, according to the Nigerian army, which acquired the tape. Nigerian military officials have repeatedly claimed that foreign fighters were participating in assisting the Nigerian jihadist group.

Involvement in recruiting for Islamic State fighting forces is just one more major strike against the Sudanese government. It’s also one more reason that our government should be involved in holding President Bashir accountable for the crimes he and his regime have committed.

The contest for strict enforcement of Shariah in Northern Nigeria

Nine individuals have been sentenced to death in Kano, Nigeria by the Kano State Hisbah Board, a part of the city’s police force. The suspects were accused of claiming Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, the founder of the Tijaniya sect of Islam, was superior in comparison to the Prophet Muhammad. This is the first instance in Nigeria that a death sentence has been ordered in relation to blasphemy, however, in other cases in which a death sentence has been ordered it has never been carried out.

Kano was one of the first Nigerian states to adopt Shariah law into practice in the early 2000’s. When it was first brought into practice, Shariah advocates hoped the new law system would bring peace to Kano, a region that has seen extensive religious unrest in the past. Since the adoption of Shariah law, the police forces of the Kano State Hisbah Board have appeared in various headlines. These instances include arresting street beggars, destroying hundreds of thousands of bottles of alcohol, and overseeing mass weddings.

When Kano was transitioning to a Shariah state, officials assured non-Muslims in the area that Sharia law would not apply to them. Kano’s Shariah status is the epitome of a society that Boko Haram seeks to establish throughout Nigeria and beyond. However, Boko does not approve of those who do not adhere to the Sharia law. In recent years, Boko Haram has carried out various attacks in Nigeria, including a bombing at a mosque that left hundreds dead.

Politics in Northern Nigeria tend to be a question of who can enforce the strictest version of Shariah. This theme was once heavily pushed by Muhammadu Buhari, former governor of North Eastern State, who has since gone through a political makeover to appear much more moderate leading up to the recent presidential election election.