Cameroon: Boko Haram abducts wife of President Paul Biya's security icon

Sunday 27 July was a prodigious day in Cameroon after Boko Haram’s unprecedented and deadly attack upon the homes of two key Cameroonian politicians in the country’s Far-North Region. 

Besides partially exposing the country’s security weakness, the attack was also a pertinent reminder to the authorities in Yaoundé that Boko Haram is becoming increasingly ambitious, organised, and deadly. Ultimately, the attack that left 18 dead and saw a further 17 kidnapped, including the wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister, was an ominous warning to President Paul Biya’s government that it is in a battle against a tenacious enemy that is willing and able to use alternative tactics to strike Cameroon’s most senior politicians.

The attack took place in Kolofata, in the Far-North Region of Cameroon, home to the country’s Vice Prime Minister, Amadou Ali, and a prominent Muslim leader and critic of Boko Haram, Seini Boukar Lamine, who is also the town’s mayor. Eyewitnesses stated that the attackers arrived in a convoy of eight 4x4 pickups vehicles and several motorbikes. The militants precisely targeted the two politicians’ residences, firing a rocket-propelled grenade into Amadou Ali’s home before leaving with his wife as their prisoner. 

The attacks came on the fifth day of a running gun battle between Boko Haram and Cameroon soldiers in the north of the country. Cameroon has deployed more than a thousand soldiers along its border to help combat the Nigerian armed group, which last week launched a massive assault on the north-east Nigerian town of Damboa near the Cameroonian border, displacing more than 15,000 people. The group gained international notoriety after kidnapping more than 270 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria in April, but has been active in the country for more than 12 years.

There were very specific reasons for the attack and the kidnapping in Cameroon. For further detailed analysis on why Boko Haram targeted Amadou Ali - and on his pivotal role in Cameroon’s current and future political and security hierarchy – see Cameroon Politics & Security – 30.07.14  

Nigeria: Rivers State's Governor Rotimi Amaechi faces impeachment threat after Adamawa State debacle

The 14 July impeachment and removal from office of Adamawa State’s governor Murtala Nyako, who is a prominent member of the opposition All Progressives’ Congress (APC), has descended into a debacle as credible reports suggest that he has fled to Europe via Ghana.

Although one of his assistants insists he is not running from the law - in this case the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a possible case for treason in relation to his statements on Boko Haram, - the EFCC's media and publicity head, Wilson Uwujaren, stated that in order to locate the elusive Nyako the commission is planning to declare him wanted.

These developments have fuelled suspicions that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) may next target Rivers State’s governor Rotimi Amaechi. The governor, who last year defected to the APC from the PDP, was detained while en route to campaign for Kayode Fayemi in the Ekiti State gubernatorial election in June.

The Rivers State APC chapter has released a statement lauding Amaechi’s qualifications while suggesting that he is among four additional APC governors “pencilled down by the Presidency” for impeachment, along with those from Borno, Edo and Nasarawa States. APC activists proclaim that they will not allow such “evil machinations” to succeed.

Amaechi issued a statement through his chief of staff, Chief Tony Okocha, that any impeachment plot against him would fail because all 25 former PDP Rivers State assembly members defected to the APC and just six remain loyal to the PDP.

In Adamawa State, the State House of Assembly, which stayed loyal to the PDP, was able to obtain the two-thirds majority in favour of for Nyako’s impeachment. A similar challenge against impeachment was issued in Edo State by Governor Adams Oshiomole who is another APC supporter.

For more detailed expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Nigeria moving closer to locating kidnapped schoolgirls.

The Nigerian authorities claim that they are "moving closer" to locating the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, as other kidnapped women and children escape from Boko Haram.

Last week, Sid Djinnit, the regional UN representative in Dakar, told the Security Council that escalating violence against civilians is both harming Nigeria and affecting regional security, and that there have been around 18 attacks attributed to Boko Haram in the preceding two weeks. Despite this, the government continues to claim progress against the insurgents.

The military claims, for example, that it is moving closer to rescuing the Chibok schoolgirls after a wave of recent arrests that were reported to the recent National Council of State meeting in Abuja. One military spokesman claimed at the weekend that over 50 Boko Haram members were killed by its forces at its Damboa military base in Bornu State which was actually attacked by the insurgents.

In addition, there have been reports that some women and children who were kidnapped last month have escaped. Some are being treated at an Adamawa State hospital while others escaped from Boko Haram while the latter’s forces were attacking the Damboa military base.

Boko Haram leaders and their claimed associates continue to suggest negotiations over the kidnapped girls. A Boko Haram spiritual teacher said earlier this week that the Chibok girls who were kidnapped in April are in good health, even voluntarily converting to Islam: he called for Boko Haram prisoners to be released as part of negotiations.

The US' FBI claims that proceeds from Niger Delta kidnappings may have been used to fund Boko Haram's activities and have reached the group via several intermediaries. A private intelligence company, Modern Security Consulting Group, cites evidence from Nigerian insiders that Boko Haram may provide support for kidnappings, perhaps assisting pirates in moving money or acquiring weapons.

This raises the prospect of security worsening in the Niger Delta ahead of the February 2015 elections, where there is likely to be a fierce electoral contest between the ruling PDP and opposition All Progressives' Congress.

Oil industry executives are often the target of Niger Delta kidnappings but earlier this week, Golden Chioma - a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly who chairs the Rivers State House Committee on Judiciary - was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified gunmen.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria or East Africa, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

More than 150 Syrian students kidnapped by ISIS

The Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) has allegedly abducted between 153 and 186 boys aged 13-16 in the Aleppo region of northern Syria. Although largely unreported by conventional media outlets, bar brief reports in The Guardian and VICE News, it appears that ISIS has perhaps been influenced by Boko Haram’s April kidnapping of more than 300 schoolgirls from Chibok in north-east Nigeria.

Reports have recently surfaced that on 29 May 2014 a convoy of ten minibuses successfully completed the perilous 110 km journey from Ain al-`Arab (Kobani in Kurdish), on the Turkish border, to Aleppo to sit their end-of-year-exams as required by Syria’s educational system. The returning convoy was intercepted and redirected to an ISIS-controlled Islamic school in Minbej, just 66 km from Kobani, where the vast majority of the boys have remained. The primary source of what has been reported is Mustafa Hussan, one of five boys who managed to escape four days after the initial abduction. 

Hussan reports that, although the food was good, many boys were beaten by their international ISIS captors: ‘I saw a lot of Russians, Chechens, Libyans, some Saudi Arabians and Syrians too.’ Forced to undergo lessons in Islamic Shar’ia ideology and training in jihad, the boys were threatened with beheading if they attempted to escape. In spite of this, Hussan and four fellow students managed to escape via a roof under the pretence of raising a flag while their classmates distracted their religious teacher. Hassan stated that once they had escaped they were aided in their journey home by sympathetic locals.

Since their escape, unconfirmed rumours have surfaced that a further 15 students were traded for three ISIS combatants being held by Kurdish forces. What is certain, however, is that the longer the situation remains, the more difficult it will be to extract the students. Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has pledged its support to Kobani but the situation is complicated by the fact that ISIS has been carrying out deadly attacks on the city and surrounding villages since 2 July with weapons captured in Mosul. One attack, at Sheyoh, saw the execution of 24 Kurds, including two children.

Within the majority Kurdish city there is little faith that anyone outside of Kobani will help. According to a 2013 estimate by the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), over 85% of the total population of 44, 821 is Kurdish, with small Arab (5%), Turkomen ( 5%) and Armenian (1%) minorities.  The city itself is accustomed to both violence and its status as a minority stronghold. Founded in 1915 by Armenians fleeing genocide in Anatolia, who mostly emigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1960s, part of the city fell foul of the demarcation of the Syrian and Turkish border and has been assimilated into the Turkish city of Suruç. 

The vast majority of Kurds, following the principal of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”, supported Syria’s minority Shi’a Alawite regime, believing that if the country were governed by the majority Sunni populace the Kurds would themselves be further ostracised and persecuted. In addition to what is taking place in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which is proving a stumbling block to ISIS’ unrealistic attempts to form an Islamic Caliphate stretching from the Gulf to the Atlantic, the Syrian Kurdish allegiance to the regime has seen them become a target for sustained siege and, now, kidnapping and executions.

While the precise facts of what has happened remain unverified, what has crystallised is ISIS’ willingness to kidnap and enlist children in armed conflict, considered war crimes under International Humanitarian Law, to achieve its aims.

For more news and expert analysis about Iraq, please see Iraq Focus.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Abuja shopping centre hit

An explosion hit a busy shopping centre in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on 25 June, and casualties are reported. The explosion hit the Wuse district, shattering windows and causing people to flee the shops with blood on their clothes. It is not yet clear what was behind the attack.

Although most of its targets have been in the northeast, Boko Haram has hit Abuja several times before, including an attack on the UN national headquarters in 2011. In April, more than 70 people were killed in a bomb blast at a bus stop on the outskirts of the capital in an attack claimed by the extremist group. In May, a car bomb near a bus station in the suburbs killed at least 19 people and injured 60 others.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria or East Africa, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

US human rights report criticises both Boko Haram and Nigerian military

Neither the Boko Haram insurgency nor the government itself escaped lightly in the new Country Report on Human Rights practices for 2013 just published by the United States State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. 

Boko Haram - "which conducted killings, bombings, abduction and rape of women, and other attacks throughout the country, resulting in numerous deaths, injuries, and widespread destruction of property" - came in for first criticism. But the report gave over plenty of column inches for the security services, "which perpetrated extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, beatings, arbitrary detention, mistreatment of detainees, and destruction of property." 

President Goodluck Jonathan's pardon of former Bayelsa State governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was convicted of money laundering in 2007, did not escape the attention of the report's authors. Indeed, the report was harshly critical of the small number of prosecutions against police abuse and official corruption. "Impunity remained widespread at all levels of government." The report also condemned the practice of "parading" arrestees: "Bystanders often hurled taunts, food, and other objects. Police defended this practice with the argument that public humiliation helped deter crime." 

It is a common practice. In the past week, reports appeared in the media of the parading of 13 suspected members of the "Supreme Eiye Confraternity", arrested in Lagos. In Cross Rivers State the commander of the NNS Victory arrested and paraded a dozen people who were allegedly transporting contraband worth millions of naira. While the arrests might win plaudits for the authorities, it looks like a clear violation of due process for the arrested persons whose names and photos appear in the media before they have come to trial. 

On a more positive note, the State Department researchers found that there were few reports of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) being used to harass political opponents of the ruling party. "Existing allegations tended to rise and fall with election cycles," the report dryly noted, leaving open the possibility that new accusations will appear as the 2015 elections approach. 

Other events were too recent to appear in the report. It said that "on 17 December a harmonized version of the 'Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill' passed the Senate." That bill, signed into law by President Jonathan in January 2014, triggered fresh round-ups of gays and lesbians and provoked international condemnation. It will be sure to feature more prominently in the 2014 report.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Cameroon: Security tightened amid rising insecurity on borders

Cameroon has, amid rising insecurity and tension around its borders, continued to deploy advanced security equipment to key areas. The latest is the dispatch of modern anti-crime vehicles and equipment to the Far-North Region where elements from Nigeria's Boko Haram militant Islamist sect have been infiltrating the country after clashing with the Nigerian army. The equipment was presented to the Far-North Governor Augustin Fonka Awah on 26 August.

The 17 vehicles, including heavy trucks and four-wheel drive cars, were handed to the region's paramilitary gendarmerie commander. Observers believe that following the apparent military successes against Boko Haram, its militants have been crossing over into Cameroon, now seen as their safe haven, just as is the case of those who were chased out of Mali and are believed to have joined Boko Haram in Nigeria and Cameroon or to have moved over to Niger.

 

Cameroon officials have reported repeated cross-border crime, and have arrested some individuals within its territory earlier this year that were suspected of belonging to Boko Haram. The Far-North gendarmerie commander Francis Tang Tang assured Governor Awah Fonka that, with the new equipment, the fight against crime and cross-border insecurity was guaranteed.

 

Meanwhile last week, Cameroon witnessed an overspill of violence from its eastern neighbour the Central African Republic (CAR) which forced the government to close its borders. According to the East Region's Governor Dioudonne Samuel Ihava Diboua, three soldiers belonging to the Seleka rebel movement crossed over into Cameroon territory on 19 August and killed a Cameroonian frontier policeman in the border town of Tocktoyo after having got seriously drunk on Cameroonian territory.

 

He said that the Seleka rebels, like other needy Central Africans, routinely cross over into Cameroon to get supplies. But those who killed the police official were uncontrollable at a time when the CAR's ruling junta is trying to disarm suspected supporters of ousted president Francois Bozize, who is suspected to be rallying forces to retake power. Bozize, who recently left for France, had fled into Cameroon where about 200 of his military supporters have been individually identified.

 

Cameroon had tightened security along its borders with the Central African Republic but, given the limited number of troops that it has at its disposal to secure the frontiers, as well as corruption and other problems, it might seem difficult for it to truly ensure its own security in a country that is also facing the added security requirements of its own forthcoming elections.

 

For more news and expert analysis about Cameroon, please see Cameroon Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

More than 50 dead in Boko Haram raid

 

According to a number of sources, 55 people have been killed in Bama, in the north eastern Nigerian state of Borno, in a co-ordinated attack by Boko Haram militants. It is understood that 200 heavily armed members of the Islamist group arrived in the town in the early hours of Tuesday morning and attacked a police station, military barracks and government buildings before freeing 105 inmates. Among the dead are police officers, prison wardens, soldiers, a small number of civilians and 13 members of Boko Haram.

The attack represents the rebels' single most deadly strike since the uprising began in 2009 and possibly the most significant since the Kano bombings in early 2012. It follows a government raid in Baga last month, also in the state of Borno, targeting rebels who had earlier attacked a military patrol. Over 200 people were allegedly killed and thousands of buildings destroyed in what was described by some observers as the government's use of “excessive force”. Similar operations by the authorities in late 2012 were thought to have diminished the threat posed by Boko Haram, who killed an estimated 1,000 people last year.

President Goodluck Jonathan has established a committee to lay out the terms of an amnesty for the group, but so far their leader, Abubakar Shekau, has declined to enter negotiations. Boko Haram wishes to establish an Islamic, Shari'a state in Nigeria, a country roughly divided equally between Christians and Muslims, and has previously carried out several prison breaks to free it members.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Nigeria: Army kills top Boko Haram commander

 

The Nigerian military has announced that it has killed a top Boko Haram commander in a gunfight in Maiduguri. According to spokesman Sagir Musa, a militant leader by the name of Ibn Saleh Ibrahim was killed alongside several other fighters in a military operation involving helicopters and armoured personnel carriers on 16 November. There were no military casualties.

Ibrahim was reportedly responsible for the assassination of Gen. Mamman Shuwa, a hero of the civil war who was gunned down at his house in Maiduguri on 2 November (Nigeria P&S – 09.11.12). The military operation against Ibrahim's Boko Haram fighters was reportedly continuing.

Meanwhile, the US government has expressed its concern over the alleged detentions, mistreatment and killings of Boko Haram suspects by the security forces. A senior State Department official expressed concern over the allegations, contained in a major Human Rights Watch report in October, in a meeting with Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru.

Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Michael Posner, said that terrorism was a serious and complex challenge but that the struggle against Boko Haram could not be won by force alone.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Five killed by gunmen in Plateau state

According to Nigerian officials, five people have been killed and 10 injured in two unconnected attacks. Unidentified gunmen shot dead five villagers in an overnight attack on Rim, situated 50km south of Jos in Plateau state.

Nine people were injured in the city of Jos, following a blast outside a venue where football fans had been watching the Chelsea-Barcelona match. One other person was also injured in the attack on Rim.

Over the last couple of months, Jos has seen a number of inter-communal conflicts and Islamist militant attacks carried out by Boko Haram. These most recent explosions in Jos were recorded in the northern suburb of Tudun Wada, a predominantly Christian residential area.

Speaking to the BBC, a local police spokesman Samuel Dabai said the authorities are still investigating the cause of the blast, which injured nine. The explosions occurred when scores of people were leaving a TV viewing centre at the end of the Champions League semi-final.

Plateau state is situated between Nigeria's mainly Muslim north and Christian and animist south. The conflict between the two communities is on-going and violence is a common occurrence, especially in Jos.

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, AFP

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Nigeria: 'State of Osun' governor denies Islamist allegations

Governor of Osun State Rauf Aregbesola of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has refuted allegations that he is trying to turn Osun State into an Islamic State and secede from Nigeria. The governor refuted the allegations in a state-wide broadcast, saying that the allegations were engineered by the opposition in the State and aimed at distracting his administration from fulfilling its mandate. Aregbesola also attributed the claims to a national security agency which was under a “misguided and overzealous leadership” and which “had mixed up allegiance to the constitution, the Nigerian people and their welfare with partisan interest”.

On 14 April, a national daily had published a report credited to the State Security Service (SSS) that the agency had placed Aregbesola under close surveillance owing to his activities with an Islamic organisation called Jama'atu Ta'awunil Muslimeen Society of Nigeria (TAWUN). Aregbesola is said to have taken control of the group, which is reported to have invaded some schools in the State and is enforcing the wearing of the hijab by female students. The SSS report likened the emergence of TAWUN to Boko Haram. Furthermore, Aregbesola is accused of trying to secede from Nigeria by changing the name of the State from “Osun State” to “The State of Osun”. Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party in the State are said to have written to the Federal Government to stop the remittance of allocations to the State as the Constitution does not recognise The State of Osun but Osun State.

Aregbesola is a devout Muslim and one of the founders of a leading national Islamic organisation, Nasrul Lahi L Fatih Society. The group recently condemned the Easter Sunday bombing in Kaduna State, which had been attributed to Boko Haram. Meanwhile, the leadership of Aregbesola's party, ACN, has raised the alarm that Aregbesola's life is under threat.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Nigeria: Boko Haram bomb-making plant raided

According to Nigerian officials, security forces have raided a suspected bomb making plant, killing at least nine alleged Islamist activists. The operation, undertaken in Okene district of Kogi state, followed information that the facility was being run by the notorious Boko Haram group. Two security officers were killed in crossfire.

The Islamist group Boko Haram has launched a number of deadly attacks across northern Nigeria since 2009. The raid on Sunday 1 April, took place further south in Kogi state, and involved helicopters and dozens of security officers.

A spokesman for the state governor Jacob Edi told AFP news agency that there “were some skirmishes between some hoodlums and the military”. Nigerian security officials said they believed the facility belonged to Boko Haram, and described the nine people killed as "terrorists".

Boko Haram aims to overthrow the national government and install an extreme form of Islamic law. In a bid to achieve this aim, the group has killed hundreds of civilians mainly in northern Nigeria.

Sources: BBC News, AFP, Reuters

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Nigeria: Army in crossfire with Boko Haram, again

Nigeria's army has said that it has killed at least eight Boko Haram militants while fighting in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri. The militants reportedly died in an exchange of gunfire after several explosions at the local market.

The army also said that three civilians were injured in the crossfire, although according to some witnesses as many as 20 corpses were seen at the market.

Over the last couple of months Boko Haram has launched a number of deadly attacks across northern Nigeria, involving both security officials and civilians. Maiduguri residents told the BBC they heard several explosions rip through the Baga market.

Speaking to the BBC, a military spokesman said that soldiers had responded to the explosions and partook in a gun battle with Boko Haram members. The spokesman said eight militants were killed while several others escaped and were being hunted.

Boko Haram wants to overthrow the government and establish Islamic law in Nigeria. Last week, the group said it had carried out an attack on a prison in central Kogi state, releasing seven of its members.

Sources: BBC News, Bloomberg, WSJ

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Nigeria arrests Boko Haram spokesman

Nigerian officials have said they have arrested the spokesman for the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. A police official told Associated Press news agency, the man known as Abul Qaqa, was arrested in the north eastern city of Maiduguri, Borno state.

Officials are still trying to confirm the identity of the man arrested on Wednesday 1st February. An unnamed officer told Reuters news agency: “We are still taking to him. Since 'Abu Qaqa' is a pseudonym for the Boko Haram spokesman, we want to be sure of who we have with us."

It is estimated that more than 150 people were killed by Boko Haram last month, when a number of co-ordinated explosions were set off near security buildings and passport and immigration offices around the northern city of Kano.

The group wants to overthrow the government and install Islamic law around the country. Boko Haram militants have recently attacked police stations and security officials around the country, also bombing churches and killing many civilians in the process. The most recent attack, however, is said to have been the bloodiest.

Sources: AP, BBC News, Reuters

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Nigeria: Christmas Day bomber escapes from custody

Nigerian police officials have said that a key suspect in the Christmas Day bombing that killed at least 38 people has escaped from custody. Kabiru Sokoto, who is allegedly a member of the Islamist sect Boko Haram, was arrested on Saturday 14th January in Abuja. He escaped the following day as police attempted to search his residence outside the capital city.

Authorities say that Sokoto planned the 25th December bombing of St Theresa Catholic church in Madalla. They released a statement, saying the police commissioner responsible for the overseeing of the suspect has been arrested, due to alleged negligence.

The statement went on to say: “The police view this development as a serious negligence on the part of the commissioner of police and have since queried and suspended him from duty."

Sokoto was the only major suspect to be arrested on suspicion of the bombing, and other similar attacks around the country. President Goodluck Jonathan has voiced concerns that some members of the Islamist sect have infiltrated government offices and security agencies.

Some suspect police involvement with the sect, who is reportedly responsible for at least 74 killings this year alone.

Sources: BBC News, AFP, AP

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Video of suspected bomber who attacked Abuja UN headquarters circulating around Nigeria

It has been reported that a video message featuring a suicide bomber who allegedly carried out the attack on UN headquarters last month is circulating within Nigeria. Islamist group Boko Haram claimed the attack, which killed 23 people and injured more than 80 others.

The video obtained by AFP news agency is yet to be verified. It contains 25 minutes of speech by the alleged UN bomber holding an AK-47 automatic rifle, with two other people in the background. It also reportedly shows the alleged bomber pleading with his family to appreciate his actions, meant to teach the US “and other infidels” a lesson.

In the 26th August attack; a suicide bomber drove his car through the Abuja headquarters' security barriers crashing into the reception area before the explosion. The blasts brought down parts of the structure, where about 400 UN staff worked, also shattering the widows of nearby buildings.

A man claiming to be a spokesman for Boko Haram reportedly told AFP the suspected bomber was Mohammed Abul Barra, a 27 year-old married man from Maiduguri. The video also contains a reference to the UN headquarters as a "forum of all the global evil", and praise for former Al-Qa'ida leader Osama Bin Laden.

Boko Haram is fighting for the establishment of Sharia law across Nigeria, it has alleged to have connections with the Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in North Africa and Al-Shabab in Somalia.

Sources: BBC News, AFP, AP

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

Nigeria: SSS reports provisional findings on UN bomb

The State Security Services (SSS) have released a statement on their findings regarding the bombing of the UN office complex in the federal capital Abuja on 26th August.

According to the statement, released by SSS spokesperson Marilyn Ogar, “On 18th of August 2011, precise intelligence was obtained by this Service that some Boko Haram elements were on a mission to attack unspecified targets in Abuja”.

According to the statement, on 21st August at around 1300 hours, a joint operation by all security services had led to the arrest of two Boko Haram leaders now believed to be involved in planning the bombing, namely Babagana Ismail Kwaljima (a.k.a Abu Summaya) and Babagana Mali (a.k.a Bulama). However, their detention was not sufficient to prevent the attack five days later.

According to the SSS, the men are currently being held at a military facility and have made “valuable statements”.

Further investigation by security agents confirmed reports that Al-Qa'ida has made incursions into the Boko Haram sect. According to the SSS, the mastermind of the UN bomb blast is one Mamman Nur, described as “a notorious Boko Haram element with Al-Qa'ida links who recently returned from Somalia”.

Nur, who has been declared 'wanted' is said to have worked in concert with two other suspects in masterminding the bomb blast.

The UN complex, which is located in the high security diplomatic area of Abuja, was bombed at around 10.45 on 26th August by a suspected suicide bomber or bombers, who apparently drove through the exit barriers of the building in an explosives-laden SUV, and into the front office wall of the building, setting off the explosives.

So far, 23 people have been confirmed dead in the blast, 18 of whom died at the scene, with the other five dying in hospital later. Thirty-two victims are still receiving treatment.

The UN has confirmed that ten of the dead were UN staff, and nine of them were Nigerians. The US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been drafted in by the UN to assist and lead the investigations into the bombing. According to UN Under-Secretary for Safety and Security Gregory Starr, the investigation nevertheless remains under the control of the Nigerian government.

For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.

© 2011 Menas Associates

Nigeria's army to investigate human rights abuses

Nigeria's army has been instructed to investigate alleged human rights abuses by soldiers fighting Boko Haram. Nigeria's Defence Minister Bello Mohammed called for an investigation after a woman was shot dead on Wednesday 10th August in clashes between soldiers and suspected members of the Islamist sect.

A number of human rights groups have accused the army of abusing and killing civilians. The violence in and around Maiduguri has intensified in recent months, causing thousands of people to leave their homes.

Mohammed said the army was "doing a very good job" in protecting the people throughout Borno state. He added: “However, a few bad eggs amongst them sometimes overreact to situations and create discontent amongst the civilian population thereby dragging the name of the military to disrepute."

Speaking after a woman was killed during riots in Born State, Mohammed asked the army to "investigate all incidents of military misconduct against law abiding citizens".

Last month, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima admitted that the army had been guilty of excesses in Maiduguri.

Next week a committee is due to report back to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan on the security situation in Borno State and the prospects for opening negotiations with Boko Haram.

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, WSJ, AFP

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

Nigeria: Police chief on the way out?

Nigeria P&S sources have revealed that the present Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force (IGP) Hafiz Ringim may soon be removed from office.

The Federal Government has been under pressure to remove Ringim since Boko Haram's June bomb attack against the Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, which highlighted not only the police's inability to quell the Boko Haram insurgency but also to secure its own premises.

Following the bombing of the police headquarters, it was widely reported that the IGP had earlier met the bomber in his residence and had unwittingly invited him to ride with the IGP's convoy. Although the claim was subsequently disputed by the IGP, it continues to tarnish his reputation.

Additionally, sources report allegations that Ringim cashed in during the April general elections. According to certain detractors, Ringim found the election period was so lucrative that he bought property in the UK, and is alleged to have acquired other assets from illicit dealings during the campaign.

During the elections, opposition parties in states like Bauchi and Kaduna accused security forces of being used as stooges of the ruling party to threaten and intimidate opposition party supporters.

Some observers now view Ringim as the most unpopular IGP ever; his case has not been helped by the deteriorating security situation across the country and the fact that he appears unable to deal with the security crisis in the country.

Ringim was appointed IGP in September 2010, following the retirement of his predecessor, Ogbonnaya Onovo. His appointment had been made in the face of some protest, notably over whether he was the natural successor to Onovo and specifically because he was only an AIG at the time, his elevation catapulting him above the heads of a number of his superiors.

Ringim is expected to be replaced with the present Deputy Inspector General of Operations, head of Department B of the Police Force's management team Audu Abubakar.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2011 Menas Associates

Nigerian government keen to enter negotiations with Boko Haram

Following a number of bombings and attacks across Nigeria, the government says it is keen to begin peace negotiations with Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The government stipulated that it would open talks with the group and report back on progress by 16th August.

There has been no official response to the statement by Boko Harm. The militant group, based in northern Nigeria, is fighting to overthrow the government and turn Nigeria into an Islamic State.

The group, based in Maiduguri, has been responsible for a number of bombings and shooting across Nigeria. The recent resurgence in militant activity comes after a relatively peaceful interval, following a Boko Haram uprising across a number of states in 2009.

In the statement released by the Nigerian government, President Goodluck Janathan appointed seven people, including the ministers of defence and labour, to a negotiation committee. He said the committee's role would be to act "as a liaison between the federal government ... and Boko Haram and to initiate negotiations with the sect".

The statement added that the panel, to be inaugurated on Tuesday 2nd August, would also work with Nigeria's national security adviser to ensure that security forces acted with every "professionalism".

Sources: BBC News, Reuters, AFP

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