The Boko Haram Thread

NIGERIA'S PRESIDENT: TROOPS LIBERATE TOWN FROM BOKO HARAM

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan says troops have retaken a northeast town and several villages from Boko Haram. There was no way to immediately confirm the claim.

Adamawa state legislator Adamu Kamale had complained Wednesday that he had appealed in vain for troops to fight Islamic extremists rampaging since Jan. 23 through seven villages and Michika town.

Jonathan told an election rally Thursday that "Michika local government was recaptured by our gallant forces today." He pledged to liberate other Adamawa areas under the sway of Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group.

The 5-year Islamic uprising has killed about 10,000 people in the last year and displaced 1 million people.


Source : Sapa-AP /mar
Date : 30 Jan 2015 11:56
 
CHAD AIR FORCE BOMBS BOKO HARAM OUT OF NIGERIAN BORDER TOWN
By Haruna Umar and Lekan Oyekanmi

A Chadian warplane and ground troops drove Boko Haram fighters from a Nigerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists, witnesses said Friday. The African Union moved to send ground forces to Nigeria and the U.S. said it would assist.

Thursday's fighting marked the first such action by foreign troops on Nigerian soil to fight the Islamic extremists.

The African Union chairwoman, at an AU summit in Ethiopia, called for deployment of 7,500 African troops to fight the spreading Islamic uprising by Nigeria's home-grown extremists. A senior U.S. official told reporters that the United States government will take a role in the fight against Boko Haram.

"We are prepared to provide technical support, training and equipment to fight the Boko Haram group. The group's activity in the region has clearly affected our attention in Africa away from development," said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

Abari Modu said he witnessed the Chadian offensive on Malumfatori village in Nigeria's Borno state.

"We saw the fighter jet when it started shelling and bombarding the insurgents who were lodging mostly inside the local government secretariat and the district head's palace," he told The Associated Press.

He said the bodies of many Boko Haram fighters were still in the town Friday morning. Modu spoke by telephone after crossing the border from a Chadian village where he had sought refuge after Boko Haram seized Malumfatori at the end of October.

He said the Chadian jet had pursued fleeing fighters to the border, and that the bombardment was coordinated with Chadian ground troops, offering the fighters no escape.

A Nigerian military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the account. There was no immediate official word from Nigerian authorities about the Chadian offensive.

Boko Haram's five-year Islamic uprising has killed about 10,000 people in the last year and displaced 1 million people.

AU Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma called for the deployment of 7,500 troops to combat Boko Haram. She made the recommendation to the AU Peace and Security Council meeting of African leaders on Wednesday night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The troops would be deployed under the Multination Joint Taskforce and would have a 12-month period of initial operation time. It would also be tasked with searching for, and freeing, all abductees, including the young girls abducted in Chibok in April 2014.

"The countries of the region have each pledged one battalion to be part of the Force," the AU Peace and Security Council statement reads.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a guest at the AU summit, said: "The Boko Haram insurgency poses a clear danger to national, regional and international security. This group continues to kill Christians and Muslims, kidnap women and children, and destroy churches and mosques."

"We will never forget the girls kidnapped from Chibok last April, and I will never stop calling for their immediate and unconditional release," he said.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigerian troops on Thursday recaptured several villages and the town of Michika in northeast Adamawa state. There was no way to immediately confirm the claim of a rare victory for the demoralized and ill-equipped Nigerian soldiers.

Jonathan, who is running in Feb. 14 elections, told a campaign rally Thursday in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, that "Michika local government was recaptured by our gallant forces today."

He added, "We will soon recover all our territories ... All of us here feel burdened, I feel so burdened about the excesses of Boko Haram."

Adamawa state legislator Adamu Kamale complained Wednesday that he had appealed in vain for troops to fight insurgents rampaging since Jan. 23 through seven villages and Michika town. He said the extremists slit people's throats, abducted dozens of people and burned and looted mosques, homes and businesses. He charged there was no response from the Nigerian military.

---

Oyekanmi reported from Yola, Nigeria. Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.


Source : Sapa-AP /gf
Date : 30 Jan 2015 14:36
 
UN URGES STEPPED UP REGIONAL OPERATIONS AGAINST BOKO HARAM

The U.N. Security Council is urging immediate stepped up regional military coordination and operations to more effectively combat the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria and neighboring countries.

The council reiterated its "deep concern" in a statement Tuesday that Boko Haram is "undermining the peace and stability of the West and Central African region." Council members condemned the escalating attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria and against Chadian army soldiers deployed to fight the terrorist group in Cameroon.

The council singled out the Islamic extremist group's recent attacks on Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria, in Borno State and in the Lake Chad Basin region including against the Chadian army.

The council commended the Chadian army's swift assistance in the fight against Boko Haram in Cameroon.


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 04 Feb 2015 01:54
 
NIGERIAN, CHAD JETS BOMB BOKO HARAM IN NORTHEAST OFFENSIVE
By HARUNA UMAR and MICHELLE FAUL

Nigerian and Chadian jets are bombing Boko Haram out of a slew of northeastern Nigerian towns and villages, witnesses and officials said Wednesday of the first major offensive against the Islamic extremists whose insurgency was spreading across borders.

The successful operations come as African Union officials meet in Cameroon to finalize a mandate for a 7,500-strong multinational force to confront the extremists who in recent months have seized more than 130 towns and villages across three of Nigeria's northeastern states bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Boko Haram has held many of the towns for months, some since August.

Nigerian jets started bombing Monday in the Sambisa Forest, where the extremists have camps and first took nearly 300 kidnapped schoolgirls last April, witnesses said.

"At night we hear distant sounds of explosions," Bulama Danbayo said by telephone from Madagali town in Adamawa state. "We were all terrified but some of the soldiers stationed here told us not to be worried, that it was soldiers that commenced bombardment of Sambisa Forest."

Chad's army said in a statement that its troops were attacked Tuesday in Cameroon by Boko Haram. "Our valiant forces responded vigorously, a chase was immediately instituted all the way to their base at Gamboru and Ngala (in Nigeria), where they were completely wiped out."

More than 200 extremists were killed for the loss of nine Chadian troops, it said.

Nigeria's spokesman on the insurgency, Mike Omeri, said the twin towns were recaptured but gave no credit to Chadian forces.

In a statement Tuesday, Omeri said Nigerian forces this week have "liberated from Boko Haram presence" more than a dozen northeastern towns.

The Defense Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said the presence of foreign troops on Nigerian soil in no way compromises the sovereignty of the West African nation. Nigerian forces have been unable to curb the uprising without foreign help. Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation of some 170 million people as well as the continent's biggest economy and biggest oil producer.

---

Faul reported from Dakar, Senegal.


Source : Sapa-AP /gf
Date : 04 Feb 2015 13:35
 
BOKO HARAM MASSACRES DOZENS OF CAMEROONIAN VILLAGERS

The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has killed dozens of people during an attack on a village in Cameroon near the Nigerian border, Cameroonian defence authorities say.

Cameroonian defense spokesman Didier Badjeck says it is not yet possible to determine the total number of victims.

There are possibly up to 100 dead, a local soldier says, in a phone interview with dpa.

The attack on Fotokol follows after an offensive Tuesday by the Chadian Army, in which some 200 Boko Haram militants were reportedly killed.


Source : Sapa-dpa /ks
Date : 04 Feb 2015 23:38
 
BOKO HARAM LAUNCHES FIRST ATTACK ON CHADIAN VILLAGE
By DANY PADIRE and KRISTA LARSON
Associated Press

Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a village on the shore of Lake Chad early Friday, marking the first such violence against the neighbor contributing the most military might to the regional fight against the Nigeria-based terror group.

The assault took place in the village of Ngouboua, according to army Col. Azem Bermandoa. It was not immediately known how many civilians were killed during the attack, he said.

"The assailants have scattered and the army is now pursuing them," Bermandoa told The Associated Press by telephone.

Boko Haram has expanded its attacks against neighboring countries over the past week following threats to punish any nations contributing to the fight against the terror group. Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin all have pledged to send military support though Chadian soldiers are already fighting Boko Haram militants inside Cameroon and Nigeria. The multinational force to fight Boko Haram is expected to be formally launched in the coming weeks.

Ngouboua is already home to nearly 3,300 refugees who had fled the Boko Haram-related violence back home in Nigeria, according to the United Nations.


Source : Sapa-AP /mjs
Date : 13 Feb 2015 13:38
 
FEMALE SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 16 IN NORTHEAST NIGERIA
By HARUNA UMAR
Associated Press

A teenage female suicide bomber blew herself up at crowded bus station in northeast Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 16 and wounding 30 others.

Most of the victims were children who had either been selling peanuts or begging for money at the time of the explosion, said witnesses.

The girl managed to get through the security check at the entrance to the bus station in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and detonated herself at 1 p.m. local time.

"It was an eyesore looking at the scene which is littered with chopped flesh and battered bodies of victims," said Hassan Umar. "About 16 bodies were evacuated from the scene while over 30 persons were injured. Most casualties were children hawking sachets of water and peanuts. Some were begging for alms."

?The suicide bomber was a teenager, said Umar who saw her remains.

"The girl that carried out the suicide should be around 16 years old, because her face was a bit matured," said Hassan.

At least eight of the bodies were taken to the mortuary at Damaturu Specialists Hospital, said who spoke to The Associated Press on phone. The worker insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing but it fits the pattern of violence by Boko Haram, Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremist group that caused an estimated 10,000 deaths last year.

This is the first suicide bombing in Damaturu?, the capital of the Yobe state. The city of about 90,000 people in northeastern Nigeria has suffered several attacks by Boko Haram in past three years.

On Dec. 1 Boko Haram attempted to seize Damuturu, but was repelled after a heated battle with soldiers that resulted in the death of many civilians, soldiers and the insurgents.


Source : Sapa-AP /gm
Date : 15 Feb 2015 17:18
 
BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS BLAMED FOR CAMEROON MILITARY BASE ATTACK

The Cameroonian military says one of its bases on the border with Nigeria has been attacked by suspected Boko Haram extremists, leaving at least five soldiers dead.

Col. Joseph Nouma told The Associated Press on Tuesday that eight other wounded soldiers had been brought to the capital for medical treatment following the attack Monday on the base in Waza.

The renewed violence comes as heads of states from Central African countries were ending a meeting in the Cameroonian capital about a joint military response to the growing regional threat posed by the Nigeria-based Islamic jihadist group.

Nouma said that two machine guns and an armored vehicle had been seized from the insurgents but hundreds of the militants escaped to Nigeria after burning homes and looting.


Source : Sapa-AP /mjs
Date : 17 Feb 2015 10:50
 
BOMBS MOUNTED ON TRICYCLE KILL AT LEAST 14 IN NIGERIA

BY LUCKY N****WERE AND NGALA CHIMTOM

Suicide attackers on a tricycle detonated two bombs Tuesday in Biu in north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 14 people, officials and residents said.

The bombers rammed the tricycle into a checkpoint on a road, said Ali Ndume, who represents the area in the Nigerian Senate.

Local resident Baban Biu said the bombers, disguised as traders, were making their way into town when they were stopped by police for a search.

"The place was crowded because of the police searches, and there were many vehicles and hawkers around," the retired civil servant said.

"The bombers pretended to be alighting for a search and detonated their explosives," he said.

The death toll of 14 included the bombers. Several other people were reported to have been injured.

Residents blamed the attack on the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed an estimated 13,000 people since 2009 in its fight to establish an Islamist state.

Most of the deaths have been in northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram captured the town of Askira Uba Tuesday, residents said.

The army did not immediately confirm or deny reports of the capture of the town, which houses a cement factory.

The conquest of Askira Uba would come just 24 hours after the army announced the retaking of Monguno, another major town in Borno state.

"The insurgents took everyone by surprise," journalist Musa Musa said from the state capital, Maiduguri. "They invaded the town ... and in their usual style started shooting and burning houses."

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, meanwhile, quit the ruling People's Democratic Party over President Goodluck Jonathan's handling of the Boko Haram insurgency and corruption scandals.

The departure of the political heavyweight was seen as a major blow to Jonathan six weeks before presidential and parliamentary elections.

In neighbouring Cameroon, where Boko Haram is also staging attacks, the army said it had killed at least 100 fighters from the group in its Far North region.

The army had sent a reconnaissance team to Gnam-Gnam about 4 kilometres from the Nigerian border, said Joseph Nouma, the commander responsible for the operation.

"The soldiers were ambushed" Monday, he said, adding that reinforcements were sent in and the fighting lasted for about two hours.

Nouma said the army killed at least 100 insurgents and lost five of its own soldiers. Eight troops were wounded, he said.

The figures could not be independently verified.

The army had initially said it had killed 18 Boko Haram members.

Cameroon's Defence Ministry said the country's army has killed at least 2,000 Boko Haram fighters since the group started crossing the border from Nigeria to stage attacks two years ago. Hundreds of other Boko Haram members have been jailed.

In Niger, thousands of people demonstrated against the group's attacks in the country, displaying banners reading, "All united against Boko Haram" and "Our army, our pride."

"One cannot attack Niger with impunity," Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said.

A summit of the leaders of 10 Central African states on Monday pledged 87 million dollars for an emergency fund to fight Boko Haram.

"Boko Haram must be wiped out in a way that we can ... concentrate our efforts on the only worthy fight: the fight against poverty," Cameroon President Paul Biya said at the summit in Yaounde.

Boko Haram, which controls towns in north-eastern Nigeria spread over an area the size of Belgium, seeks to establish a state with the strictest application of Islamic law.


Source : Sapa-dpa /dm
Date : 17 Feb 2015 21:31
 
NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT SAYS ARMY KILLS 300 BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS
BY SOJI BAMIDELE AND SAM OLUKOYA, DPA

Nigeria's army killed more than 300 members of Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram and recaptured eleven towns and villages in the country's north-east, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Two soldiers were killed and ten others were injured during a two-day land and air operation, spokesman Chris Olukolade said in a statement..

The military also recovered and destroyed armoured vehicles, an anti-aircraft gun, about 50 cases of bombs, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, six all-terrain vehicles and 300 motorcycles, according to the statement, which could not be independently verified.

The army regained control over the north-eastern towns of Monguno, Gabchari, Abba Jabari, Zuntur, Gajigana, Gajiram, Damakar, Kumaliwa, Bosso Wanti, Jeram and Kabrisungul, said Olukolade.

Boko Haram controls Nigerian towns and villages across an area the size of Belgium.

Also on Wednesday, Boko Haram threatened to launch attacks to disrupt Nigeria's presidential election in late March, saying democracy was un-Islamic.

"Allah will not leave you to proceed with these elections ... Allah says that the authority is only to him, only his rule is the one which applies in this land," group leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video posted on Twitter.

Nigeria postponed its general election by six weeks - to March 28 and April 11 - citing security concerns about the Islamist insurgency in the north of the country.

More than 13,000 people are estimated to have been killed since 2009 by Boko Haram, which seeks to establish an Islamic state.

About 1.5 million people have been displaced within Africa's most populous nation by the conflict, and more than 150,000 people have fled to Niger, Cameroon and Chad.


Source : Sapa-dpa /mr
Date : 18 Feb 2015 15:11
 
NIGERIAN ARMY KILLS 11 SUSPECTED MEMBERS OF BOKO HARAM
BY AKANBI THANI, SAM OLUKOYA AND SINIKKA TARVAINEN

Eleven suspected members of the Islamist group Boko Haram were killed Thursday by the army in Nigeria's western-central Niger state, officials said.

A local resident told dpa large numbers of heavily armed men had entered the town of Aza, beginning on Monday.

"Then there were increased cases of robbery along the road at night," he added.

Israel Ebije, a spokesman for the state governor, said four of the suspects were captured and were being questioned to determine whether they belonged to Boko Haram.

Boko Haram had earlier operated in Niger state, but was thought to have been dislodged from there.

The group, which has killed an estimated 13,000 people since 2009, is active mainly in the north-east.

With neighbouring countries also mobilizing against Boko Haram, some of its members could be moving to new areas, analysts said.

The army meanwhile said it had launched air strikes on Sambisa forest in the north-east, regarded as Boko Haram's main training camp and operational base.

"The death of a large number of terrorists has been recorded, while many others are scampering all over the forest and out of the struck bases," army spokesman Chris Olukolade said.

The army is conducting operations against Boko Haram to step up security ahead of the March 28 elections.


Source : Sapa-dpa /dm
Date : 19 Feb 2015 21:34
 
GIRL SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 5 IN NORTHEASTERN NIGERIAN MARKET
By ADAMU ADAMU
Associated Press

A girl as young as 10 blew herself up in a busy market in northeastern Nigeria, killing herself and four others, and fueling fears Islamic extremists are using kidnapped girls as suicide bombers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack Sunday, which also seriously wounded 46 people, but it bore the hallmarks of Nigeria's homegrown extremist group, Boko Haram.

The girl, who appeared to be no more than 10 years old, got out of a tricycle taxi in front of the busy cell phone market in Potiskum and minutes later her explosives detonated, according to Anazumi Saleh, a survivor of the attack who suffered head injuries.

Authorities were not immediately able to confirm the girl's identity or her precise age from her remains.

In recent months, Boko Haram has begun using teenage girls and young women for suicide bombings in marketplaces, bus stations and other busy areas, but the girl in Sunday's attack appeared far younger. It is not clear whether the girls and women have set off the explosions themselves, or whether the detonations were controlled remotely.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language, attracted international condemnation when its fighters kidnapped 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls from a boarding school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April. Dozens escaped but 219 remain missing. Boko Haram has said the girls have converted to Islam and been married off to extremist fighters.

Boko Haram's violent campaign in Nigeria killed at least 10,000 people last year, according to the Council on Foreign Affairs. At least 1.6 million people have been driven from their homes in the group's brutal five-year uprising to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of 160 million people divided between mainly Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

Potiskum, the capital of Yobe state, has been the target of repeated attacks. In November, a suicide bomber disguised in a school uniform set off explosives hidden in a backpack during an assembly at a high school, killing at least 48 students and wounding 79 others.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram denied a Ministry of Defense statement that Nigeria's military had retaken the border garrison town of Baga.

It has been reported that troops from Nigeria and neighboring Chad were retaking towns and villages held for months by Boko Haram even as the extremists attack other northeastern communities. Scores of civilians have been killed in such attacks in recent days.

"Baga still is under the control of the mujahedeen and any claim by the regime that they took the city is their usual lie," said a brief message posted on the Twitter account of Al-Urwa Al-Wuthqa, a group that releases propaganda for Boko Haram, according to the SITE intelligence monitoring service.

The Associated Press was trying to verify the situation in Baga, a town on Lake Chad near the border with Cameroon where the extremists are accused of killing hundreds of people in a January attack after Nigerian troops fled.

The government hopes the military will be able to reclaim enough territory to allow presidential elections March 28, which Boko Haram is threatening to disrupt.

The vote looks to be the most closely contested ever in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer. Boko Haram, which denounces democracy as a corrupt Western concept, has warned it will disrupt the elections by attacking polling stations.

The group has indicated it may soon join up with the Islamic State group, according to a message posted Sunday on Twitter, according to SITE. Boko Haram began emulating the Islamic State group last August, declaring it had established an Islamic caliphate in territory it controls in northeastern Nigeria.

"We give you glad tidings that the group's Shurah Council is at the stage of consulting and studying, and we will let you know soon the group's decision in respect to pledging allegiance to the caliph of the Muslims, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," the group said in the message, referring to the Islamic State leader.

---

Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.


Source : Sapa-AP /avb
Date : 24 Feb 2015 01:50
 
NIGERIA STRUGGLING WITH BOKO HARAM CRISIS

Low morale, lack of resources, and information leaks are hampering the Nigerian military in tackling the terror group Boko Haram, an international law expert said on Tuesday.

"It's an enforcement problem that has its roots in the armed forces itself," University of Johannesburg Professor Hennie Strydom told reporters ahead of a conference on Boko Haram and international law.

Boko Haram made headlines last year when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in April. The girls have never been found, despite claims by the government that they would be returned.

Strydom pointed out that in light of the country's inability to deal with the crisis, the African Union had waited too long to intervene in the conflict.

"The right to intervene is given by law to the African Union, but it has never been used," Strydom said.

As the regional organisation, the AU had neglected its obligation to attend to the issue.

"The regional organisation waits too long and at the time when they suddenly wake up it's become a major disaster.

"Thirteen thousand lives have been lost and one million people have been displaced."

Because Nigeria was a signatory to the Rome Statute, there could be possible implications for the country in the International Criminal Court for the failure to deal with Boko Haram and for allowing gross human rights violations to continue.

Dr John-Mark Iyi, a Nigerian researcher and post-doctoral fellow at UJ, said Boko Haram appealed to people's ethnic affiliations to recruit followers.

This made it easy for them to recruit not only in northern Nigeria, but also in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

Strydom said there was no visibility or information that Boko Haram had infiltrated South Africa at this stage.

The two-day conference starts on Wednesday with host speakers and military officials from Nigeria and other African countries, and France and Poland.

It would cover issues surrounding where Boko Haram received its weapons and financial assistance, the United Nations response to the crisis, the internal capacity of Nigeria to deal with the problem, and the role of neighbouring states.


Source : Sapa /gf/ks/jje/jk
Date : 24 Feb 2015 12:35
 
CAMEROON'S DESPERATE FIGHT AGAINST BOKO HARAM
BY NGALA KILLIAN CHIMTOM AND KRISTIN PALITZA, DPA

Hundreds of troops are trying protect Cameroon from cross-border attacks by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram. But a long and porous border with Nigeria is making the task almost impossible.

A Cameroonian soldier stands behind a chest-high wall of sandbags, his machine gun pointing in the direction of Nigeria.

He's concentrating hard, his trigger finger at the ready.

The soldiers belong to an anti-terrorism unit stationed in Fotokol, a small town in Cameroon's Far North Region that borders Nigeria's Borno State, a stronghold of Islamist militants Boko Haram.

The two countries are only separated by a small bridge - at one end lies Gambaru, a Nigerian town currently under the control of Boko Haram.

"We have to secure this bridge and stop the terrorists from crossing over into Cameroon," says Major Nlate Ebale, who heads the special unit.

To stop Boko Haram from getting into Cameroon, President Paul Biya deployed roughly 2,000 troops and members of special units to the Far North last May.

Boko Haram, with its long-running insurgency in Nigeria, is reportedly trying to establish a base in Cameroon, where the insurgents can store weapons and hide from Nigeria's military. The group's fighters infiltrate into Cameroon to steal supplies, and kidnap children to use as soldiers or sex slaves.

Even with the help of special units trained in counter-terrorism, Cameroon has been struggling to secure its long and porous border with Nigeria, which runs over 2,000 kilometres from Lake Chad, along Nigeria's Borno and Adamawa States - two of the regions worst hit by Boko Haram -all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Earlier this month, Cameroon's military received back-up from about 2,000 Chadian soldiers, after the African Union agreed on January 31 to send 7,500 troops to the region to help Nigeria fight Boko Haram.

Key border points are now protected by tanks as well as a battalion of special air and and reconnaissance troops. Dressed in bullet proof vests and helmets, the soldiers patrol the border or take up positions in trenches, their weapons always at the ready.

But because Cameroon's north is highly populated - almost 6 million of the nation's 21 million people live here - it remains difficult to monitor movement.

"It is not easy fighting these people. We don't sleep at all. You can never tell when they will strike," says Captain Ibrahim Njankouo, assistant commander of Cameroon's Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR).

He points northwards, where a truck with Chadian soldiers crosses the bridge in the direction of Gambaru, to reinforce troops that have been locked in heavy clashes with Boko Haram for days.

When an insurgent tries to cross the river into Fotokol a little later, a Cameroonian sniper opens fire. The Boko Haram fighter keels over, dead.

The soldier says he saw five insurgents coming out of a house carrying weapons, pointing with his binoculars towards a building across the river. When the first man tried to cross the bridge, he shot him.

The Defence Ministry says the army has killed at least 2,000 Boko Haram fighters in the past two years. Hundreds of others have been jailed. The army has lost about 80 soldiers, according to the ministry's spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck.

Boko Haram has in turn killed hundreds of Cameroonians in border towns and villages in the Far North Region, according to Badjeck.

"We register at least one or two Boko Haram attacks in different localities a day," special operations commander Colonel Joseph Nouma tells dpa.

Most villages lie deserted.

Thousands of civilians have moved further south since the insurgents started to launch attacks in the Far North. The few who have remained in Fotokol - mostly the elderly - speak of frightening attacks.

"We were praying in the mosque, and all of a sudden, we heard them shouting Allahu akbar, God is great ... They slaughtered 37 people [in the mosque]," says resident Modou Boukar, recalling a recent attack in Fotokol during which more than 150 local people were killed.

Boko Haram, which seeks to establish a state with its very strict interpretation of Islamic law, has expanded its reign of terror to two of Nigeria's other neighbours this year - Niger and Chad.

More than 13,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the insurgents since 2009. The rebels now control towns in north-eastern Nigeria spread over an area the size of Belgium.

In January, Nigeria postponed its general election by six weeks - to March 28 and April 11 - citing security concerns about the Islamist insurgency.


Source : Sapa-dpa /mjs
Date : 25 Feb 2015 14:18
 
HUNDREDS KILLED AS CHAD FORCES SEIZE NORTHEAST NIGERIAN TOWN
By HARUNA UMAR

Military reports and witnesses say hundreds of people have been killed as troops from Chad seized the Nigerian town of Dikwa from Boko Haram extremists while Nigerian soldiers fought off a separate attack miles outside the biggest city in northeastern Nigeria.

Chad spokesman Col. Azem Bermandoua said Boko Haram left hundreds of people dead in Dikwa on Monday before fleeing Chadian forces. He said one Chadian soldier was killed and 34 were injured.

The United Nations said 16,000 Nigerians fled the fighting into Cameroon.

A Nigerian soldier said Nigerian troops killed 70 Boko Haram fighters to repel an attack Monday on Konduga town. Konduga has been attacked many times because it is 35 kilometers (25 miles) from Maiduguri, the biggest northeastern city and the birthplace of Boko Haram.


Source : Sapa-AP /dm
Date : 03 Mar 2015 15:24
 
BOKO HARAM KILLS RELUCTANT FIGHTERS

Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed 74 men and 20 children for refusing to join the Islamist group, daily Vanguard reported Friday.

The killings occurred in the north-eastern Nigerian village of Njaba.

There was no official confirmation of the attack, but a security source said the witness accounts quoted by the paper were credible.

Boko Haram has killed more than 13,000 people since 2009 in Nigeria.


Source : Sapa-dpa /gq
Date : 06 Mar 2015 09:40
 
RESIDENTS: BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS GATHER IN MASS IN NE NIGERIA
By HARUNA UMAR

Residents and an intelligence officer say Boko Haram fighters are massing at their headquarters in the northeast Nigerian town of Gwoza in preparation for a showdown with multinational forces.

A woman trapped there since Gwoza was seized in July told her daughter that Islamic extremists are urging civilians to leave town to avoid being killed in crossfire in an anticipated major battle.

Hajiya Adama said fighters have released some kidnapped and pregnant young women.

An intelligence officer says Boko Haram is surrounding the town with land mines. He confirmed forces from Chad are in the area, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. Chadian and Nigerian troops in recent weeks have retaken a score of towns held for months by Boko Haram.


Source : Sapa-AP /mr
Date : 06 Mar 2015 15:09
 
CHAD AND NIGER TROOPS LAUNCH OFFENSIVE AGAINST BOKO HARAM IN NIGERIA

Troops from Niger and Chad have begun a military offensive against the Islamist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, witnesses said Monday.

The troops launched the operation from Bosso in the south-east of Niger and from Diffa, the main town in the region. It is the first joint operation by the two countries in Nigeria, though troops from Chad have crossed the border in the past to take on Boko Haram.

Witnesses in Diffa said they saw hundreds of military vehicles cross a bridge into Nigeria and reported gunfire, which subsided into occasional shots during the course of the morning.

At least 2,000 Chadian soldiers were participating in the operation, local journalist Issa Ibrahim estimated. The number of Nigerien troops was not known, but the country's parliament has approved the participation of 750 troops in the fight against Boko Haram.

Nigerian army spokesman Chris Olukolade said there had been "pre-emptive manoeuvres" with the participation of Nigerian troops, according to the newspaper Premium Times.

The operation came just after Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

The African Union has endorsed the creation of a regional force numbering more than 8,000 troops to combat the group, which has killed more than 13,000 people in Nigeria since 2009 and has also launched cross-border raids into Chad, Cameroon and Niger.


Source : Sapa-dpa /gq
Date : 09 Mar 2015 14:12
 
NIGER'S POLICE SAYS MILITARY KILLS MORE THAN 500 MILITANTS
By DALATOU MAMANE

Niger's police spokesman says that military operations in the country's east have killed at least 500 of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists.

Capt. Adili Toro said Wednesday the provisional count of 513 killed since Feb. 8 does not take into account land and air operations launched Sunday by Niger and Chad's army in Nigeria.

He 24 Niger soldiers have been killed in operations that also wounded 38 soldiers.

Toro said a state of emergency would be extended by three months because more needs to be done.

Recent offensives have marked a sharp escalation by African nations against Boko Haram nearly six years after the group began its insurrection.

Boko Haram began launching attacks across the border into Cameroon earlier this year, and then struck in Niger and Chad.


Source : Sapa-AP /gf
Date : 11 Mar 2015 16:22
 
NIGERIAN, CAMEROON TROOPS OUST BOKO HARAM FROM TOWN, VILLAGE
By MICHELLE FAUL
Associated Press

Nigerian troops have ousted Boko Haram from a northeastern town while Cameroon soldiers killed several of the extremists in an attack on a Nigerian village, military officials reported Monday of the latest successes in a multinational bid to curb the Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria.

"FLASH: Nigerian troops have this afternoon routed terrorists from Bama ... Mopping up operation is ongoing," the Nigerian Defense Headquarters announced on Twitter referring to a town held by the insurgents for more than six months.

An earlier tweet Monday said they had "completed clearing terrorists out of Goniri" in neighboring Yobe state.

By last week, the regional offensive that began at the end of January had liberated 36 towns, Mike Omeri, the Nigerian government spokesman on the insurgency, said Wednesday.

Cameroon Col. Jacob Kodji said forces from his country attacked Boko Haram militants from Borno state's Ndaba village on Thursday and Friday, killing several of the extremists and destroying some of their vehicles and ammunition.

The Cameroonians acted after Ndaba residents reported that Boko Haram militants were massing in the hills around the village, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Cameroon, Kodji said.

The militants were believed to have been fleeing from Nigerian air raids on Bama, he said.

Boko Haram seized Bama in September and in December published a video showing gunmen mowing down civilians lying face down in what looks like a school dorm there. A leader says they are being killed because they are "infidels" or non-believers.

There are so many corpses in the video that the gunmen have difficulty stepping to reach bodies still twitching with life.

Boko Haram this month joined the Islamic State group in the Middle East, which last week urged fighters to go to its "West Africa Province." This has increased fears about the internationalization of a conflict that for nearly six years has been largely limited to northeast Nigeria.

Some 10,000 people were killed in Nigeria' Islamic uprising last year, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Boko Haram was little known outside the region until its abduction last April of more than 200 schoolgirls who remain missing.

---

Associated Press writer Edwin Kindzeka Moki contributed to this report from Yaounde, Cameroon.


Source : Sapa-AP /gm
Date : 17 Mar 2015 02:08
 
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