Nigeria: Report Gives Details, Says Terrorist Groups Gaining Foothold in Nigeria

Lieutenant Abubakar Abdullahi said a patrol "came under attack by gunmen suspected to be members of the outlawed Boko Haram who fired at the patrol team from trees and rooftops of houses along the major street in the neighbourhood."

The troops returned fire and the exchanges "lasted several minutes during which one soldier was shot and seriously injured," Abdullahi told AFP by phone.

The assailants fled, but the army spokesman said several people were arrested in the aftermath of the shooting.

Authorities have blamed a series of recent hit-and-run attacks in northern Nigeria on Boko Haram, whose uprising was crushed in an offensive by Nigerian security forces.

The recent attacks have targeted policemen, local tribal chiefs, clerics and politicians. Security sources said around 50 people have been killed over the past five months.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Nigeria: Borno State Police Claim To Arrest 170 Suspected Islamic Sect Members

AFP20101123598003 Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English 0329 GMT 23 Nov 10

[Unattributed report: "Police Arrest 170 in Sect-Linked Killings"]

No fewer than 170 suspected members of the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, have been arrested by the police, the Borno state command of the Nigerian Police claimed yesterday.

The command had been rocked by hit-and-run killings linked to the Boko Haram members.

"So far, we have made over 170 arrests in connection with recent killings in the city and investigations are ongoing to determine the culpability or otherwise of the suspects," the state police spokeman, Lawan Abdullahi said.

Thirteen arrests were made within a week following last Friday's mosque gun attack that left three people dead and killings of a policeman and that of a brother of a local traditional chief last week.

Early this month, the security forces said they were holding 152 suspected members of the sect.

Recent incidents blamed on the sect have included attacks on police stations, a prison raid in Bauchi and shootings of police officers by motorcycle-riding gunmen.

Much of the violence has occurred in Borno State, whose capital Maiduguri was the centre of last year's uprising. Troops have been deployed in the area in response.

Boko Haram means "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa dialect, though the sect has been known by various names, including the Nigerian Taliban.

[Description of Source: Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English -- Website of the privately owned newspaper close to former Rivers State Governor Peter Odili; URL: http://www.compassnewspaper.com]

Nigeria: Report Says Islamist Sect Floods Troubled Northern City With Posters

AFP20101123683001 Lagos Punch on the Web in English 23 Oct 10

[Unattributed report: "Boko Haram posters flood Borno"]

Boko Haram, the Muslim sect carrying out killings in the northern parts of the country, has issued new threats, this time invoking al-Qaeda's North African branch, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Posters by the Boko Haram sect appeared at key intersections in the city of Maiduguri this week, bearing the name of Imam Abubakar Shekau, the group's de facto leader. The two top corners of the posters bore a symbol of an opened Koran, flanked on each side by Kalashnikov assault rifles and a flag in the middle - mirroring the logo of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The message warned the public against assisting the police or going near soldiers guarding the town at night. The message also acknowledged a recent reward offered for information leading to the arrest of suspected sect members.

"Any Muslim that goes against the establishment of Sharia (law) will be attacked and killed," the message read.

Boko Haram - which means 'Western education is sacrilege' in Hausa - has campaigned for the implementation of strict Sharia law. A dozen states across Nigeria's north already have Sharia law in place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments.

The poster said it was from Shekau on behalf of "The Group of the People of Sunnah, Call and Jihad."

Police officers began removing the signs late on Wednesday.

"These publications and messages on Boko Haram activities are seditious and could jeopardise our investigations into the four-month serial attacks and killings in the state," Borno State police commissioner Mohammed Abubakar said on Thursday.

Authorities did not immediately comment on the use of the logos on the posters. Though the al-Qaeda branch has distributed messages by Boko Haram before, it is unclear whether the two groups have any operational links. The two groups also come from two different ethnic groups in northern Nigeria.

Boko Haram sect members rioted and attacked police stations and private homes in July 2009, sparking a violent police and military crackdown. In total, 700 people died.

The sect largely went underground after the attack, though rumours began to spread two months ago that the group was rearming. Last September, Boko Haram members attacked a federal prison in Bauchi, freeing about 750 inmates - including imprisoned sect followers.

[Description of Source: Lagos Punch on the Web in English -- Website of the privately owned daily: URL: http://www.punchng.com]

Nigeria: Borno State Inhabitants Fear To Inform Police on Islamist Sect

AFP20101129651007 Paris AFP (World Service) in French 29 Nov 10

[Unattributed report: "Nigeria: The Fear of Reprisal Impedes the Polkice Capture of Islamists"]

Kano (Nigeria), 29 Nov (AFP) - The fear of reprisals lived by the inhabitants in the north of Nigeria is impeding the capture of the members of an Islamist sect, accused of being responsible for a series of recent attacks in the north of Nigeria, declared the Nigerian police on 29 November.

The police of the northern state of Borno, whose capital Maiduguri was at the center of deadly uprising of the Islamist sect Boko Haram in 2009 - encouraged, over the last weeks, their inhabitants to provide them with information on the Islamists, but only two persons showed up.

"The situation is not encouraging because the inhabitants do not provide information which could help us to discover the members of the Boko Haram sect and to put an end to the series of insane murders," declared the Borno State superintendent of police, Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar, to AFP

The Boko Haram sect is not only accused of a series of murders targeting police officers and local chiefs, but also of attacks against police stations and a prison. According to security sources, about 50 persons were killed over the last five months, many of them at Maiduguri, the capital of the Borno State.

"We understand that such reticence (of the inhabitants) does not express their support for the group (Boko Haram), but rather a fear of attacks carried out against them if they cooperate with us. Our repeated assurances that their identity would not be divulged have not sufficed," admitted Mr Abubakar.

Men suspected of belonging to the Boko Haram sect circulated tracts in Maiduguri, threatening to kill anyone who provides information on their activities to the police.

The Boko Haram sect revolted in 2009 and fighting with forces of law and order was intensive in Maiduguri, where its headquarters was destroyed, leading to more than 800 dead.

Boko Haram, which means in Hausa "western education is a sin," wants to institute a "pure" Islamic state.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in French -- World news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic Sect Reportedly Threatens to Kill Muslim Clerics

AFP20101202631021 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 1416 GMT 02 Dec 10

KANO, Nigeria, Dec 2, 2010 (AFP) - An Islamist sect behind last year's bloody uprising in northern Nigeria has threatened to kill Muslim clerics it accuses of backing a military crackdown on its members, a religious group said Thursday.

"We are worried by recent death threats on clerics who are members of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria from the Boko Haram sect which we take seriously," SCSN Secretary General Nafiu Baba Ahmed told AFP.

The Kaduna-based SCSN is a pressure group of Muslim clerics and educated elite formed in 2000 in the wake of the reintroduction of the strict Islamic sharia law in around a dozen northern states.

Ahmed said Boko Haram has been circulating audio CDs in the northern city of Kaduna against the clerics, "threatening to kill them and their families" for allegedly supporting the military assault against the sect during its rebellion last year.

"Going by what is happening in Maiduguri, where armed members of Boko Haram go into homes and shoot dead perceived enemies at any time of day, we are really disturbed by this threat which we cannot just dismiss," he said.

Boko Haram sect has been blamed for recent killings targeting police officers, local chiefs, clerics and politicians as well as attacks on police stations and a prison in the region.

Security sources say around 50 people have been killed over the past five months, most of them in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State and the epicentre of last year's uprising that claimed hundreds of lives.

In October a radical Muslim cleric critical of Boko Haram's views was killed in his home along with his students by gunmen suspected to be members of the militant sect.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Suspected Nigerian Islamists Reportedly Engage in Shootout With Soldiers 4 Dec

AFP20101205586017 Paris AFP (World Service) in English 2128 GMT 04 Dec 10

KANO, Nigeria, Dec 4, 2010 (AFP) - Suspected members of an Islamist sect behind an armed uprising last year in northern Nigeria engaged in a shootout with soldiers on Saturday, residents and police said.

Gunfire broke out in an area of the northern city of Maiduguri, the centre of last year's uprising, and was suspected to involve sect members, police said.

Soldiers cordoned off the area, which is near the sect headquarters that now sits in ruins after being destroyed in a police and military assault last year.

Residents reached by phone said they thought the 30-minute shootout was between soldiers and Boko Haram sect members.

"We received reports of a shootout around Kofa Biyu, New Prison and Unguwar Shanu areas of the city, but we don't have details yet," Borno state police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi told AFP by phone from Maiduguri.

One resident said "some members of Boko Haram opened fire on the soldiers patrolling the area who returned fire, and the shootout lasted for about 30 minutes."

It was unclear if there had been any casualties.

Sect members have been blamed for a series of recent attacks, including shootings of police officers and raids on a prison and police stations.

Troops were deployed to Maiduguri after the recent upsurge in violence.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Nigeria: Islamic Sect Kills Ward Head In Bauchi

AFP20101208667001 Kano Albishir in Hausa 27 Oct 10 3

A young man suspected to be a member of the notorious Boko Haram sect last Friday night killed a ward head at Bauchi, Malam Muhammad Tukur. The young man was reported to have gone to the Mallam’s house but was told that the Imam was still at Mosque and so he decided to follow him there. On his arrival at the Mosque he glanced at the Imam and shot him twice through the back and the Imam died instantly.

After pulling the trigger, the young man ran away crying out for help. At the sound of the gun shot people around the area started running for safety and within a short period of time the area was silent. Later, a neighbor to the decease came out in fear and called the police who took the dead body to the hospital for investigation.

The decease’s neighbor, Malam Aliyu Jibo who called the police on phone, narrated to newsmen that when the police arrived at the scene they carefully scrutinized the area to ensure that members of the sect were not hiding in the neighborhood.

He explained that Mohammed Tukur was a poor and kind man of about 70 years of age and doesn’t interfere in peoples’ affairs. He said the Boko Haram killed him because they suspect him to be an informer to the police and other security agencies on their activities during the last sectarian crisis in the state which led to the death of their leader, Malam Muhammad Yusuf.

He further explained that the decease knows the identity of one of the runaway prisoners in the state who is also a member of the sect whose parents’ took back to the Bauchi prison after the jailbreak masterminded by the Boko Haram in the state.

Another eyewitness of the incidence, Faisal Ahmad confirmed that there were ward heads who led the security personnel in arresting the Boko Haram members following the last violent clash between the sect members and security personnel in the state.

He explained that, late Malam Muhammad Tukur was mistaken for a ward head who led security personnel to the houses of Boko Haram members not knowing that the man they were looking for have already fled the state.

All effort to get the state’s commissioner of police, Danlami Yar’Adua was proved abortive.

Since the beginning of the serial killings, security personnel have remained silent on the issue, but it was reported that there were intense security concern on the recurring violence in the state perpetrated by the sect members and since then security personnel have redoubled efforts in patrolling at night to forestall the ongoing killings, especially within the state metropolis.

[Description of Source: - Kano Albishir in Hausa-weekly newspaper published by the Kano State]

Nigeria: Boko Haram Attack Police Station In Yobe

AFP20101208667002 Kaduna Aminiya in Hausa 28 Oct 10 7

Suspected members of Boko Haram sect have attacked the police station at Bara, the headquarters of Gulani local government area of Yobe State.

Report said there was exchange of gunfire between the police and the sect members for almost one and a half hour. The report explained that no one was injured during the gun battle.

The Yobe State commissioner of police, Alhaji Mamman Sule who confirmed the incident while briefing newsmen said the attacked was carried out at 1:45 am.

He further stated that the sect members arrived on motorcycles carrying sophisticated weapons including different kinds of guns and explosives with many round of ammunitions. He said when the gunmen arrived at the station they opened fire which draw the attention of the officers on duty and they immediately brought out their own weapons and engaged the attackers in a gun fight.

The commissioner added that during the gun battle, the attackers threw an explosive at the station intending to burn it down which failed to detonate, they were subsequently overpowered and they hurriedly climbed their motorcycles and fled. He said in spite of the long drown battle no life was lost, no casualty and none of the attackers was arrested.

The commissioner therefore commended the efforts of his men at the Bara station for discharging their duties diligently without fear. He also assured the general public in the state that his men will remain battle-ready in its determination to protect their lives and property at all times. He also urged the general public to always give his men their maximum cooperation by reporting any act of the members of the Boko Haram on time so as to take proper action.

[Description of Source: Kaduna Aminiya in Hausa - privately owned pro-north weekly newspaper]

Nigeria: Police Chief Highlights Measures to Stop Islamic Sect's Activities

AFP20101216686005 Port Harcourt Niger Delta Standard in English 14 Dec 10 p 11

[Unattributed report: "Borno Police Chief Outlines Strategies to Contain Boko Haram Activities"]

The Borno State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Jinjiri, has ascribed the lack of vital information from members of the public as well as the guerilla warfare tactics being deployed by outlawed members of the Boko Haram as reasons the wanton killing of people by the sect members could not be stopped in the state.

The police chief who admitted the frustration of the security agencies while parading the corpses of two notorious armed robbers recently gunned down by the police in the neighboring Bama local government area of the state, said the police particularly have been trying its best but its effort were not being complemented by the members of the public who rather fear for their lives.

He noted that the effort of the police was meeting a brick wall because the sect members, who he described as terrorists, have resorted to guerilla warfare, a tactics he said even the NATO finds difficult to tackle in Afghanistan and other terrorist nations.

"What we have here is a terrorist group in the name of Islamic fundamentalists who have resorted to guerrilla warfare; we all know guerrilla war tactic is the most difficult kind of war to fight; even the NATO in Afghanistan is finding it difficult to tackle terrorists using guerrilla-style warfare. It is not that the Borno State police command is incapable of handling these zealots, but it is because of the guerrilla war tactics they have been deploying, and if the members of the public cannot give us relevant information there is no way we can know where they are operating from."

Jinjiri noted that when members of Boko Haram were dislodged last year, some of them escaped with weapons, hence their courage to stage a comeback and fight members of the public. He also stated that the state police command had published several phone numbers through which it could be contacted by members of the public who have information about the sect members, but lamented that no one had taken advantage of this except one individual in the state.

[Description of Source: Port Harcourt Niger Delta Standard in English -- Rivers State owned daily]

Nigeria: Locals Accuse Troops of Brutality During Raids on Radical Islamic Sect

AFP20101224564007 Nairobi UN Integrated Regional Information Network in English 22 Dec 10

[Unattributed report: "Nigeria: Troops Accused of Abuses in Raids on Islamic Sect"]

Residents of the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri say soldiers and policemen have brutalized citizens, made arbitrary arrests and stolen money and belongings in raids meant to capture members of a radical Islamic sect.

The charges come more than a year after a deadly crackdown on the sect, known as Boko Haram, in the same city, during which human rights groups say innocent people were shot dead.

The military earlier this year deployed a task force - dubbing the action "Operation Flush" - to combat sect members, but residents of Maiduguri (the Borno State capital) said troops broke into homes and arbitrarily arrested males, often demanding money from those arrested in exchange for release.

On 9 December, residents said, soldiers stormed homes in Zinnari neighbourhood and arrested 60 men; the raid came shortly after an attack by suspected Islamic militants in which a military patrol vehicle was burnt.

"Scores of gun-toting soldiers and policemen moved from door to door shortly after the attack, beating and arresting young men they accused of involvement," Hashidu Idris, a resident of the neighbourhood, told IRIN.

A resident who did not want to be named for fear of harassment said his arm was broken when soldiers beat him in a raid on his house on 9 December; he said he spent two days in detention without medical attention.

In the Jajere neighbourhood residents said troops had robbed families during a raid.

"Soldiers broke into homes waking people up, seizing money and cell phones," Jajere resident Sherif Bukari said. "It is unfortunate that the people deployed to protect us have turned against us."

Musa Kyari, a resident of the Bulunkutu Dala area of the city, said he and scores of other residents arrested in the operation had to pay US$133 each to be released from police custody.

Abuse allegations rejected

Military and police officials in Maiduguri confirmed the raids but denied allegations of abuse by security operatives. They said part of the challenge of finding sect members was that people were afraid to talk.

"The military launched raids on neighbourhoods suspected to be harbouring Boko Haram militants ? several people were arrested for interrogation, but allegations of abuse by soldiers are false," Abubakar Abdullahi, military spokesman in Maiduguri, told IRIN.

"We always investigate such claims and usually find them to be untrue. Our men conduct raids professionally in accordance with military ethics and hand over suspects to the police for investigation as required by law."

The raids are necessary because residents are not willing to report on sect members in their midst, Borno State police commissioner Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar said.

"We have no option but to raid any neighbourhood where security personnel are attacked, because residents are not willing to report on [the offenders]."

He added: "We understand [residents'] reluctance is out of fear that the group would attack them if they cooperate with us, despite our repeated assurances that their identities would be protected."

The fear is warranted. After the Borno State government offered a cash reward to any resident providing information to help the authorities find Boko Haram members, the sect distributed flyers in the city threatening to kill any resident who provided such information to police.

Maiduguri resident Madugu Hamidu said several local chiefs were killed for helping police fight the Islamic group last year.

Protection of rights

Human rights monitors say the military task force's actions have created a "climate of fear".

"It is unacceptable that the Operation Flush task force should act without restraint," Shehu Sani, director of a leading rights group in northern Nigeria, Civil Rights Congress, said in a 14 December statement. "They must resist the temptation of violating the rights of citizens under the guise of fighting religious fanatics."

"We understand the imperative to maintain law and order and safeguard peace and security in Maiduguri against religious violence and extremism but it must be done within the ambit of the law and respect for the constitutional rights of the citizenry," Sani said.

Residents with grievances from the recent raids said they had little hope of getting justice. As with the man with the broken arm, most are afraid to report abuses by security forces. They also said that as there has been no punishment for alleged indiscriminate killings during last year's major crackdown, people did not expect to get far with charges of theft, beatings and arbitrary arrests.

[Description of Source: Nairobi UN Integrated Regional Information Network in English -- Website of the nonprofit, donor-supported news service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Integrated Regional Information Network. Focuses on political, economic and social issues affecting humanitarian efforts; URL: http://www.irinnews.org/]

Christmas Eve Church Attacks, Blasts Kill 14 in Nigeria

FEA20101225012767 - OSC Feature - AFP (World Service) 1130 GMT 25 Dec 10

["Christmas Eve church attacks, blasts kill 14 in Nigeria" -- AFP headline; For assistance with multimedia elements, contact the OSC Customer Center at (800) 205-8615 or OSCinfo@rccb.osis.gov.]