Video - Boko Haram attacks on military formations concern Nigerian authorities

Boko Haram launched a wave of attacks on military bases in Nigeria's Borno State. Governor Babagana Zulum responded with a call for aggressive military action, warning the group may be regrouping and retaking territory. Officials said the renewed violence could derail efforts to resettle displaced residents.

CGTN

Farmers killed in suspected Boko Haram attack in Nigeria

At least 40 farmers were killed over the weekend in an attack by suspected Islamist militants, the governor of Nigeria's northeastern Borno state said on Monday.

What authorities said about the attack

Governor Babanga Umara Zulum said Sunday's attack was thought to have been carried out either by Boko Haram extremists, or members of its breakaway faction that's loyal to the so-called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

He called for an investigation and retaliation.

"Let me assure the citizens of Borno that this matter will be thoroughly investigated for further necessary action," Zulum said. "Let me use this opportunity to call on the armed forces to track and deal decisively with the perpetrators of this heinous act of violence against our innocent citizens."

He warned civilians to stick within designated "safe zones" that have been cleared of militants and munitions by the military.

The state's commissioner of information, Usman Tar, said the farmers had strayed outside one such security corridor, venturing into an area known for insurgent activity and minefields.

Attacks on famers common, exacerbating food shortages

Much of the Muslim-majority northeastern state of Borno, the heartland of the Boko Haram movement that took up arms in 2009, is not fully controlled by Nigerian authorities.

In recent months, attacks, kidnappings and theft from rural farmers by Islamist militants have been commonplace.

As authorities urge farmers to stick to designated safe zones and deploy rangers to try to protect them, some lament having to leave more fertile soil in more perilous areas untended.

The attacks on farmers have exacerbated food shortages in the impoverished state, which was also hit by flooding last September after a dam collapsed, temporarily displacing more than half of the population of the state capital Maiduguri.

DW

At least 50 insurgents killed, seven Nigerian officers missing after convoy attack

At least 50 Boko Haram fighters were killed on Tuesday and seven members of Nigeria's infrastructure security force were missing following an insurgent ambush on a convoy monitoring the country's power grid installations, a spokesperson said.

Boko Haram, which has waged an insurgency for 15 years mainly in the northeast, has been weakened by the military and internal fighting but remains a threat as it makes deadly attacks against civilians and government targets.

Babawale Afolabi, spokesperson for the Nigerian Civil Defence Corp, a government agency set up to protect infrastructure, said security operatives were ambushed by about 200 Boko Haram fighters during the patrol mission.

Afolabi said more than 50 insurgents were killed in the fighting but seven operatives were missing, adding that efforts are underway to find them in the bush. He said "a few others" of the security force were wounded.

Although Boko Haram mainly operates in the northeast, Nigerian authorities say the group has cells in the largely Muslim Niger state, where they have previously carried attacks against the military and civilians.
In a separate attack in northeast Borno state, a military spokesperson said five soldiers were killed by suspected insurgents last Saturday. 

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters

Nigeria military says dozens of militia group leaders killed over past three months

Nigeria's military has killed dozens of leaders of armed militia groups and hundreds of fighters across the country following a renewed offensive in the third quarter of the year, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

Nigeria faces widespread insecurity including a 15-year Islamist insurgency in its northeast, separatist violence in the southeast, rampant oil theft in the Niger River delta and kidnapping for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, in the northwest.

Military spokesperson Major-General Edward Buba said "troops offensive actions culminated in the neutralization of 65 notable terrorist leaders, commanders and combatants across all theaters of operations."

"Overall, in the third quarter of this year, troops neutralized 1,937 terrorists, arrested 2,782 suspected terrorists and other criminal elements as well as rescued 1,854 hostages," Buba said in a statement.

The fatalities include members of Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, and different amorphous bandit groups. Among those killed was Halilu Sububu, who was declared wanted by the military in 2022 with a bounty of five million naira, Buba said.

Earlier in September, Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu ordered the minister of defense and top military chiefs to relocate to the northwestern Sokoto, one of the worst-hit states, to combat insecurity.

Since then, the military has stepped up actions against armed groups intensifying air bombardment and land operations.

By Ope Adetayo, Reuters

Women abused in Nigerian military cells after fleeing Boko Haram

Dozens of women and young girls have been unlawfully detained and abused in Nigerian military detention facilities after escaping captivity by Boko Haram extremists in the country’s northeast, Amnesty International said in a new report on Monday.

Some of the women were detained with their children for years because of their real or perceived association with the extremists, the report said. It cited 126 interviews, mostly with survivors, over the 14 years since the Islamic extremists launched their insurgency.

The report echoes past human rights concerns about the Nigerian military, which in the past has been accused of extrajudicial killings and illegal arrests in one of the world’s longest conflicts.


However, the report noted that prolonged and unlawful detentions have been less widespread in recent years.

Nigeria's army dismissed the report as “unsubstantiated” and reiterated that it has continued to improve on its human rights record and holds personnel to account.

The conflict has spilt over borders killed at least 35,000 people and displaced over 2 million. Women and young girls are often forcefully married or sexually abused in captivity.

But the conditions some women found themselves in after fleeing captivity were so “horrible” that some chose to return to Boko Haram, Niki Frederiek, crisis researcher with Amnesty International, said of the detention camps located in military facilities in Borno state.

At least 31 survivors interviewed said they were held illegally in the facilities, the report said, suggesting the practice had been more widespread.

“Some said soldiers insulted them, calling them ‘Boko Haram wives’ and accusing them of being responsible for killings. Several described beatings or abysmal conditions in detention, which amount to torture or other ill-treatment,” the report said.

“The Nigerian authorities must support these girls and young women as they fully reintegrate into society,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa.

Africa News 

Related story: Nigerian girls failed by authorities after escaping Boko Haram captivity

Nigerian fishing community on edge after jihadists threaten attack

Nigerian fisherman Modu Umar has hardly slept for two weeks, torn between staying in his Baga community or fleeing after Islamist militants warned residents to leave their homes or face an attack.

Umar, a 33-year-old father of three, has known no life but fishing in nearby Lake Chad and selling his catch in the four countries around it. Now, like hundreds of other residents, he is anxious about his future.

Five Baga residents said fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province(ISWAP), a Boko Haram offshoot, attacked the community on May 27, killing 15 people and abducting many more.

Days later, the group issued a 14-day eviction notice that has rippled through Baga, which in the past has witnessed battles between the multinational forces of Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger, and jihadists.
"We are in a difficult situation and helpless," Umar told Reuters by phone. "Ever since the notice, I have been constantly worried and in fear."

Many residents have already left, although an estimate was unavailable.

President Bola Tinubu came to power last year promising to end widespread insecurity, which includes the Boko Haram insurgency that started in 2009.

Baga is part of Kukawa, one of the 27 local government areas in Borno state, the heart of the insurgency.
The town is headquarters to a brigade of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). But that offers little relief for residents.

In January 2015, Boko Haram carried out a series of raids on Baga, overran the MNJTF headquarters and killed dozens of people.

Defense spokesperson Major General Edward Buba told Reuters the military had put in place "measures to ensure the people are protected from acts of terror of the terrorists."

Modu Massah Baga, 39, provides for his two wives and eight children from fishing. He is worried he may have to give up his means of support.

"How can you just leave where you have a source of livelihood and go to where you don't know? It is disheartening to us because many are afraid and worried," he said. "This is the only place we work to feed our families."

Baga has also seen intra-jihadist fighting between ISWAP and Jama'tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (JAS), another Boko Haram remnant that since last year has been seizing islands in Lake Chad previously controlled by ISWAP, security experts say.

This fighting could have triggered the eviction notice, the experts added.

"ISWAP is sometimes more aggressive towards civilians in the Lake Chad communities when it is facing setbacks because it has to resort to terrorizing communities in order to deter them from working with either the military or a rival faction," said James Barnett, a Hudson Institute research fellow who has written extensively on the insurgency. 

By Ope Adetayo, Reuters

Related story: Nigeria gunmen kill at least 25 in village raid, officials say

Nigerian girls failed by authorities after escaping Boko Haram captivity

Girls and young women who escaped Boko Haram captivity in north-east Nigeria faced further suffering, including sometimes in unlawful military detention, and are now receiving inadequate support as they attempt to rebuild their lives, Amnesty International said in a new report.

‘Help us build our lives’: Girl survivors of Boko Haram and military abuses in north-east Nigeria investigates how girls survived trafficking and crimes against humanity by Boko Haram, including abduction, forced marriage, enslavement, and sexual violence.

After escaping Boko Haram captivity, many then experienced further abuse in prolonged and unlawful Nigerian military detention, though in recent years this practice is less widespread during the conflict that has been raging for over a decade. Those not unlawfully detained were left to fend for themselves in displacement camps amid millions of other people needing humanitarian assistance. From there, some were “reunited” with their surrendered Boko Haram “husbands” in a government-run transit camp, exposing them to the risk of continued abuse.


“These girls, many of them now young women, had their childhood stolen from them and suffered a litany of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses. They are now showing remarkable bravery as they seek to take control of their future,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

“An enormous number of girls suffered horrific abuse in Boko Haram captivity, with many survivors then detained or neglected by their government. Now, they are sending a clear message to the Nigerian government and its international partners. They urgently need increased specialist support to rebuild their lives.”

The crimes that the girls and young women endured have had long-lasting consequences that are specific to their age and gender, including health complications, access to education, the ability and desire to remarry, as well as stigma and rejection by their families and communities.

The report is based on 126 interviews, including 82 with survivors, that were conducted in-person in north-east Nigeria and remotely between 2019 and 2024. On 4 April, Amnesty International wrote to Nigerian federal and state authorities, as well as to UN offices, with its main research findings. In its response, the Nigerian military denied the allegations, said it upholds human rights in its operations, and referred to Amnesty International’s “sources”, which were primarily survivors, as “intrinsically unreliable”. UNICEF responded confidentially.


Abduction and sexual violence

Boko Haram carried out widespread abductions of children during attacks on the civilian population in north-east Nigeria. At least eight girls witnessed Boko Haram kill their relatives. CA*, who was abducted aged around 13 in 2014, said: “One day, Boko Haram… came into our house. They told our father we’re non-believers. They shot my father in the back of his head and the bullet came through his eyes. We started crying. They said if we don’t keep quiet, they will kill my mother too.”

Once abducted, most girls were then forcibly married. Child and forced marriage are common practices by Boko Haram, who generally consider girls to be “of age” to marry from early adolescence, or even before.

Girls were used in a multitude of ways as “wives”, including being made to serve their “husbands” in sexual slavery and domestic servitude. At least 33 survivors of forced marriage told Amnesty International that their “husbands” raped them. HA* was a teenager when she “agreed” to be married to save her father from being killed. She told Amnesty International she was beaten when she refused her “husband”, and that he frequently raped her.

A total of 28 interviewees said they bore children of sexual violence, and at least 20 were children themselves when they gave birth.
 

Punishments and suicide bombings

All those abducted were threatened into living under strict rules with severely limited freedom of movement. Any real or perceived breaches of these rules were met with physical punishment and, at times, prolonged periods of imprisonment.

Boko Haram meted out punishments publicly to instil fear and exert control. At least 31 girls interviewed were forced to watch forms of punishment that included lashings, amputations and beheadings.

GH*, now in her early 20s, spent around a decade in captivity. She was often forced to watch violent punishments and said: “Sometimes I dream about the corpses that I saw or the stoning of the women that I saw. Once I open my eyes, I can’t go back to sleep again.”

Boko Haram also used girls as suicide bombers on a large scale. Between mid-2014 and 2019, the majority of Boko Haram suicide bombers were female.
 

Violations in unlawful detention

Nearly 50 girls and younger women told Amnesty International they risked their lives and the lives of their children to successfully escape Boko Haram. Many experienced harrowing journeys lasting up to 12 days, where they survived on what little food and water they could find.

Some were “rescued” by the Nigerian military or members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), a state-sponsored militia, who later unlawfully detained many of them. Throughout the conflict, the Nigerian military has arbitrarily detained thousands of children for prolonged periods.

Thirty-one girls and young women said they were unlawfully held in military detention for anywhere between several days and almost four years between 2015 and mid-2023, typically because of their real or perceived association with Boko Haram. Some said soldiers insulted them, calling them “Boko Haram wives” and accusing them of being responsible for killings. Several described beatings or abysmal conditions in detention which amount to torture or other ill-treatment.

NV* was around 20 when she escaped after eight years of Boko Haram captivity in 2021. She was unlawfully detained by the Nigerian military in Madagali, Adamawa State for about two months. She said: “When they [soldiers] brought food… they gave us a portion in our hand and soup in one bowl for all of us to share… As a toilet, they gave us a plastic bag.”

Many young women were detained with their children. Two interviewees gave birth in government detention, while others witnessed children die.

In violation of international human rights law, no interviewees had access to a lawyer or were charged with a criminal offence. BZ* was detained as a teenager in Giwa Barracks, an infamous military detention facility in Maiduguri, from around 2017 to 2020. She said: “Nobody explained anything to us. They just brought us there and nobody told us anything.”

Since 2016, most of those who had been unlawfully detained in Giwa Barracks were brought to Bulumkutu Interim Care Centre (BICC), where they were able to access some services.

‘We need support’: aspirations after Boko Haram

Many interviewees were reunited with their families by government authorities and their partners. All are now in overpopulated internally displaced persons (IDP) camps or communities across Borno and Adamawa States. Interviewees expected and requested specialist government support, but instead felt neglected.

AV* returned from Boko Haram captivity in 2021 aged around 15, and now lives in Madagali, Adamawa State. She said: “Most people in [the] government don’t care about us. We need support.”

Whilst the stigma of being a “Boko Haram wife” remains a barrier to reintegration for girls and young women, the situation has improved in recent years. Many interviewees said that community members insulted them, looked at them suspiciously, and voiced fears they would kill them or infect them with diseases.

ZC*, aged around 19, lives in an IDP camp with her formerly Boko Haram “husband”. She said: “They [the host community] always abuse us. They don’t give us anything. We always feel we are a burden to them.”

After years of oppression by Boko Haram, followed by unlawful military detention and neglect by government authorities, many interviewees valued freedom most of all. They expressed desires to become financially independent to support themselves and their families and to enrol their children in school.

Many identified access to education as their top priority and said they wanted to become doctors, nurses, teachers, and lawyers, or to work for non-governmental organisations. SB*, who spent around 10 years in Boko Haram captivity, said: “I want to start my life afresh. [There are] so many things I need, I don’t know where to start.”

Access to mental health and psychosocial support services is extremely limited throughout north-east Nigeria. The Nigerian government has an obligation to ensure that healthcare facilities and services are accessible.

“The Nigerian government has failed to uphold their human rights obligations to protect and adequately support these girls and young women,” said Samira Daoud.

“Along with their international partners, the Nigerian authorities must support these girls and young women as they fully reintegrate into society by prioritising access to healthcare, education and vocational training. They must get the assistance they need to rebuild their lives with dignity and in safety.”

Amnesty International is calling on the Nigerian government authorities, UN agencies and donor governments to urgently make available tailored reintegration services for these girls and young women, whilst ensuring other affected groups are not left behind. Amnesty International is also calling on the Nigerian authorities to ensure girls and young women have a meaningful alternative to being returned to their Boko Haram “husbands”, and given necessary support to rebuild their lives.

Background

The non-international armed conflict between Boko Haram and Nigerian forces has affected millions of lives in north-east Nigeria since it started more than a decade ago. The conflict has resulted in a humanitarian crisis leaving millions of people internally displaced. All sides to the conflict.

Premium Times

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Nigeria movie released to mark 10th anniversary of the kidnapped 276 Chibok girls

Woman rescued 10 years after kidnap by Boko Haram in Nigeria

Nigerian troops have rescued a pregnant woman and her three children 10 years after she was abducted by Boko Haram militants when she was a schoolgirl in the town of Chibok.

Lydia Simon was rescued in Gwoza council area, about 95 miles (150km) east of Chibok, from where 276 schoolgirls were seized in April 2014. As many as 82 are still missing a decade after the high-profile mass kidnapping.

Announcing the news on Thursday, the Nigerian army did not give details of the rescue other than to say Simon was found in the community of Ngoshe.

Chibok and Ngoshe are in Borno state, birthplace of the 15-year old insurgency that has since spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, uprooting about 2 million people across the region.

The army statement said Simon was five months pregnant. It was accompanied by a picture of her and her three children born in captivity, who appear to be between the ages of two and four. She has yet to be reunited with her family.

The Chibok abduction was the first of a series of mass school kidnappings in Nigeria, shocking the world and triggering a global social media campaign tagged #BringBackOurGirls. Ten years on, many of the abductees, now adults, have been freed or escaped, but jihadist groups and bandits continue to target schools for mass abductions.

Since the Chibok attack, more than 2,190 students have been kidnapped, according to the Lagos-based geopolitical risk consultancy SBM Intelligence. It said mass abductions had become “an increasingly favourite sport for Nigeria’s teeming armed groups”.

As many as 57 of the women from Chibok escaped in the hours after their kidnapping by jumping off the trucks used to abduct them. In May 2017, 82 others were released after the government reportedly paid million-dollar ransoms. Those who returned in recent years were mostly found abandoned in the forests.

Some Chibok parents and security analysts have said there is little evidence to show there is a special military operation to free the remaining women. It is not known if they are all still alive.

Some of the recently freed women were either raped by the insurgents or forced into marriages, according to Chioma Agwuegbo, an activist who was part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

“We have heard their stories about the amount of trauma and violence they have faced. Somebody who was kidnapped 10 years ago is not returning as the same person,” Agwuegbo told Associated Press.

The cause has largely been forgotten by many of the politicians and celebrities who championed it. On 14 April, the anniversary of the abduction, the local activist collective that began the campaign and held rallies for years in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said it was still seeking justice for the missing women after “this decade of shame”.

Simon’s rescue was symbolic of the enduring hope that pervaded her home town, said the Abuja-based analyst Idayat Hassan, a non-resident fellow with the Africa programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“It’s symbolic that 10 years after, we still got another of the girls,” Hassan said. “It keeps our hope alive.”

Simon’s family are waiting to be reunited with their long-lost relative, as are the villagers of Chibok.

“The government has not told us anything [and] we are waiting for an official call,” said Yakubu Nkeki, the chair of the Chibok girls’ parents’ association.

By Eromo Egbejule, The Guardian

Related stories: Video - Families of missing Chibok girls remain hopeful of reunion in Nigeria

Kidnappings in Nigeria rise 10 years after Chibok girls abducted

Nigeria movie released to mark 10th anniversary of the kidnapped 276 Chibok girls

Not a day goes by without Lawan Zanna remembering his daughter Aisha in prayers. She was among the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped 10 years ago when Islamic extremists broke into their school in northeastern Nigeria’s Chibok village.

“It makes me so angry to talk about it,” said Zanna, 55, whose daughter is among the nearly 100 girls still missing after the 2014 kidnappings that stunned the world and sparked the global #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.

The Chibok kidnapping was the first major school abduction in the West African nation. Since then, at least 1,400 students have been kidnapped, especially in the conflict-battered northwest and central regions. Most victims were freed only after ransoms were paid or through government-backed deals, but the suspects rarely get arrested.

This year, to mark the 10th anniversary of a largely forgotten tragedy, members of Borno state’s Chibok community gathered Thursday in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos to attend the screening of “Statues Also Breathe,” a collaborative film project produced by French artist Prune Nourry and Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University.

“This collaboration aims to raise awareness about the plight of the girls who are still missing while highlighting the global struggle for girls’ education,” Nourry said.

The 17-minute film opens with an aerial view of 108 sculptures — the number of girls still missing when the art project began — that try to recreate what the girls look like today using pictures provided by their families, from their facial expressions to hairstyles and visible patterns.

The film captures the artistic process behind the art exhibit, first displayed in November 2022, featuring human head-sized sculptures inspired by ancient Nigerian Ife terracotta heads.

In the film, one of the freed women talks about the horrors she went through while in captivity. “We suffered, we were beaten up. (But) Allah (God) made me stronger,” she said.

It also conveys a flurry of emotions as heartbroken mothers reminisced about life when their daughters were home.

“When it is time for Ramadan (...) Aisha adorns my hair with henna and all sorts of adornments,” one of the women in the film said of her missing child.

But Aisha has not been home in 10 years.

Another scene shows a woman hesitating when asked to go and see her daughter’s face that was sculpted. “If I go and see it, it will bring sad memories,” she said, her weak voice fading away.

Nigerian authorities have not done enough to free the remaining women and those who have regained their freedom have not been properly taken care of, according to Chioma Agwuegbo, an activist who was part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

“We have normalized the absurd in Nigeria,” Agwuegbo said of the school kidnappings in Nigeria. “10 years on, it is an indictment not just on the government but on our security forces and even on the citizens themselves.”

Analysts worry that the security lapses that resulted in the Chibok kidnapping remain in place in many schools. A recent survey by the United Nations children’s agency’s Nigeria office found that only 43% of minimum safety standards are met in over 6,000 surveyed schools.

According to Nnamdi Obasi, senior adviser for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group, “the basic security and safety arrangements in schools are weak and sometimes non-existent,” adding that military and police personnel are still “very much inadequate and overstretched.”

Authorities rarely provide updates on efforts to free the Chibok women. However, some of the freed women have said in the past that those still missing have been forcefully married to the extremists, as is often the case with female kidnap victims.

About a dozen of the Chibok women managed to escape captivity since early 2022. They all returned with children.

“I think we shouldn’t even think about them anymore,” said one of the Chibok mothers in the film. “I feel like they are already gone.”

By Chinedu Asadu, AP

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Ending sexual abuse in IDP camps in Nigeria

Young women and girls living in Nigerian camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) say they have to deal with sexual harassment every day. Now they are calling for more protection from their host communities.

Having escaped attacks by violent criminals and armed gangs known as bandits in their villages, many displaced women and girls in Nigeria are now facing a new challenge.

Sexual harassment is rife in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) across northern Nigeria — mostly when it comes to access to food or money.

With little protection, IDPs are also at risk of being kidnapped by bandits and jihadists.
What are IDPs fleeing from?

A bloody conflict between the army and jihadist groups, including Boko Haram, has been raging in Nigeria since 2009.

It is estimated that more than 40,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million more displaced — 80% of whom are women and children who live in government-registered or unregistered camps for IDPs.

Amina Rabo, who lives in an unofficial camp in the northern Nigerian city of Katsina, fled her village after it was attacked by bandits.

Since arriving there, Amina says she has suffered various forms of violence. Apart from sexual harassment, she also lives with the fear of being kidnapped.

"We experience different kinds of harassment from bad actors within our host community. Our rooms don't have doors, making it easy for the attackers," Amina told DW.

"They rape our girls in the night, and the older women are not spared either," Amina said, adding that that seeing her young daughters being assaulted every night has left her distraught.

Amina told DW that she had to marry off one of her daughters outside the camp. After the wedding, she said that several people tried to rape her.

A call for more protection

To prevent further sexual assaults on IDPs, Sani Barau, who works for a humanitarian agency, told DW that his organization is now working closely with the police to monitor the safety of displaced people.

"We call the police whenever we see suspicious people lurking around the camp or individuals trying to harass young girls," Barau said. "And indeed the police have carried out some arrests."

Despite plans to guarantee protection against sexual assault and possible kidnapping by resettling individuals currently sheltering in IDP camps — challenges remain.
 

Jihadists target women in IDP camps

Since the beginning of March, more than 100 people — mostly children and women — have gone missing after jihadists in conflict-torn northeastern Nigeria carried out a mass kidnapping that targeted mostly women from IDP camps, officials told AFP news agency.

Nigeria's northeast remains the heart of an insurgency that has left more than 40,000 people dead and 2 million displaced since 2009.

Several details about the attack on the IDP camp in rural Ngala are still unclear and officials have given conflicting accounts. The number of people reported missing does not necessarily reflect the number held in captivity.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the attack took place a week earlier than reported and estimated that over 200 people had been abducted from IDP camps.

The organization said armed attackers took the women while they were out collecting firewood.

"The United Nations strongly condemns the reported abduction of internally displaced persons (IDPs), many of them women, boys and girls," it said.
Kidnapping — a lucrative business

Kidnapping is a major problem across Nigeria, which is also grappling with criminal militias in the northwest and a flare-up of intercommunal violence in central states.

On March 7, more than 130 schoolchildren were kidnapped from a school in Kaduna but later freed after two weeks in captivity.

Arrests are rare as most victims are released only after ransom payments by their families or through deals that sometimes involve the release of gang members.

The government, however, does not admit to such deals.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power last year promising to address insecurity in Nigeria, but critics say the violence is still out of control.

By Shehu Salmanu, DW

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Nigeria indicts 19 ‘terrorism financiers’

The Nigerian government has identified and sanctioned 19 terrorism financiers including six Bureau De Change (BDC) firms, a document obtained by PREMIUM TIMES has shown.

The identities of the alleged terrorism funders were revealed in the document issued by the Nigeria Sanctions Committee (NSC), headed by the Attorney General of the Federation.

Those named as financiers of terrorism include Tukur Mamu, a Kaduna-based publisher, Abdulsamad Ohida, Mohammed Abdurrahaman (FNU), Fatima Ishaq, Yusuf Ghazali, Muhammad Sani, Abubakar Muhammad, Sallamudeen Hassan, Adamu Ishak, Hassana Isah, Abdulkareem Musa and Umar Abdullahi.

Six firms – West and East Africa General Trading Co. Ltd, Settings Bureau De Change Ltd, G. Side General Enterprises, Desert Exchange Ventures Limited, Eagle Square General Trading Co Ltd, and Alfa Exchange BDC – were also named.

The committee gave a brief background of some of the indicted persons and subsequently detailed their alleged involvement in terrorism financing.
 

How named individuals financed terrorism

Mr Mamu, the Kaduna-based publisher of Desert Herald newspaper, was a spokesman to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a Kaduna-based Islamic cleric who has repeatedly called for negotiations with terrorists.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Mamu was arrested by Interpol in Cairo, Egypt, on 6 September 2022, while operatives of the State Security Service (SSS), raided his Kaduna residence and office. He is still being prosecuted.

The NSC said Mr Mamu “participated in the financing of terrorism by receiving and delivering ransom payments over the sum of $200,000 US dollars in support of ISWAP terrorists for the release of hostages of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack.”

The second person, Mr Ohida, according to the committee, was “a senior commander (Quaid) of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) Okene.”

He was described as the “suspected attacker of the St. Francis Catholic Church Owo, Ondo State on 5th June 2022 and the Kuje Correctional Center, Abuja on 5th July 2022.”

List of the persons and entities indicted for terrorism financing. SOURCE: Nigeria Sanctions Committee (NSC)

Thirty-seven-year-old Mr Sani is a member of the Ansaru terror group, the committee stated, adding he was trained and served under Muktar Belmokhtar [aka One-Eyed], a notorious leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who was reportedly killed in 2016.

Mr Sani who was into carpentry, also allegedly specialises in designing terrorist clandestine communication codes and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). He was identified as one of the terrorists who escaped during the 2022 Kuje prison break.

The committee added that he is “a gatekeeper to ANSARU leader, Mohammed Usman aka Khalid Al-Bamawi. Equally, he was a courier and travel guide to AQIM Katibat in the desert of Algeria and Mali.”

Another indicted person simply identified as Abdurrahaman (FNU), was a senior commander of ISWAP in Okene, Kogi State, the committee disclosed.

ISWAP parted ways with Boko Haram in 2016 over doctrinal differences. It has since claimed responsibility for various attacks in some parts of the country, especially in the northeast and Lake Chad region.

Ms Ishaq, a resident of Unguwan Sarki in Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State, was said to be a “financial courier to ISWAP Okene.”

The committee said she was “responsible for the disbursement of funds to the widows/wives of the terrorist fighters of the group.”

Ms Isah, the other woman among the indicted persons, is the wife of Abdulkareem Musa (AKA Abu Khalid/Abu Aiman), the committee revealed, adding “She receives money from ISWAP and then goes on to pay the wives of the ISWAP soldiers.”

Her husband, Mr Musa, is a top commander of the ISWAP cell in central and southern Nigeria. He “worked as the manager of Star bread bakery, owned by ISWAP and located opposite Abusito Mosque, Irubucheba area, Okene, Kogi State, before being arrested and sent to jail in 2011.”

In 2015, Kano-based Mr Ghazali allegedly transferred N20 million to Surajo Muhammad, one of the six Nigerians convicted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2020 for a similar offence.

That same year, he “transferred” N40 million to Ibrahim Alhassan, another convict, the report states.

“Abubakar Adamu Yellow who had calls and financial transactions with Alhaji Saidu Ahmed (the leader of the group) and direct financial transaction with two of the convicts (Surajo Abubakar Muhammad, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan) received a sum of N189 million from Yusuf Ghazali between 2016 and 2018,” the committee stated, noting Mr Ghazali owns entities and businesses reported in the UAE court judgment as facilitating the transfer of terrorist funds from Dubai to Nigeria.

Like Mr Ghazali, two other Kano-based residents, Messrs Sani and Muhammad, were accused of financing terrorism by engaging in financial transactions with the Nigerian-UAE convicts.

Borno-born Mr Hassan who lived in Lagos was also accused of the same offence.

The committee said he was a top ISWAP member and one of the founders of the ISWAP cell in the South-west geopolitical zone.

“He sources and coordinates their finances through cryptocurrency, dating and tax/covid19 palliative scams in the USA,” the committee stated.

Also, Mr Ishaq who was based in Kaduna was indicted as a logistics provider for ISWAP. The committee reported that he bought lands, and built and bought houses for ISWAP members in Jigawa and Kaduna states.

He was not alone. Mr Abdullahi, described as a Kano State resident and a top member of ISWAP from the Lake Chad region, was described as a “top logistics provider for the ISWAP.”

The committee stated that Mr Abdullahi was a grain merchant in Kano State and was “in charge of the ISWAP farm in Doma, Kebbi state.”
 

BDC operators indicted

According to the committee, West And East Africa General Trading Co. Ltd, in 2017, “transferred the sum of N153 million” to one Mustapha Adamu.

That same year, the firm transferred N50 million to Ali Yusuf, who was named as the brother to two of the Nigerians convicted in UAE — Ibrahim Alhassan and Bashir Yusuf.

A year before, the firm “transferred the sum of N160 million to Ambare Mohammed who is a major suspect in Maiduguri.”

Between 2014 and 2015, the committee reported that Settings Bureau De Change Ltd received N100 million from Mr Ghazali who had financial transactions with three UAE convicts — Surajo Muhammad, Ibrahim Alhassan and Bashir Yusuf.

“The connection of the entity to the mentioned suspect covers over 80% of the entity’s entire transactions within the reporting threshold,” the committee explained. “This made the entity a likely accomplice in the group’s activities.”

Detailing how G. Side General Enterprises made the list, the committee wrote: “The Director/Promoter Yusuf Ghazali transferred N20 Million to Surajo Abubakar Muhammad (who is the number one convict in UAE for Financing Terrorism in Nigeria) in 2015. Yusuf Ghazali, the Company’s Director/Promoter transferred N40 million to Ibrahim Ali Alhassan (who was convicted in UAE for financing terrorism in Nigeria) in 2015.

“Abubakar Adamu Yellow who had calls and financial transactions with Alhaji Saidu Ahmed (alleged leader of the group) and directed financial transactions with two of the convicts (Surajo Abukakar Muhammad and Ali Alhassan) received a sum of N189 Million from Yusuf Ghazali, the Company’s Director/Promoter between 2016 and 2018.”

The Desert Exchange Ventures Limited, in 2015, transferred N20 million to the convict Surajo Abubakar Muhammad, N146 million to Habibu Sani Maigida and N195 million to Rashab Nig Enterprises.

A year later, it transferred the N198 million to one Usaini Adamu.

For Eagle Square General Trading Co Ltd, the committee said the firm “transferred the sum of N165 million to Abubakar Adamu Yellow in 2018, N480 million to Usaini Adamu between 2017 and 2018 and N347 million to Bahafs Global Ventures within the same period.”

“Alfa Exchange BDC received N5 million from Yawale Muhammad Sani between 2013 and 2015,” the committee reported, adding the firm received N498 million from Yusuf Gazali.

“Alfa Exchange UAE was mentioned as being used as a repository of Boko Haram money for onward transfer to Nigeria,” the committee stated.
 

The sanctions

The NSC said it recommended the specific individuals and entities “for designation following their involvement with terrorism financing.”

“The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, with the approval of the President, has thereupon designated the following individuals and entities to be listed on the Nigeria Sanctions List,” the NSC stated, rolling out sanctions against the indicted persons “in accordance with Section 54 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”

It recommended that all funds, assets and any other economic resources belonging to the designated persons and entities be immediately frozen without prior notice.

The frozen assets or actions taken against the indicted persons and entities are to be reported to the NSC afterwards.

“Immediately file a Suspicious Transactions Report to the NFIU for further analysis on the financial activities of such an individual or entity; and report as a Suspicious Transactions Report to the NFIU, all cases of name matching in financial transactions prior to or after receipt of this list,” the committee stated.

The committee clarified that the sanctions affect “All funds or other assets that are owned or controlled by the designated persons and entities, and not only those that are tied to a particular act, plot, or threat of terrorism or terrorism financing.”

Assets and funds jointly owned or controlled [directly or indirectly] by the indicted persons and entities shall be frozen as well, the committee explained.

The sanction shall affect the “funds or other assets derived or generated from funds or other assets owned or controlled directly or indirectly by designated persons or entities.”

Funds or other assets of persons and entities acting on behalf of, or at the direction of designated persons or entities shall also be frozen, the committee clarified.

By Yakubu Mohammed, Premium Times 

Related story: Ex-Boko Haram fighters threaten return to arms in Nigeria

Ex-Boko Haram fighters threaten return to arms in Nigeria

Former Boko Haram militants in Nigeria have warned they might return to fighting if they don't get more support from the authorities.

The ex-fighters, who now live in camps in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, say they are frustrated that for months their essential needs had been ignored.

Some told DW that they were better off fighting for the militant group than living in the camps.

"Honestly, if the government does not fulfill what they promised us, there is going to be a serious problem," one of the former insurgents told DW. "Look at how I lost weight and lost my shape. Sincerely speaking, I prefer going [back] to the bush."

The Borno state and Nigeria's federal government promised Boko Haram fighters who surrendered that they would receive training and skills as an alternative to violence and militancy. The Nigerian authorities also pledged to provide start-off capital for the ex-fighters and reintegrate them into society if they laid down their arms.

But over the past two years, only few have benefited from what the government promised. There are over 100,000 former Boko Haram members living in various camps in Borno state awaiting reintegration.
 

Protests outside camps

Last month, some former members — joined by their families — staged a protest outside Dikwa camp located in Borno state over their concerns.

There were similar agitations in the Mafa camp, which also houses ex-Boko Haram fighters and other internally displaced persons. Former militants in these camps have all threatened to return to the bush if their needs are not met.

Some confided in DW that several former combatants had already returned to their forest enclaves.

"Most of them are saying they are better off when they are with the insurgents because they are doing well in terms of food and essentials," another former Boko Haram fighter told DW. " Most of them are willing to go back to where they came from."
 

Authorities dismiss threats

However, Babagana Umara Zulum, Borno state governor, insisted that the government is doing its best to support the ex-fighters. Zulum accused the former fighters of showing a lack of gratitude.

"No any administration be it federal or state has the capacity to provide food and non-food items to the millions of its people on a daily basis," Zulum told DW, adding that anybody willing to stay in the camp was welcome to do so.

"Anybody who is not willing to stay in the camp — he wants to go to the bush — allow him to go back to the bush."

The governor revealed that efforts are ongoing to address the issue of food shortages at the camps housing these former fighters and others.

He warned that anyone instigating the ongoing agitations to desist. "Anybody who is trying to sabotage this administration will be dealt with accordingly."

Ex-fighters a major security threat

Security experts and analysts have warned the government against ignoring the agitations and threats from the former fighters.

Major (retired) Muhammad Bashir Shu'aibu Galma told DW the threat of returning to the bush is dangerous for Nigeria and the entire Sahel region.

"To allow these people to go back to the fighting spirit is the worst thing," Shu'aibu said. "These people must have known enough now some of the military secrets, positions, even for the limited time they had and mingled with the society, it will be a setback," he added.

Professor Lawal Jafar Tahir, a political analyst from Yobe State University Damaturu, agrees and expressed fears of Nigeria's security situation worsening should the ex-fighters opt to pick up guns again.

"They are more or less a time bomb now to society," Tahir said, adding that if the former militants return to the bush and continue the insurgency, it could be more dangerous.

According to him, the fighters "have now gathered reasonable information and opportunity to attack people, particularly the civilians."

Tahir urged the government to address their demands promptly. "When they revolt, it is going to be very hard for the government to control them," he added.

Last year, the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) cited the Boko Haram insurgency as President Bola Tinubu's most challenging security threat.

The insurgency — in its fifteenth year — has shown no signs of ending despite efforts by Nigeria's military to curb it.

Boko Haram is most active in northeastern Nigeria, with footholds in Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

By Muhammad Al-Amin, DW

Related story: Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

Suspected Islamist insurgents kidnapped 50 people, mostly women, in northeastern Nigeria this week, local officials and a resident said on Wednesday, the latest mass abduction by fighters who have waged an insurgency for more than a decade.

Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters have mainly operated in Borno state in the northeast, targeting security forces and civilians, in the process killing and displacing tens of thousands of people.

The latest incident took place on Monday in the remote Gamboru area, which shares a border with Chad and Cameroon, said an official of the Civilian Joint Task Force, which helps the army to fight the jihadists.

The official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the group of at least 50 people from a camp for internally displaced persons, went to collect firewood on the shores of Lake Chad, where ISWAP is known to operate.

They were ambushed by gunmen and made to walk across bushy paths into neighbouring Chad, the official said, adding that three of the kidnapped women managed to escape.

The Nigerian Army did not respond to a request for comment.

Falmata Bukar, one of the three women who escaped, told Reuters by phone that the gunmen had "surrounded us and we were asked to follow them to the bush."

She later escaped with two others on Tuesday, she said.

Barkindo Saidu, head of Borno's emergency agency, said he was travelling to the area to assess the situation but was not yet ready to declare the people missing.

The agency is in charge of camps housing thousands of Nigerians displaced by the insurgency. 

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Related stories: School in Nigeria helps girls to heal after Boko Haram

Video - 12 killed in Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram militant

School in Nigeria helps girls to heal after Boko Haram

What 19-year-old Binta Usman remembers most vividly about her early days at the Lafiya Sarari girls’ school in Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria’s Borno state, are the frequent tears that made it hard for her to concentrate in class.

“We’d all be sitting in class and all of us would just be crying,” she says.

Like Usman, whose father was killed and family held captive by the militant jihadist group Boko Haram, all 100 women and girls at the school have either witnessed a parent’s murder or been kidnapped themselves.

Another pupil, 17-year-old Hassana, recalls being forced to join the militants, handling weapons and carry out acts of violence. “We drank blood,” she says.

Boko Haram has targeted schools as part of its campaign of atrocities in north-eastern Nigeria since 2010. It has carried out massacres and multiple abductions, including 2014’s killing of 59 schoolboys, the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014 and 101 girls in Dapchi in 2018.

Between 2013 and 2018, according to the UN, Boko Haram abducted more than 1,000 children, using them as soldiers and domestic or sex slaves. Amnesty International has estimated that 1,436 schoolchildren and 17 teachers were abducted between December 2020 and October 2021.

The Lafiya Sarari school was set up in response to the terror Boko Haram has inflicted. Established in 2017 by the Neem Foundation, a Nigerian charity set up to help communities affected by violence, the school is designed to provide support and education to those who have suffered trauma.

“What we do is a trauma-informed learning approach,” says Dr Fatima Akilu, a psychologist who helped set up the foundation. “It’s not a set programme.”

She says: “Some people have post-traumatic stress disorder, some come in with depression, some come with anxiety – it changes.

“We used to have a psychologist in the early days when we first started, but now all we have is a full-time counsellor who knows the girls, who has been with them throughout.”

Akilu initially envisioned Lafiya Sarari as a model of reconciliation, where children of victims, perpetrators and the security forces could receive education together.

But the conflict disrupted education, leaving gaps in learning for children too old for traditional primary school classes. “I didn’t even know ‘ABC’ when I came here,” says Usman, who enrolled aged 12.

The selection process involved interviewing girls aged between 11 and 14 from displaced communities and in refugee camps. “We selected girls who were tenacious and could become something because this was going to be quite a long project.

“Quite a few of the girls had come out of captivity at the time, so some of them were really in a bad state [and] needed trauma support. That was also one of the criteria because we could give them long-term treatment,” says Akilu.

Funding for the ongoing pilot programme for 100 girls came from a grant by the US Catena Foundation. Initially, the students learned together, but as they progressed they were streamed by academic achievement. Thirty pupils have successfully passed national exams and are preparing for university this year.

It is a far cry from how they arrived, fearful and distrustful. They struggled to interact or form friendships with other children and often resorted to violence at the slightest provocation. “They only knew how to fight,” says Yakubu Gwadeda, the deputy headteacher.

“They didn’t know how to interact with each other peacefully, how to queue,” he says.

Those who had been involved with Boko Haram, like Hassana, used to try to intimidate their peers with the threat of violence.

“They went through intervention sessions, coping, resilience, expressive therapy,” says the school counsellor, Hauwa Abdullahi Zaifada. “Some could not talk about their experience but we got to hear their stories through drawings and music.

“Sometimes,” she adds, “they would come to the sessions and not say a word, and we would have to reschedule.”

One of Zaifada’s primary goals was to overcome Boko Haram’s indoctrination against education. She found an opportunity when several girls spoke of their desire for revenge against those who had killed their parents or exploited them.

“I told them that you don’t have to be a soldier or hold a gun for revenge,” Zaifada says. “Education can be their revenge.

“They realised that education is valuable and can help them. That’s how they started picking up in school and doing well.”

Falmata Mohammed Talba, 20, found the daily therapy at school so beneficial that she began replicating the sessions with her two brothers, who attend a government-run school.

She helped them cope with the trauma they collectively experienced after witnessing their father’s murder by Boko Haram and then being held captive with their mother.

“When I first started, I used to see her one-on-one almost every day for about six months. Sometimes, I would even run out of the class. Talking to the psychologist helped me a lot,” Talba says.

“I helped my brothers the way Lafiya Sarari helped me. I tell my brothers, ‘This is what they told me. Why don’t you too start practising it?’ That’s how they changed.”

Talba says she and her brothers can now openly discuss their father without succumbing to tears or anger. “We now say, ‘Remember this when we were with Dad’, and we can laugh,” she says.

Hassana’s psychological progress has been notable, even though her academic advancement has been slower than that of some of her peers. She still relies on an interpreter to express herself in English.

“My relatives were so worried about my behaviour that whenever I started acting out, they would start shouting out passages of the Qur’an to calm me down,” she says. “But all that has stopped. The nightmares have also stopped.”

Seven years after the launch of Lafiya Sarari, Zaifada still has daily sessions with her students.

“Now I don’t have to look for them. They come to me if they have any issues,” she says. “Most of the issues now are environmental – peer-group influences, family issues.”

As for Usman, the crying has stopped. She smiles broadly as she shares her aspirations of winning a scholarship to study law at Cambridge University.

“I hear it is a good school,” she says.

By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, The Guardian 

Related story: Nigeria set to recover £6.9m looted during Boko Haram incursions

Video - At least 12 people killed by a landmine in Nigeria’s Borno state

The explosion also injured seven others, with three in critical condition evacuated to Maiduguri, the state capital for medical care.

Related story: Video - Seven children killed by improvised explosive device in northeast Nigeria

 

Nigeria set to recover £6.9m looted during Boko Haram incursions

Nigeria will receive some of its stolen assets believed to be worth £6.9m ($8.9m). This is following the verdict of an American court, which ruled that the source of the funds is ambiguous and believed to have been looted. Negotiations with the Nigerian government would precede the return of the stolen loot.

According to a report by the BBC, funds valued at £6.9 million ($8.9 million) were looted from Nigeria’s coffers and deposited in a Jersey bank in 2014. The crime is said to have been perpetrated by some members of the Nigerian government at the time.

“The transfer of money was disguised as government-sanctioned contracts for arms purchases during incursions by Boko Haram in Nigeria between 2009 and 2015,” the BBC report reads in part.

According to the report, Jersey’s government disclosed that the fund, which was originally intended for legitimate arms deals was rerouted via “foreign bank accounts to and from shell companies.”

Based on the statement from the office of the Attorney General, the money was thought to have gone to family members of the administration in question and was distributed among its party members during the 2015 Nigerian general elections.

Representing the Nigerian people’s interest, the Nigerian government has been working closely with Jersey officials to retrieve the stolen property, as disclosed by Mark Temple KC, His Majesty's Attorney General.

"This case again demonstrates the effectiveness of the 2018 Forfeiture Law in recovering the proceeds of corruption and restoring that money to victims of crime,” the Attorney General stated,

"I now intend to negotiate an asset return agreement with the Federal Republic of Nigeria," he added.

By Chinedu Okafor, Business Insider Africa

Video - 12 killed in Nigeria by suspected Boko Haram militants

Heavily armed assailants suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents randomly shot at people on Monday. Authorities launched investigations into the incident two weeks after bandits killed two people. Chibok is widely known for attacks and kidnappings, most notably the 2014 abduction of 276 teenage girls at a secondary school.

CGTN

Video - 60 feared dead in militant fighting in northeastern Nigeria

Clashes between rival militant groups in Nigeria have left 60 dead. Sources told AFP that fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province ambushed a fleet of Boko Haram boats on Lake Chad this past weekend.

CGTN

Suspected Boko Haram kills 15 farmers in northeast Nigeria

At least 15 rice farmers were killed and several others feared abducted in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state after suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked three villages, a local farmers' leader said on Monday.

The attack occurred in the villages of Koshebe, Karkut, and Bulabulin in the Mafa local government area in the state, about 15 kilometres from the capital Maiduguri, Mohammed Haruna, secretary of the Zabarmari Rice Farmers Association, told Reuters.

The Borno police spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment on the attack, which happened on Sunday.

Haruna said the Islamists stormed the villages on motorcycles and attacked the farmers who were harvesting crops from their rice fields.

"They did not use guns to kill them, instead they used cutlasses and knives to stab them to death, while others were beheaded," Haruna said.

He said 15 farmers were confirmed killed in the attack, adding that some managed to escape. The number of those missing is still unknown.

The attack is the latest in a series of assaults by Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria. The group has been waging a 14-year insurgency in the region aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate there.

At least 40 people were killed in the northeastern Yobe state last week, the first major Boko Haram attack in the state in 18 months.

Last week, Nigerian lawmakers approved a supplementary budget that includes provisions for defence and security.

President Bola Tinubu, preoccupied with fixing the economy, has yet to outline how he plans to tackle insurgency in the north and widespread insecurity across the country.

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Video - Nigerian official wants to close IDP camps in country's northeast

A top official in north-eastern Nigeria says Islamic militant groups, such as Boko Haram, are trying to recruit new members from the internally displaced persons who live in the camps.

CGTN