Missing Girls Expose Kidnapping Capital as Nigerians Pay Ransoms

Four armed men ransacked Antony Akatakpo’s home in front of his wife and two children in the #Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, shot him in the leg and bundled him into the trunk of his Mitsubishi Endeavor.

Schoolgirls who escaped from Boko Haram kidnappers in the village of Chibok, arrive at the Government house to speak with State Governor Kashim Shettima in Maiduguri on June 2. In northern #Nigeria, Islamist groups have carried out a series of kidnappings, that of the girls at their school in Chibok in Borno state being the most spectacular example.

Akatakpo, the 34-year-old breakfast show presenter at Wazobia FM who’s known as Diplomatic Akas Baba, was driven to a forest hideout and held blindfolded for a week, fed on plain bread and threatened with death unless his family paid a 10 million naira ($62,107) ransom. He said he was dumped on a city highway on March 20 after the gunmen received less than half the sum they demanded.

“I was praying and calling on God to help me, rescue me,” he said by phone from Port Harcourt, the hub of Africa’s biggest oil industry in southeastern Nigeria. “They wanted to collect their own share of the money I was making for my family.”

Nigeria has become Africa’s kidnapping capital. It ranked third globally last year after Mexico and India, according to London-based consultancy Control Risks Group. While seizures for cash like that of Akatakpo are a daily occurrence in Africa’s most populous nation, the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamist militants in the northeastern village of Chibok focused international attention on the issue.

“Kidnappings have been happening all over the country, it’s not just confined to the northeast, it’s not just confined to the south,” Ibrahim Mu’azzam, a professor of political science at Bayero University in the northern city of Kano, said in an interview.

Niger Delta

More than 1,000 people were kidnapped in Nigeria in 2012, the highest on record, according to Red24 Plc (REDT), a Glasgow, Scotland-based security services company. The kidnappers in the oil-rich Niger River delta used to target mainly foreigners, who accounted for more than half of the victims in 2007, according Control Risks. Last year, 84 percent were Nigerians.

That’s partly because kidnapping a foreigner will probably involve lengthy negotiations that will reduce the ransom and force the abductors to keep the victim alive for an extended period, said Peter Sharwood-Smith, the Lagos-based West Africa regional manager at risk consultancy Drum Cussac.

“If a wealthy Nigerian is taken hostage, the negotiations will usually be directly with the family, who are emotionally involved, and this usually leads to a quicker and simpler payment, and usually means the authorities are not even notified,” he said.

Oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron ramped up their security in the wake of attacks by an insurgent group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta that declined in 2009 after a general amnesty.

Security Provisions

“Oil companies have significantly bolstered their security provisions,” Tom Newell, Africa response analyst at Control Risks, said by phone from London. It’s easier to kidnap “nationals who adopt less robust security measures and are nevertheless reasonably affluent. The primary target group tends to be middle-class, relatively wealthy Nigerian nationals.”

Frank Mba, a national spokesman for Nigeria’s police, didn’t answer five calls and three text messages to his mobile phone seeking comment. President Goodluck Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, didn’t answer three calls and one text message to his mobile phone.

In December 2012, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s mother was kidnapped and held for five days. Her captors told her she was abducted because her daughter didn’t yield to pressures to authorize payments for unverified fuel-subsidy claims, Okonjo-Iweala told reporters after her release.

Wealth Disparity

“Crime has flourished because of the extreme disparity of wealth in that region, when you have comparatively wealthy people living cheek-by-jowl with comparatively poor people,” Newell said by phone from London. “That sets a breeding ground for kidnappings.”

The West African nation is struggling to create enough jobs, even as the International Monetary Fund estimates the economy will expand 7.1 percent this year. The unemployment rate has risen to 23.9 percent in 2012 from 13.9 percent in 2000, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele told reporters on June 5 in Abuja. The youth unemployment rate in the delta is 40 percent, according to a 2011 report by the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta.

As long as poverty, unemployment, corruption and weak security aren’t addressed in the north and Niger delta regions, Nigeria will be plagued by abductions, said Ryan Cummings, the Cape Town-based chief Africa analyst at Red24.

Islamist Groups

“These structural issues will need to be remedied in order to address Nigeria’s kidnapping for ransom and extortion concerns,” he said. “Kidnapping is an established threat in Nigeria and is likely to continue to be so for the foreseeable future.”

In northern Nigeria, Islamist groups have also carried out a series of kidnappings, that of the girls at their school in Chibok in Borno state being the most spectacular example. In January, the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, the capital, said Boko Haram kidnapped women for marriage as “slave brides.”

Islamist militants held French engineer Francis Collomp for almost a year before he was freed in November. Three Lebanese, a Filipino, a Greek, an Italian and a U.K. national working for Setraco Nigeria Ltd. were seized in a February attack last year at their residential compound in the northern state of Bauchi. They were eventually murdered.

The latter kidnappings were claimed by Ansaru, a splinter group of Boko Haram. It said it carried out the attack in response to “the transgressions and atrocities done to the religion of Allah” by European nations in countries such as Mali and Afghanistan.

Unlucky Victims

Some victims are just unlucky.

Mike Ozekhome said he was reading newspapers at about 3 p.m. on Aug. 23 as he traveled from Benin City to a family funeral at his home village Agenebode. He didn’t see the roadblock until his driver suddenly slowed down his Toyota Prado SUV.

About 10 young men with rifles and machine guns dragged the 56-year-old lawyer out of his car, he said. His captors gunned down four policemen who were alerted to kidnapping and then drove Ozekhome into a remote swampy outpost.

He shared a single sweat-drenched mattress with two others, took toilet trips under armed guard and contracted malaria, he said. Ozekhome was released 20 days later after his family paid an amount he won’t disclose so not to encourage criminals.

“I wasn’t profiled or targeted, I simply ran into them,” Ozekhome said at his office in Abuja. “In our detention camp I later found out we were about 13 there and some of them were poor women.”

For now, Akatakpo said his abduction won’t force him to leave Port Harcourt. He said he wants to work with the local Rivers state government to help bring down rates of kidnappings and help find opportunities for impoverished youths.

“They have to make a living for themselves,” said Akatakpo. “The gun is what they use to eat.”
Source: Bloomberg 

Nigerian police ban protests over abducted schoolgirls

© Photo: AFP

Protests by supporters of more than 200 schoolgirls #kidnapped by #BokoHaram have been banned in #Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, police said on Monday, as activists vowed to challenge the “illegal” move.

Police spokeswoman Altine Daniel confirmed the ban in a text message to AFP, saying the decision was taken “because of security reasons”.

Protest organisers questioned the legitimacy of the move and eyed a possible political motive, but #police chief Joseph Mbu said the ban was imposed because of the threat of infiltration from “dangerous elements”.

“As the FCT [Federal Capital Territory] police boss, I cannot fold my hands and watch this lawlessness,” Mbu was quoted by the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as saying.

“Information reaching us is that too soon, dangerous elements will join groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government.”

Commissioner Mbu added that the venue for the Abuja protest, the ‘Fountain of Unity’ had become a place for “cooking and selling” by hawkers to the protesters, which he said was a “nuisance”.

Protesters defiant

Protesters hit back against Mbu’s comments and pledged to return to the streets despite the ban.

“There is no basis for and no power of FCT Commissioner of Police to ban peaceful assembly of any group of persons in... the city. None@ ALL,” protest leader Oby Ezekwesili wrote on Twitter.

“The decision to ban the protest is insane. We are going to court as soon as possible to challenge the ban,” added the group’s lawyer, Femi Falana.

“It is illegal because a court of competent jurisdiction has ruled in December 2007 that no police permit is needed to stage a peaceful protest anywhere in Nigeria.”

Bring Back Our Girls spokesman Rotimi Olawale said that the protesters were “unperturbed”.

“We have been peaceful in our protest. We don’t obstruct traffic or constitute ourselves to a public menace,” he added.

Government blamed

Nigeria has seen near-daily protests over the abduction and continued detention of the remaining 219 schoolgirls (57 have escaped) by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, who were snatched from the remote north-eastern village of Chibok, near the border with Cameroon, on April 14.

The campaign has attracted worldwide support from ordinary people to US First Lady Michelle Obama and Pope Francis. Copycat demonstrations have also been held around the globe.

But officials close to President Goodluck Jonathan say the protests are unfairly directed at the government and security forces when they should be protesting against the rebels.

The unrest has shone the spotlight on Nigeria’s violent five-year-long Islamist insurgency, which has killed thousands since 2009.

The government has been repeatedly criticised for failing to protect civilians in the northeast. At least 530 civilians have been killed since the day of the girls’ abduction, according to a Reuters count.

The campaign to save the girls triggered pledges of international support to rescue them and US troops are currently operating in neighbouring Chad on a mission to find them.

But authorities say any attempt to rescue the girls would be fraught with danger, as they are most likely separated into groups. Freeing one group, even if they came out alive, would endanger the others. --AFP

Cameroon army soldiers killed 40 militants of Boko Haram’s army

YAOUNDE : Cameroon security forces killed some 40 #Boko Haram militants in clashes in the country's far north, state radio said on Sunday, shortly after the release of two Italian priests and a Canadian nun suspected to have been held by the Islamist group.

A presidency source confirmed the clashes, which took place west of the town of Kousseri, in the region bordering #Nigeria and Chad. Cameroon, which has been criticised by Nigeria for not doing enough to fight the Nigeria-based Boko Haram, deployed some 1,000 troops to the far north this week as it steps up the fight against the Islamist militants. Moreover,

In Brussels, #NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said NATO defence ministers would on Tuesday review measures the alliance had taken given Russia's actions towards #Ukraine.

She said this could include "enhanced air patrols over the Baltic states, AWACS surveillance planes over Poland and Romania, more exercises, and an enhanced naval presence by NATO allies from the Baltic to the Black Sea." "Defence ministers will also discuss the longer-term implications of the crisis and consider a readiness action plan in preparation for the Wales summit in September," she added.

In April Poland's defence minister said Russia's military intervention in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula made it vital that NATO station significant numbers of troops in eastern Europe and ignore any objections Russia might have. Russia says deployment of significant NATO forces close to Russia would violate the 1997 Founding Act, an agreement between Moscow and the alliance. Eastern European states are nervous about Russia after it annexed Ukraine's Crimea region and massed 40,000 troops on Ukraine's borders. NATO is trying to provide reassurance with temporary deployments of military forces and exercises. The Nation

Nigeria's president pledges 'total war' against Boko Haram

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Photo by AP

#Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said on Thursday he had ordered "a full-scale operation to put an end to the impunity of terrorists on our soil," as he reassured parents of 219 #schoolgirls being held by Boko Haram that his forces would free them.

"I am determined to protect our #democracy, our national unity and our political stability, by waging a total war against terrorism," Jonathan said in a televised speech to mark Democracy Day.

The phrase 'total war' was used by Chad's President Idriss Deby following a meeting of countries neighbouring Nigeria held in Paris in mid-May, designed to define a common strategy to fight the Islamist group.

Jonathan also said he had authorized security forces to use "any means necessary under the law to ensure that this is done. I assure you ... that these thugs will be driven away. It will not happen overnight, but we will spare no effort to achieve this goal."

It was not clear what such an offensive could entail given that the northeast of the country plagued by Boko Haram insurgents has been under a state of emergency and a full scale military operation for a year - and Nigerian forces are stretched to breaking point.

"With the support of Nigerians, our neighbours and the international community, we will reinforce our defence, free our girls and rid Nigeria of terrorists," Jonathan said.

Jonathan blamed "extremist foreign elements" for the Islamic uprising.

The Nigerian leader said all democratic gains on the economic and social fronts are threatened by "international terrorism on our shores."

The World Bank says two-thirds of the 170 million people struggle in poverty in Africa's biggest oil producer. The Haaretz

Four Kidnapped Nigerian Girls Escape Boko Haram Abductors

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, May 28 (Reuters) - Four more of the girls kidnapped by #Boko Haram last month have escaped than previously thought, #Nigeria's Borno state said on Wednesday, but 219 others were still missing and assumed held by the Islamist militants.

The girls were taking exams at a secondary school in the remote northeastern village of #Chibok on April 14 when the Islamist gunmen surrounded it, loaded 276 of them onto trucks and carted them off, according to official figures.

Fifty-three escaped shortly afterwards, say authorities in Borno state, which lies at the epicenter of Boko Haram's insurgency.

Education commissioner Musa Inuwa told Reuters by telephone the four had been reunited with their parents since then, but he declined to give further details of their escape or say when it happened.

A senior Borno state official said it was not clear when they escaped, and it may even have been several weeks ago. The parents had not contacted authorities when the girls returned.

"It was a little after the initial escapes but we doubt it was a recent escape," he said.

The girls' abduction shone an international spotlight on the militants, whose violent struggle for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria has killed thousands and turned them into the biggest threat to security in Africa's top oil-producing state.

From being a religious movement opposed to Western culture - Boko Haram means "Western education is a sin" in the northern Hausa language - the sect has emerged as a well-armed insurrection with a growing thirst for blood.

Chief of Defense Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh said on Tuesday the military knew where the abducted girls were but ruled out a rescue by force for fear of endangering them.

Most officials think any raid to rescue them would run a high risk that the girls would be killed by their captors. Boko Haram has repeatedly showed ruthlessness in targeting civilians.

The military has been bruised by criticism at home and abroad of its failure to protect the girls and its slow response to the hostage crisis. Badeh was quoted in the state news agency as saying the military was doing all it could to secure the girls' release.

"No matter the criticisms, the Nigerian Armed Forces will continue to do what it had sworn to do," he said. "You are aware that we have international partners working with us to release our girls and our girls will be released."

Thirty-one security personnel were killed in an attack by heavily armed Boko Haram militants in the town of Buni Yadi on Monday. (Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew Roche)..-HuffPost

Boko Haram Attacks Kill Dozens In Nigeria

Boko Haram militants have killed dozens of members of the security forces in two attacks in northern #Nigeria, officials have said.

The Reuters news agency said that gunmen from the extremist Islamic group attacked a Nigerian military base and adjacent police barracks simultaneously in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi.

The exact number of deaths is unclear, with one group of officials saying it is 54 and security sources saying at least 31.

It comes as pressure mounts on Nigeria to free more than 200 #schoolgirls held captive by Boko Haram, after the military ruled out an armed rescue operation.

The Nigerian military claims it knows where the girls are, but says it is too dangerous to rescue them. In the past, Nigerian militants have killed those they are holding during rescue operations.

The #US State Department on Tuesday evening (UK time) said it did not have information which could "support Nigeria's claim it has located the kidnapped girls".

A witness and resident of Buni Yadi, who identified himself only as Mustafa, said the militants in the latest attack arrived in an armoured personnel carrier and six Toyota Hilux pickup trucks.

They dismounted and fired into the air before launching rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) at both bases.

Some of the locations of Boko Haram attacks

A senior security source in Yobe state said 17 soldiers and 14 police officers, including a female police officer, were confirmed to have been killed.

In a rare act for a movement that has killed thousands of civilians in the past year, the militants apparently called out to people on the street not to run away as they had only come for the security forces, Mustafa and the Yobe police source said.

The latest attacks were in the same town where 59 Nigerian secondary school pupils were killed by suspected Boko Haram Islamists as they slept in student housing.

Explosives were thrown into accommodation of the Federal Government College in the Yobe state town and rooms sprayed with gunfire in February.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is a sin" in the northern Hausa language, is believed to be using hilly terrain on the Cameroon border as its base.

Cameroon has deployed around 1,000 troops and armoured vehicles to its border region with Nigeria as it steps up its military presence to counter the rising threat. Sky News

Nigerian Army say that we know where the abducted girls are

Nigeria’s top military officer on Monday said authorities had found the location where more than 200 abducted #schoolgirls are being held by Boko Haram Islamist militants who kidnapped them last month.

Alex Badeh, #Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, who was cited by the state news agency as the source of the claim, reportedly would not give more information on their whereabouts.

Air Chief Marshal Badeh later told reporters in the capital Abuja, “The good news for the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you." Badeh added that the army has ruled out any use of force to try to rescue the girls.

Air Marshal Alex Barde told demonstrators supporting the much-criticised military that Nigerian troops can save the girls. But he added, “we can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back.” He spoke to thousands of demonstrators who marched to the defence ministry headquarters in the capital. Many were brought in on buses, indicating it was an organised event.

“We want our girls back. I can tell you we can do it. Our military can do it. But where they are held, can we go with force?” he asked the crowd. People shouted back, “No!”

“If we go with force what will happen?” he asked.

“They will die,” the demonstrators said.

“Nobody should come and say the Nigerian military does not know what it is doing. We know what we are doing,” he insisted.

International outrage

A total of 276 students were abducted on April 14 from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok. While some 53 of the girls managed to escape, police say 276 remain captive.

The military and government have faced national and international outrage over their failure to rescue the girls.

President Goodluck Jonathan was forced this month to accept international help. American planes have been searching for the girls and Britain, France, Israel and other countries have sent experts in surveillance and hostage negotiation.

Jonathan’s reluctance to accept offered help for weeks is seen as unwillingness to have outsiders looking in on what is considered a very corrupt force.

Soldiers have told AP that they are not properly paid, are dumped in dangerous bush with no supplies and that the Boko Haram extremists holding the girls are better equipped than they are.

Some soldiers have said officers enriching themselves off the defence budget have no interest in halting the five-year-old uprising that has killed thousands.

Soldiers near mutiny earlier this month fired on the car of a commanding officer come to pay his respects to the bodies of 12 soldiers who their colleagues said were unnecessarily killed by the insurgents in a night-time ambush.

The military also is accused of killing thousands of detainees held illegally in their barracks, some by shooting, some by torture and many starved to death or asphyxiated in overcrowded cells.

A Boko Haram video has shown some of the girls reciting Quranic verses in Arabic and two of them explaining why they had converted from Christianity to Islam in captivity. Unverified reports have indicated two may have died of snake bites, that some have been forced to marry their abductors and that some may have been carried across borders into Chad and Cameroon.

Boko Haram – the name means “Western education is sinful” – believes Western influences have corrupted Nigerian society and want to install an Islamic state under strict Shariah law, though the population 170 million people is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims. -- AFP

Nigeria's Boko Haram 'targets village vigilantes

Villagers have been forming vigilante groups to protect their communities from militant attacks

Militants in Nigeria have raided three villages and killed those they accused of being anti-Boko Haram vigilantes, residents have told the BBC.

More than 30 people were killed in the attacks overnight into Friday in north-eastern Borno state, they said.
The raids took place as the #UN Security Council approved sanctions against the Islamist group.
It is five weeks since Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls, prompting international outrage.

Nigerian officials say President Goodluck Jonathan is due to travel to South #Africa for discussions with other African heads of state on combating terrorism in Africa following on from last weekend's summit hosted by France.
Earlier his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, said African presidents should take responsibility for their failures and resolve their own conflicts together.

"I find that our leaders, who should have been working together all along to address these problems that only affect their countries, wait until they are invited to go to Europe. Why does anybody wait for that? What image does it even give about Africa?" he said.

Military alerted'

Residents from two of the villages that came under attack said militants had arrived in a convoy and gathered the men of the community together.

They accused them of being members of vigilante groups and killed them all, one villager from Moforo in Marte district who escaped across the border to Cameroon told the BBC Hausa service.
They then burnt down all the shops in the market, leaving the villagers destitute, he said.

Correspondents say that most villages have formed vigilante groups to try to protect their communities from militant attacks.

A resident of Kimbi village in Biu district said the villagers contacted the security forces to alert them to their attack, but were told it was not an area under military control so they could not be helped.
The military has not commented on the allegation.

About 25 men were killed in Moforo, another eight men in Kimbi. It is not known if there were casualties from a raid early on Friday on Kabrihu village near the Sambisa forest.

The latest attacks came after another deadly village raid in Borno and twin bombings which killed 122 in the central city of Jos on Tuesday. The authorities also suspect #Boko Haram of being behind those attacks, but there has so far been no claim of responsibility from the group.

Boko Haram was added to the UN Security Council's al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee's list of designated entities on Thursday at the request of Nigeria.
US envoy Samantha Power said it was an "important step" in support of efforts to "defeat Boko Haram and hold its murderous leadership accountable".
 BBC News

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemns bombings

The area was packed with people when the bombings occurred

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned twin bombings in the central city of Jos in which at least 118 people were killed.

Mr Jonathan said those who carried out the attack were cruel and evil.
It is feared more bodies still lie under the rubble of buildings destroyed by the explosions, which targeted a crowded market and a hospital.
Nigeria has been facing a sustained campaign by the Islamist Boko Haram militant group.
The president said he was committed to fighting terrorism despite criticism that he has failed to ensure security.

'Enemies of human progress'

Last month Boko Haram abducted 200 girls from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok.

Witnesses spoke of scenes of horror and confusion in the aftermath of the attack

The twin bombings in Jos are seen by many as the latest affront to the government's internationally-backed security crackdown

Correspondents say that the aim behind back-to-back blast tactics - as also used by militants in Iraq - is to maximize civilian casualties

Firemen were still trying to put several blazes out hours after the attack and officials believe that more bodies will be found

President Jonathan described Tuesday's attack as a "tragic assault on human freedom".
"President Jonathan assures all Nigerians that [the] government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror and... Will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilisation," his office said.

He announced increased measures to tackle the militants, including a multinational force around Lake Chad which comprises a battalion each from Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria.
The second blast in Jos came 30 minutes after the first, killing rescue workers who had rushed to the scene, which was enveloped by clouds of black smoke.

Mr Jonathan said those who carried out the attack were cruel and evil

"It's horrifying, terrible," said Mark Lipdo of the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian charity based in the city who said the air was heavy with the smell of burning bodies.
Witnesses described a grim scene of dead and badly injured people - some with limbs blown off - besides fires still raging out of control eight hours after the attack.
Dozens of those dead and injured were covered in grain that had been loaded in the second car bomb, witnesses said.

"Firemen are still trying to put several blazes out. We believe we will find more bodies," National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) Zonal Co-ordinator Mohammed Abdulsalam told the Associated Press.
He said the fires were being fuelled by flammable goods at the market, including rubber sandals.
A spokesperson for the regional governor told AFP news agency that most of the victims were women.
The market and bus terminal are part of the commercial centre of Jos.

Correspondents say that Nigeria is under renewed worldwide attention over its response to Boko Haram, especially given the global attention on the plight of the missing school girls.
Source: BBC News

Bombings Kill Scores in Nigerian City

ABUJA, Nigeria—Three bombs struck the crowded city of Jos in quick succession on Tuesday, aid workers said, killing at least 118 people and putting one of Africa's most religiously divided cities back on edge.

Two bombs struck a teeming downtown marketplace minutes apart in the afternoon before a third blast occurred near a military outpost, said a Nigerian Red Cross aid worker who estimated that 40 people had been killed.

Other aid workers, meanwhile, hung back—afraid of the possibility of a fourth bomb, he said. Witnesses told the British Broadcasting Corp. that they had seen more than 40 bodies carried into a nearby hospital.

"It's serious," said the Red Cross responder. "It was located at the heart of the city. The heart of the city."

No group took immediate responsibility for the attacks. Still, the apparently indiscriminate bombings bore all of the gruesome hallmarks of Islamist insurgency Boko Haram, the same group that kidnapped 276 teenage girls from a high school in April.

This time, they struck one of #Nigeria's most nervous cities: Interfaith violence rages constantly across the lush hills outside Jos, carried out by people who have little, if any, connection to Boko Haram. 

President Goodluck Jonathan, who has drawn fire over what many Nigerians see as his insufficient response to Boko Haram, condemned the attacks, saying, "This administration will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress."

While much of the world's attention has been fixated on the fate of the #schoolgirls, a campaign of car bombings has been under way across the Nigeria's Muslim hinterlands.

Two car bombs in the past five weeks hit the same suburb just minutes from the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja, killing at least 91 people. On Sunday evening, another bomb left five dead in the Christian quarters of Kano, an ancient Muslim city six hours' drive to the north of Abuja. While Boko Haram releases YouTube videos every few weeks, it rarely claims responsibility for attacks.

In Jos, a city of one million, the first two bombs struck a marketplace packed with Christian shopkeepers, but also Muslims. Local media showed grisly pictures of charred bodies loaded into trucks at the scene.

A young boy pushes a wheelbarrow past the wreckage of a burnt vehicle and burning shops following a bomb blast in the central city of Jos on Tuesday. AFP/Getty Images

Many of the city's residents remain accustomed to religious strife: Interfaith violence rages constantly across the hills outside the city, carried out by people who have little, if any, connection to Boko Haram.

Even still, many questioned the logic of an attack that killed people irrespective of faith. They included Henry Mang, a history professor at the University of Jos, who visited the hospital where "you could find a lot of Muslims, Christians, everybody.

"One man ran in just to discover his wife lying dead on one of the gurneys," Mr. Mang said. "He just stood there, took off his jacket, and covered her."

The wave of bombings poses a test for the religiously fraught city. Streets emptied in the hours after the blast, with both Muslims and Christians bracing themselves for another religious riot.

There have been many here. Riots in 2001 killed nearly 1,000 people, before roughly 700 more died in a similar round of clashes in 2008, followed by 2010 riots that left about 200 dead.

Now, Boko Haram appears to be tapping into the deep reservoir of religious hatred here. The group bombed a market in Jos on Christmas Eve in 2010, and set off three church bombs in 2012.

"The wider implication is the potential for it to destabilize the city and put it back into rioting again," said Adam Higazi, a Cambridge University Nigeria researcher who lived in Jos until recently. "They're trying to destabilize Jos again and spark more religious violence."

Crowds gather at a market in Jos on Tuesday where two bombings, along with a third near a military outpost, killed at least 118 people. European Pressphoto Agency

Nigeria has been beset by longstanding grievances between its Christian south and Muslim north. The country has had a Muslim president for just three of its past 15 years of democracy, and many Muslims here say they believe Christian politicians have ruled for too long. Far from the halls of power, Nigerians in the countryside —especially outside Jos—clash over farmland, too. Herdsman—almost all of them Muslims—frequently battle with farmers, largely Christians, who blame free-range cattle for trampling their crops.

Across the north, meanwhile, many Muslims insist Shariah law is the remedy to rampant corruption that has kept this country mired in poverty. Many Christians see Shariah as an unconstitutional imposition on a religiously mixed country. 

Boko Haram operates at a distance from these debates, nestled in forests far from political power or urban life. It hasn't succeeded in rallying Nigerian Muslims into a religious conflagration, if that was ever a goal. Its tactics have proved bloody, and the speeches by its leader, Abubakar Shekau, ramble on without much political focus.

In Jos, for now, the latest attacks have rattled nerves—but mostly found a public exhausted by religious acrimony. 

"From past experience, when things like this happen, there's rioting all over—it would just catch flame," said Mr. Mang, the professor, after driving home along vacant boulevards. "But this time the roads are clear."

Source: WSJ

Boko Haram expected to be the Osama Bin Laden of Africa

Boko Haram in his latest video back on may 11

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau wants to be Africa's Osama Bin Laden, and has ratcheted up his anti-American rhetoric in an effort to spread his influence globally, according to a more-nuanced profile of him developed since he orchestrated the kidnapping of hundreds of #Nigerian schoolgirls more than a month ago.

#US. counterterrorism officials and terrorism experts say that Shekau, whose age is unknown and background mysterious, has developed a sophisticated media operation aimed at helping him achieve that goal. But they are divided on his ability to become an influential leader of militant Islam, with some calling him mentally unstable while others argue he is “crazy like a fox.” 

Shekau’s best-known crime is the kidnapping of more than 300 Nigerian girls – 276 of whom remain missing -- from a government-run secondary school in Chibok on April 14. But under his command, Boko Haram has become the most violent terrorist group in the world, carrying out a laundry list of atrocities in northeastern Nigeria.

'A bin Laden wannabe'

But now, the man who is – at least for now -- perhaps the world's most sought after terrorist, is increasingly emulating Osama Bin Laden in an effort to increase his influence, the experts say. 

"His entire on-stage persona is that of a bin Laden wannabe, from the weapon-wielding backdrops, the incessant video releases, etc.," said Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who has long studied Boko Haram.

In recent video messages, Shekau has also become increasingly anti-American, specifically denouncing President Barack Obama in angry and dismissive terms and making aggressive statements " very much in the global jihadist vein, including threats against the U.S. from Shekau himself," said one U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

That leads one former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria believes an attack on U.S. interests in Nigeria is "inevitable." 

Shekau is believed to be in his late 30s. Not only is his birthdate unknown, but there is doubt about where he was born. Most accounts have him being born in the nearby Republic of Niger, but Niger, which wants nothing to do with him, says he was born in Nigeria's Yobe State. His mother has long lived in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, not far from where the girls were grabbed. 

His early years also are wrapped in mystery. He received little formal education, but because of a photographic memory, learned to speak multiple languages -- Hausa, the main language of north Nigeria, a little English, "very good Arabic," as well as his native Kuneri, said one U.S. official. 

In the latter half of the last decade, he gave fiery sermons in the main mosque in Maiduguri, which were taped and widely distributed. In them, he railed against Western education, music, and called for the imposition of sharia law, all now the tenets of Boko Haram.

Most violent terror group

He rose to prominence in 2009, when his mentor, Mohammad Yusuf, was killed by Nigerian police. At that time, Boko Haram leaders were involved "in a leadership tussle for who could be the most violent,” says Ogebe. Shekau won. 

Once in charge, Shekau became far more radical than Yusuf and bolstered the group's operational capability, revitalizing it, according to a U.S. intelligence official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity. 

Since his ascent to power, Boko Haram has become the most violent terrorist group in the world, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, killing more than 7,000 people. That bloody toll has prompted the U.S. to place a $7 million bounty on Shekau under the Rewards for Justice program. 

A boy walks past burnt shops at Ngumborum central Market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Ngala on May 11, six days after they were attacked by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.

At the same time, say U.S. officials, he has attempted to shape the group in the mold of al Qaeda and its affiliates. In August 2011, for example, Gen. Carter Ham, then head of the U.S. Africa Command, stated that Shekau had forged increasing ties with the Mali-based Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) terror group. 

"He has definitely been key not just to an ideological alignment with al Qaeda but also in adopting al Qaeda-like tactics," says Michael Leiter, former director of the National Center for Counter Terrorism and now an NBC analyst, referring to his use of spectacular attacks. However, even al Qaeda has criticized some of those attacks for their brutality, particularly the burning of an elementary school filled with young boys. 

One area where he does not emulate al Qaeda is his leadership style. Whereas Bin Laden would often consult a small circle of advisers, Shekau is autocratic. 

"Shekau’s leadership style is as rigid as his ideology," said the counterterrorism official. "He surrounds himself with yes-men and rejects as apostates anyone who would question his authority. Shekau’s bloodthirsty and unflinching campaign against largely civilian targets — including elementary school s—in part led to the emergence in 2012 of a splinter faction (of Boko Haram)." 

Added Ogebe,"Shekau has leap-frogged the organization from a rag-tag matchete-wielding, small-arms shooting, and petrol-bombing (group) to an RPG-firing, (car bombing) and IED-deploying fighting force."

Mad or 'crazy like a fox'?

Shekau’s stability is one point of disagreement among the experts.

"Any impartial observer — especially those who have watched his public statements over the years— would be left wondering about Shekau’s mental state, especially after his most recent video appearance," said a senior U.S, counter terrorism official, referring to a tape in which a rambling, wild-eyed and gesticulating Shekau demandied the release of Boko prisoners before returning the girls. 

But those who dismiss Shekau as deranged miss how resonant his overall message of greater commitment to Islam is to his target audience, the Muslims of northern Nigeria, says John Campbell, U.S. ambassador to Nigeria between 2004 and 2007. He calls Shekau "crazy like a fox. Look at his media skills."

Campbell says Shekau is focusing the widespread anger in northern Nigeria, which is overwhelmingly Muslim -- and poor. "The outrageous rhetoric that others dismiss is extremely attractive to illiterate people who've been ground down and are angry ... and he is fully enjoying it." 

Campbell adds that mirroring Osama bin Laden's style in the region is a positive for Shekau. "Bin Laden is widely admired in northern Nigeria,” he said. “You see pictures of OBL all over the place." 

Campbell also points to the sophistication of the group's "elaborate media operation." It releases videos very quickly after attacks on Nigerian government facilities and Shekau's appearance "demonstrates a fair amount of presence, with some composition to the video." Unlike al Qaeda leader like Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, Shekau's face will often fill the screen, he notes. He gestures frequently, his voice rising and sometimes switching languages. 

His threats aimed at the U.S. have also been accompanied by actions, though limited to Boko Haram’s current theater of operations. 

Ogebe points to one example, from August 2011, when Boko Haram killed 23 people in a bombing of a United Nations building in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, an attack in which two Americans inside escaped harm. "They specifically addressed their message to President Obama. They have called him to convert to Islam," he said. 

He also said the group also has carried out attacks near the U.S. Embassy in Abuja and has attempted to kidnap American aid workers in northern Nigeria in recent years. 

Campbell says the recent "open and public condemnations by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Israel is likely to push or strengthen international links. I would anticipate anti-American rhetoric to increase and that an attack on some kind of U.S. interest in northern Nigeria is inevitable," he said.
Source: NBC News

Nigeria President on back foot over missing girls

Nigeria President on back foot over missing girls

Lagos: Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan faces an un-certain political future after attracting a torrent of criticism over his handling of the mass abduction of more than 200 school girls by Boko Haram extremists. Jonathan was already on the back foot even before Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April, speaking a global social media campaign and international outrage. 

His People's Democratic Party (PDP) has been hit by mass defections, eroding his power base and parliamentary majority and strengthening the hand of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).

The 56 Year-old Jonathan was still expected to declare his candidacy for next year's elections and seek a second term in office, but with anger growing over the government's lack of response in the first week after the kidnapping, some commentators say his political stock has been irreparably damaged. Depo Thomas, a political commentator from Lagos state university, called for Jonathan to step down, "In a sane society, Jonathan then should have resigned or (been) impeached,” he told AFP.

“In South Korea, the prime minster had to resign because of a ferry accident that claimed hundreds of live.

“But in Nigeria where politicians lack morality and integrity, more than 200 girls were kidnapped and the president is acting as if nothing has happened.”

Domestic Factors

Nigeria is almost equally split between a Muslim majority north and predominantly Christian south, with an unwritten rule that presidential candidates rotate between the two regions. Jonathan is southern Chritian and stepped up from vice president in 2010 after his predecessor Umaru Yar’Adua, a norther Muslim, fellill and later died. It has been claimed that he promised privately to serve only one term after winning the last election in 2011. 

Critics claims he has done little to improve life in the north, where poverty, poor services are seen as a factor in fuelling the five-year Boko Haram insurgency. Some attribute the government’s lack of response to the kidnapping as a reflection of his indifference to the region the lack of values in Nigerian politics. Olatunji Dare, a popular columnist with independent daily The Nation, said Jonathan “had proved unequal to the task”.
“No matter how this crises is resolved, Dr Jonathan is unlikely to emerge as a president who can be trusted to lead Nigeria through the challenges that lie ahead,” he wrote in Tuesday’s edition, “It would be selfish and unpatriotic of him to seek to continue… if the ruling PDP loves and cares about Nigeria, it should urge Dr Jonathan than not to seek another term. If he refuges, it should reject him decisively.”

Rallying Call

Thomas described the latest Boko Haram video, which showed about 130 of the 223 girls still missing, as an indictment on Jonathan and his acceptance of international support an embarrassment.

The invitation to US, British, French and Israeli teams to assist Nigeria’s military in the rescue effort was ‘a shame on Nigeria, which claims to be the giant of Africa”, he added. “Jonathan is a disgrace. He has no reason to remain in office and if he decides to seek a second term he will not get 20 per cent of the votes,” he said. Others have argued that Jonathan was right to accept foreign assistance and seek talk with Boko Haram.

In the complicated, civil world of Nigerian politics, nothing is guaranteed and observes have cautioned that Jonathan could yet emerges from the crisis favorably, taking credit in the event of a rescue and shifting blame if the girls are not found.

Niyi Akinasso, a columnist with the Punch newspaper, also criticized Jonathan’s response to the abduction but said domestic politics should be put to one side to concentrate on the search.
“It is hoped that participating Nigerian security agents would learn something useful from the experience, “ he said. “Whatever the case is, however, we must now rally round our president to complement international efforts to find and rescue the girls.” -- AFP

Nigerians defy terror to keep learning

A woman at a protest in Abuja over the abduction of schoolgirls by Boko Haram

The abduction by Boko Haram of schoolgirls has focused attention on the threat to education in north-eastern Nigeria.

What's it like to keep teaching during a state of emergency? The president of a university and group of schools describes the urgent need to protect education.

"I need to leave early today," said the imam. We were in an urgent meeting called to deal with the increasing violence in our region. "I have to pick up my girls from your tutoring programme."
I live in north-eastern #Nigeria. The emergency is the terrorism of the Boko Haram whose recent kidnapping of girl students with the threat to sell them into slavery has rocked the world.

The man worried about his daughters, our local imam, now feared being late picking up his own girls from our after-school English and maths programme.

In the two states north of us, nearly 300 girls have been kidnapped.
But the international media and the world are missing other perspectives. First, this level of violence and other atrocities has been going on for over a year. Mothers, fathers, and children have been murdered, the survivors living in terror and despair.

Refugees

Recently I went with a peace initiative established by our university to deal with the increasing violence, to take relief supplies north to Nigerians displaced by the rampage. Women told us how their sons and husbands had been murdered by Boko Haram, their villages burned to the ground. How would their orphaned children survive?

This weekend's graduation ceremony went ahead as planned

The peace project, the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API), is an interfaith attempt to reduce violence and build peace in Adamawa state, one of the three states under emergency rule, where thousands of displaced people are now living as refugees.

The second thing missing from the raging international discussion is that, at least in our own community and the communities we serve with our literacy projects, all families want education - for their girls and their boys.
We represent western education in the north-eastern part of Nigeria. The American University of Nigeria, which opened in 2005, was founded by the country's former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, who had American Peace corps teachers as a young man and learned the value of an American education.
As well as a university, there is a nursery, primary and secondary school. It is based in Yola, capital of Adamawa state.

It is easy to imagine from press reports that all is violence and chaos in my region. It is not. We take precautions, of course. We obey the curfew.

Security guards

Our university has hired and trained its own security force of more than 500 women and men. The guards can get an education too if they want - and they look after two campuses, the schools and housing units.

The university was founded by a former vice-president of Nigeria

But just this weekend we held our annual graduation ceremony attended by over 4,000 of people from all over the world, with the speaker, John Simon, a former US ambassador to the African Union and White House staffer. Just as usual.

The valedictorian, Lotana Nwosu, and class speaker, Odera Okakpu, were women. They spoke of how their university experience had showed them the challenges facing Nigeria and how they could begin to tackle the country's problems.

We also dedicated our new state-of-the-art library, which has been internationally recognised for its pioneering efforts to create the finest e-library in Africa. Life goes on.
For us, security comes from not only our security force, but our #development and peace programmes in our community.

'Unity teams'

Recently, I had an eye-opening experience at one our projects, which teaches local women entrepreneurship skills to generate some income here in one of the poorest places on earth.

Parents want their children to have a modern education

I met with about 80 women in the program, held in a school without a roof and with only a dirt floor. How is your entrepreneurship training going; what are you learning, I asked. Their answer surprised me. They had decided against entrepreneurship training, they said.
They wanted to learn English, Nigeria's official language, so that they could read to their children. In modern education, they knew, lay the only hope for the future.

Last month the Adamawa Peace Initiative held an open meeting on our campus with about 50 members of the "Peace through Sports Initiative." These are youth with some education but no jobs.
About half have dropped out of secondary or high school and over 10% have not completed primary (or elementary) school. None are employed.

These are just the type of vulnerable youth so often targeted to join #Boko Haram and other terrorist groups.
To get them involved and invested in the community, the university's Peace Council has created 32 football and volleyball teams where these young men and women, boys and girls, play in tournaments year round on the university campus.

Many of the teams are called "unity teams", teams deliberately constructed to have youths of both faiths and different ethnic groups training and playing with each other.
Illiteracy and unpaid teachers
 
The sports project gives the unemployed youth some direction and a constructive outlet for their energy, while the Adamawa Peace Initiative requires that they go through a peace curriculum, focused on building understanding and tolerance.

At the meeting these young people asked pointed and thoughtful questions: "Nothing can move forward in society without peace - how can we contribute?" asked Daniel.

A rally in support of the abducted schoolgirls in Abuja this week

A very soft-spoken young man asked the local bishop, Peter Makanto and the imam, Dauda Bello (both members of the Adamawa Peace Initiative) to spread their message of inter-faith harmony, but louder. Young Mohammed asked me how he could get access to our educational programmes.

A survey of male and female members of our Peace Through Sports Initiative is instructive - education was the top priority. Educational levels, especially in the north where we are located, are very low. In Adamawa state, where the university is based, recent data shows that over 75% of the youth are illiterate.
Maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world, educational attainment the lowest. Primary school teachers have not been paid in 18 months.

The youths here face a future where they see little hope of ever having a job in a region that has no reliable electricity; no reliable safe running water, perched on the southern edge of the advancing Sahara. Nigeria is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Its population doubles every 25-30 years.
Already Africa's most populous country, it will be the third largest country in the world in about 30 years. There is a whole generation of young Nigerians without a future, and they are almost beyond our reach. If we can't find a way to help them, violence bred of despair and hopelessness will become their answer and outlet.
The youth in Nigeria are beginning to speak - some with violence. They attract attention. But others are also speaking. The question is, is anyone listening to this plea for western education, for training, for reform, for help?
 Source: BBC News