http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/world/article/nigeria-islamists-attack-villages-church-near-chibok-15-dead (29 June 2014)
Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 15 people on Sunday in an attack on two Nigerian villages, including one targeting worshippers at a church, a few kilometres from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls.
Violence in Nigeria's northeast has been relentless in the past year, and has gained in intensity since April, when more than 200 schoolgirls were snatched by Boko Haram rebels from Chibok. Efforts to free them, which have attracted Western support, have so far not succeeded.
In a separate assault on Friday evening, insurgents killed seven soldiers in the village of Goniri, in Yobe state, a security source and witnesses said.
The attackers on Sunday made simultaneous strikes on two villages in the Chibok community, in Borno state.
Samuel Chibok, a survivor of the attack on Kautikiri village, about five km from where the girls were snatched, said that around 20 men in a Toyota pick-up truck and motorcycles rolled into town. They sprayed it with bullets, focusing much of their fire power on panicked worshippers in a local church.
"Initially, I thought they were military, but when I came out, they were firing at people. I saw people fleeing and they burned our houses," he said, adding that some people had died in the attack, including two of his relatives.
"Smoke was billowing from our town as I left."
A local pro-government vigilante, who declined to be named, said residents had now recovered 15 bodies from the village.
Boko Haram often attacks institutions it sees as against its strict version of Sunni Islam, including churches, bars and non-religious schools that teach Western ideas like science.
Another attack on Kwada, eight km from Chibok village, left some people dead, a security source operating in the area said, although the toll was not yet clear.
Boko Haram, which is fighting for an Islamic state in largely Muslim northern Nigeria, has killed thousands since launching an uprising on 2009, and many hundreds in the past three months.
It is the biggest security threat to Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer, and has overshadowed government efforts to project an image of Nigeria as a prospective economic giant.
An explosion on Friday night in a brothel in the northeastern Nigerian city of Bauchi killed 11 people and wounded 28, police said on Saturday. This attack was believed to be the work of Boko Haram.
A military operation in the northeast has so far failed to quell the rebellion and has triggered reprisal attacks that are increasingly targeting civilians, after they formed vigilante groups to try to help the government flush out the militants.
Their tactics, striking then fleeing over the border into Cameroon, have repeatedly proved devastating. They are well armed and funded by a lucrative kidnapping operation.
In Friday night's attack on a military outpost, suspected Boko Haram fighters arrived in four armoured personel carriers and 11 Hilux trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, said a security source and a witness who gave his name only as Hamisu.
"They were all dressed in full military, but they did not direct their onslaught on the civilian population," Hamisu said by telephone.
The militants are extending their reach beyond their remote northeastern heartlands. A bomb in an upmarket shopping district of the capital Abuja killed 21 people on Wednesday, the third attack on the capital in three months.
President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigeria had entered one of the darkest phases of its history during a visit to the scene of the Abuja blast on Friday. – Reuters, June 29, 2014.
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Muslim Leaders Condemn Boko Haram In Letter Led By Representatives Ellison And Carson (21 May 2014)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/muslim-leaders-condemn-boko-haram_n_5367486.html
2014 Chibok kidnapping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Chibok_kidnapping
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, approximately 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. The kidnappings were claimed by Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist and Takfiri terrorist organization based in northeast Nigeria.
Background
Main article: Islamist insurgency in Nigeria
The insurgent group Boko Haram is opposed to the Westernisation of Nigeria, which they maintain is the root cause of criminal behaviour in the country.[1] Thousands of people have been killed in attacks perpetrated by the group, and the Nigerian federal government declared a state of emergency in May 2013 in Borno State in its fight against the insurgency.[2] The resulting crackdown has led to the capture or killing of hundreds of Boko Haram members, with the remainder retreating to mountainous areas from which they have increasingly targeted civilians.[3] However, the campaign has failed to stabilise the country. A French military operation in Mali also pushed Boko Haram and AQIM terrorists into Nigeria.[4][5]
Since 2010, Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of students. A spokesperson for the group said such attacks would continue as long as the Nigerian government continued to interfere with traditional Islamic education. 10,000 children have been unable to attend school as a result of the activities by Boko Haram.[1] Boko Haram has also been known to kidnap girls, who it believes should not be educated, and use them as cooks or sex slaves.[4]
Boko Haram's attacks have intensified in 2014. In February, the group killed more than 100 Christian men in the villages of Doron Baga and Izghe.[4] Also in February, 59 students were killed in the Federal Government College attack in northeastern Nigeria.[6] In March, the group attacked the Giwa military barracks, freeing captured militants.[4] The abduction occurred on the same day as a bombing attack in Abuja in which at least 88 people died.[7] Boko Haram has been blamed for nearly 4,000 deaths in 2014.[4] Training received from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has helped Boko Haram intensify its attacks.[8]
Kidnapping
Damage to the school
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, a group of militants attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. They broke into the school, shooting the guards[9] and killing one soldier.[10] A large number of students were taken away in trucks, possibly into the Konduga area of the Sambisa Forest where Boko Haram were known to have fortified camps.[10] Houses in Chibok were also burnt down in the incident.[7] The school had been closed for four weeks prior to the attack due to the deteriorating security situation, but students from multiple schools had been called in to take final exams in physics.[7][11][12]
There were 530 students from multiple villages registered for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, although it was unclear how many were in attendance at the time of the attack.[13] The children were aged 16 to 18 and were in their final year of school.[14] Initial reports said 85 students were kidnapped in the attack. Over the 19–20 April weekend, the military released a statement that said more than 100 of 129 kidnapped girls had been freed. However, the statement was retracted, and on 21 April, parents said 234 girls were missing.[4] A number of the students escaped the kidnappers in two groups.[15] According to the police approximately 276 children were taken in the attack of which 53 had escaped as of 2 May.[13] Other reports were that 329 girls were kidnapped, 53 had escaped and 276 were still missing.[12][16]
Amnesty International later said it believes the Nigerian military had four hours advanced warning of the kidnapping, but failed to send reinforcements to protect the school.[17] Nigeria's armed forces have confirmed that the Nigerian military had four hour advance notice of the attack but that their over-extended forces were unable to mobilize reinforcements.[18]
Aftermath
The students are being forced into Islam[19] and into marriage with members of Boko Haram, with a reputed "bride price" of ₦2,000 each ($12.50/£7.50).[20][21] Many of the students were taken to the neighbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon, with sightings reported of the students crossing borders with the militants, and sightings of the students by villagers living in the Sambisa Forest.[21][22] The forest is considered a refuge for Boko Haram.[21] Local residents have been able to track the movements of the students with the help of contacts across north eastern Nigeria.[21]
On 2 May, the police said they were still unclear as to the exact number of students who were kidnapped. They asked parents to provide documents so an official count could be made since school records were damaged in the attack.[13] On 4 May, the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, spoke publicly about the kidnapping for the first time, saying the government was doing everything it could to find the missing girls.[14] At the same time, he blamed parents for not supplying enough information about their missing children to the police.[8]
On 5 May, a video in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings emerged. Shekau claimed that "Allah instructed me to sell them...I will carry out his instructions."[14] and "Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves."[23] He said the girls should not have been in the school and instead they should be married since girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage.[14][23] Following the kidnapping incident, Boko Haram again abducted eight girls aged between 12–15 from northeast Nigeria.[24] Chibok is primarily a Christian village and Shekau acknowledged that many of the girls seized were not Muslims: “The girls that have not accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers...and we treat them well the way the Prophet Muhammad treated the infidels he seized.” [25]
On 5 May, at least 300 residents of the nearby town of Gamboru Ngala were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants after Nigerian security forces had left the town to search for the kidnapped students.[26] On 9 May, former Boko Haram negotiator, Shehu Sani stated that the group wanted to swap the abducted girls for its jailed members.[27] On 11 May, Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State in Nigeria, said that he has sighted the abducted girls and that the girls were not taken across the borders of Cameroon or Chad.[28] On 12 May, Boko Haram released a video showing about 130 kidnapped girls, each clad in a hijab and a long Islamic chador, while it demanded prisoner exchange.[29][30]
Reaction
The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, holds a sign with the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag, posted to her official Twitter account, helping to spread the awareness of the kidnapping.[31][32]
Governor Kashim Shettima demanded to visit Chibok, despite being advised that it was too dangerous. The military was working with vigilantes and volunteers to search the forest near the Nigeria-Cameroon border on 21 April.[4] The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNICEF condemned the abduction,[33] as did former Nigerian military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.[34] UN Security Council also condemned the attack and warned action against Boko Haram Militants for abducting Girls.[35]
Parents and others took to social media to complain about the government's perceived slow and inadequate response. On 30 April and 1 May, protests demanding more government action were held in several Nigerian cities.[12] Most parents, however, were afraid to speak publicly for fear their daughters would be targeted for reprisal. On 3 and 4 May, protests were held in major Western cities including Los Angeles and London. At the same time, the hash tag #BringBackOurGirls trended globally on Twitter as the story continued to spread[8] and by 11 May it had attracted 2.3 million tweets.[36][37] A woman who helped organise protests was detained by the police, apparently because the First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, felt slighted when the woman showed up for a meeting instead of the mothers of victims. The woman was released soon after. Reports said the First Lady had further incensed protestors by suggesting some abduction reports were faked by Boko Haram supporters.[14][38] Several online petitions were created to pressure the Nigerian government to act against the kidnapping.[39][40] On 30 April, hundreds marched on the National Assembly to demand government and military action against the kidnappers.[41]
The President of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria called on Muslims to fast and pray "in order to seek Allah's intervention in this precarious time."[42] Sa'ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, has also called for prayers and intensified efforts to rescue the students.[43] On 9 May, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State called on all Muslims and Christians to join in "three days of prayers and fasting."[44] On the same day, Muslims in Cameroon have been calling on fellow believers not to marry any of these girls should they be offered to them.[45] On the same day, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh joined other religious leaders in the Muslim world to condemn the kidnappings, describing Boko Haram as misguided and intent on smearing the name of Islam. He stated that Islam is against kidnapping, and that marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.[46]
The scale of the kidnapping was unprecedented, which led the former United States Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell to declare that Boko Haram's strength "appears to be increasing. The government's ability to provide security to its citizens appears to be decreasing."[4] Director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center J. Peter Pham said "The failure of the government to even get a clear count further reinforces a perception of systemic governmental failure".[4] The Economist "labeled President Goodluck Jonathan as incompetent," saying that Jonathan and the Nigerian military "cannot be trusted any longer to guarantee security for Nigerians," adding that “the worst aspect of the Nigerian government’s handling of the abduction is its seeming indifference to the plight of the girls’ families. It took more than two weeks before Jonathan addressed the matter in public.”[38]
Read more ....
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| Burnt-out cars are seen at the scene of a blast in Abuja, June 25, 2014. At least 21 people were killed when a suspected bomb tore through a crowded shopping district in the Nigerian capital Abuja during rush hour. – Reuters pic, June 29, 2014. |
Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 15 people on Sunday in an attack on two Nigerian villages, including one targeting worshippers at a church, a few kilometres from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls.
Violence in Nigeria's northeast has been relentless in the past year, and has gained in intensity since April, when more than 200 schoolgirls were snatched by Boko Haram rebels from Chibok. Efforts to free them, which have attracted Western support, have so far not succeeded.
In a separate assault on Friday evening, insurgents killed seven soldiers in the village of Goniri, in Yobe state, a security source and witnesses said.
The attackers on Sunday made simultaneous strikes on two villages in the Chibok community, in Borno state.
Samuel Chibok, a survivor of the attack on Kautikiri village, about five km from where the girls were snatched, said that around 20 men in a Toyota pick-up truck and motorcycles rolled into town. They sprayed it with bullets, focusing much of their fire power on panicked worshippers in a local church.
"Initially, I thought they were military, but when I came out, they were firing at people. I saw people fleeing and they burned our houses," he said, adding that some people had died in the attack, including two of his relatives.
"Smoke was billowing from our town as I left."
A local pro-government vigilante, who declined to be named, said residents had now recovered 15 bodies from the village.
Boko Haram often attacks institutions it sees as against its strict version of Sunni Islam, including churches, bars and non-religious schools that teach Western ideas like science.
Another attack on Kwada, eight km from Chibok village, left some people dead, a security source operating in the area said, although the toll was not yet clear.
Boko Haram, which is fighting for an Islamic state in largely Muslim northern Nigeria, has killed thousands since launching an uprising on 2009, and many hundreds in the past three months.
It is the biggest security threat to Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer, and has overshadowed government efforts to project an image of Nigeria as a prospective economic giant.
An explosion on Friday night in a brothel in the northeastern Nigerian city of Bauchi killed 11 people and wounded 28, police said on Saturday. This attack was believed to be the work of Boko Haram.
A military operation in the northeast has so far failed to quell the rebellion and has triggered reprisal attacks that are increasingly targeting civilians, after they formed vigilante groups to try to help the government flush out the militants.
Their tactics, striking then fleeing over the border into Cameroon, have repeatedly proved devastating. They are well armed and funded by a lucrative kidnapping operation.
In Friday night's attack on a military outpost, suspected Boko Haram fighters arrived in four armoured personel carriers and 11 Hilux trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, said a security source and a witness who gave his name only as Hamisu.
"They were all dressed in full military, but they did not direct their onslaught on the civilian population," Hamisu said by telephone.
The militants are extending their reach beyond their remote northeastern heartlands. A bomb in an upmarket shopping district of the capital Abuja killed 21 people on Wednesday, the third attack on the capital in three months.
President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigeria had entered one of the darkest phases of its history during a visit to the scene of the Abuja blast on Friday. – Reuters, June 29, 2014.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim Leaders Condemn Boko Haram In Letter Led By Representatives Ellison And Carson (21 May 2014)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/muslim-leaders-condemn-boko-haram_n_5367486.html
2014 Chibok kidnapping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Chibok_kidnapping
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, approximately 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. The kidnappings were claimed by Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist and Takfiri terrorist organization based in northeast Nigeria.
Background
Main article: Islamist insurgency in Nigeria
The insurgent group Boko Haram is opposed to the Westernisation of Nigeria, which they maintain is the root cause of criminal behaviour in the country.[1] Thousands of people have been killed in attacks perpetrated by the group, and the Nigerian federal government declared a state of emergency in May 2013 in Borno State in its fight against the insurgency.[2] The resulting crackdown has led to the capture or killing of hundreds of Boko Haram members, with the remainder retreating to mountainous areas from which they have increasingly targeted civilians.[3] However, the campaign has failed to stabilise the country. A French military operation in Mali also pushed Boko Haram and AQIM terrorists into Nigeria.[4][5]
Since 2010, Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of students. A spokesperson for the group said such attacks would continue as long as the Nigerian government continued to interfere with traditional Islamic education. 10,000 children have been unable to attend school as a result of the activities by Boko Haram.[1] Boko Haram has also been known to kidnap girls, who it believes should not be educated, and use them as cooks or sex slaves.[4]
Boko Haram's attacks have intensified in 2014. In February, the group killed more than 100 Christian men in the villages of Doron Baga and Izghe.[4] Also in February, 59 students were killed in the Federal Government College attack in northeastern Nigeria.[6] In March, the group attacked the Giwa military barracks, freeing captured militants.[4] The abduction occurred on the same day as a bombing attack in Abuja in which at least 88 people died.[7] Boko Haram has been blamed for nearly 4,000 deaths in 2014.[4] Training received from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has helped Boko Haram intensify its attacks.[8]
Kidnapping
Damage to the school
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, a group of militants attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. They broke into the school, shooting the guards[9] and killing one soldier.[10] A large number of students were taken away in trucks, possibly into the Konduga area of the Sambisa Forest where Boko Haram were known to have fortified camps.[10] Houses in Chibok were also burnt down in the incident.[7] The school had been closed for four weeks prior to the attack due to the deteriorating security situation, but students from multiple schools had been called in to take final exams in physics.[7][11][12]
There were 530 students from multiple villages registered for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, although it was unclear how many were in attendance at the time of the attack.[13] The children were aged 16 to 18 and were in their final year of school.[14] Initial reports said 85 students were kidnapped in the attack. Over the 19–20 April weekend, the military released a statement that said more than 100 of 129 kidnapped girls had been freed. However, the statement was retracted, and on 21 April, parents said 234 girls were missing.[4] A number of the students escaped the kidnappers in two groups.[15] According to the police approximately 276 children were taken in the attack of which 53 had escaped as of 2 May.[13] Other reports were that 329 girls were kidnapped, 53 had escaped and 276 were still missing.[12][16]
Amnesty International later said it believes the Nigerian military had four hours advanced warning of the kidnapping, but failed to send reinforcements to protect the school.[17] Nigeria's armed forces have confirmed that the Nigerian military had four hour advance notice of the attack but that their over-extended forces were unable to mobilize reinforcements.[18]
Aftermath
The students are being forced into Islam[19] and into marriage with members of Boko Haram, with a reputed "bride price" of ₦2,000 each ($12.50/£7.50).[20][21] Many of the students were taken to the neighbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon, with sightings reported of the students crossing borders with the militants, and sightings of the students by villagers living in the Sambisa Forest.[21][22] The forest is considered a refuge for Boko Haram.[21] Local residents have been able to track the movements of the students with the help of contacts across north eastern Nigeria.[21]
On 2 May, the police said they were still unclear as to the exact number of students who were kidnapped. They asked parents to provide documents so an official count could be made since school records were damaged in the attack.[13] On 4 May, the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, spoke publicly about the kidnapping for the first time, saying the government was doing everything it could to find the missing girls.[14] At the same time, he blamed parents for not supplying enough information about their missing children to the police.[8]
On 5 May, a video in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings emerged. Shekau claimed that "Allah instructed me to sell them...I will carry out his instructions."[14] and "Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves."[23] He said the girls should not have been in the school and instead they should be married since girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage.[14][23] Following the kidnapping incident, Boko Haram again abducted eight girls aged between 12–15 from northeast Nigeria.[24] Chibok is primarily a Christian village and Shekau acknowledged that many of the girls seized were not Muslims: “The girls that have not accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers...and we treat them well the way the Prophet Muhammad treated the infidels he seized.” [25]
On 5 May, at least 300 residents of the nearby town of Gamboru Ngala were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants after Nigerian security forces had left the town to search for the kidnapped students.[26] On 9 May, former Boko Haram negotiator, Shehu Sani stated that the group wanted to swap the abducted girls for its jailed members.[27] On 11 May, Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State in Nigeria, said that he has sighted the abducted girls and that the girls were not taken across the borders of Cameroon or Chad.[28] On 12 May, Boko Haram released a video showing about 130 kidnapped girls, each clad in a hijab and a long Islamic chador, while it demanded prisoner exchange.[29][30]
Reaction
The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, holds a sign with the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag, posted to her official Twitter account, helping to spread the awareness of the kidnapping.[31][32]
Governor Kashim Shettima demanded to visit Chibok, despite being advised that it was too dangerous. The military was working with vigilantes and volunteers to search the forest near the Nigeria-Cameroon border on 21 April.[4] The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNICEF condemned the abduction,[33] as did former Nigerian military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.[34] UN Security Council also condemned the attack and warned action against Boko Haram Militants for abducting Girls.[35]
Parents and others took to social media to complain about the government's perceived slow and inadequate response. On 30 April and 1 May, protests demanding more government action were held in several Nigerian cities.[12] Most parents, however, were afraid to speak publicly for fear their daughters would be targeted for reprisal. On 3 and 4 May, protests were held in major Western cities including Los Angeles and London. At the same time, the hash tag #BringBackOurGirls trended globally on Twitter as the story continued to spread[8] and by 11 May it had attracted 2.3 million tweets.[36][37] A woman who helped organise protests was detained by the police, apparently because the First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, felt slighted when the woman showed up for a meeting instead of the mothers of victims. The woman was released soon after. Reports said the First Lady had further incensed protestors by suggesting some abduction reports were faked by Boko Haram supporters.[14][38] Several online petitions were created to pressure the Nigerian government to act against the kidnapping.[39][40] On 30 April, hundreds marched on the National Assembly to demand government and military action against the kidnappers.[41]
The President of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria called on Muslims to fast and pray "in order to seek Allah's intervention in this precarious time."[42] Sa'ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, has also called for prayers and intensified efforts to rescue the students.[43] On 9 May, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State called on all Muslims and Christians to join in "three days of prayers and fasting."[44] On the same day, Muslims in Cameroon have been calling on fellow believers not to marry any of these girls should they be offered to them.[45] On the same day, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh joined other religious leaders in the Muslim world to condemn the kidnappings, describing Boko Haram as misguided and intent on smearing the name of Islam. He stated that Islam is against kidnapping, and that marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.[46]
The scale of the kidnapping was unprecedented, which led the former United States Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell to declare that Boko Haram's strength "appears to be increasing. The government's ability to provide security to its citizens appears to be decreasing."[4] Director of the Atlantic Council's Africa Center J. Peter Pham said "The failure of the government to even get a clear count further reinforces a perception of systemic governmental failure".[4] The Economist "labeled President Goodluck Jonathan as incompetent," saying that Jonathan and the Nigerian military "cannot be trusted any longer to guarantee security for Nigerians," adding that “the worst aspect of the Nigerian government’s handling of the abduction is its seeming indifference to the plight of the girls’ families. It took more than two weeks before Jonathan addressed the matter in public.”[38]
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