Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Mohammed Yusuf Shah

Hizbul Mujahideen

India-Pakistan

20030411

Africa Subsaharan

Nigeria: 4 soldiers and militiamen killed in a jihadist ambush

2023-12-01

[AFRICANEWS] Four members of the Nigerian security forces were killed Tuesday in an ambush set by jihadists in northeastern Nigeria, anti-jihadist militias said on Wednesday.

The jihadists, affiliated with the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in West Africa (ISWAP), attacked a team of soldiers and anti-jihadist faceless myrmidons who were heading on cycle of violences towards the town of Monguno, located 140 km from the capital Maiduguri of Borno State, two militias said.

"ISWAP bully boyz ambushed the patrol team and opened fire on them in Lingir village, leading to a shootout. There were so many of them that the team had to flee," it said. Musa Kaka, leader of an anti-jihadist militia in Monguno.

"Two soldiers and two anti-jihadist faceless myrmidons were killed in the fighting and several were maimed," he added.

The jihadist insurgency which has lasted for 14 years in Nigeria is one of the main security challenges facing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who came to power last May and who notably promised to put an end to this violence in the northeast.

Even if the intensity of jihadist abuses has gradually decreased in recent years, ISWAP, which seceded from Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
in 2016, still remains active in the Lake Chad region where it regularly festivities with its former group.

ISWAP regularly carries out attacks in rural areas on the Maiduguri-Monguno highway, killing and kidnapping motorists, as well as periodic deadly incursions into Monguno against soldiers and anti-jihadist militias.

In recent days, its fighters have ordered residents of villages along the highway between the towns of Gubio, Damasak, Layi, Jamu, and Kinsari to leave their homes, according to Musa Kaka.

The jihadist insurgency in Nigeria has left 40,000 dead and more than two million displaced.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Nigeria: displaced person camps under pressure

2023-06-24

[AFRICANEWS] After authorities in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
closed a dozen camps for people displaced by the region's jihadist conflict, the other camps are increasingly overwhelmed.

Authorities in the state of Borno last year shut the camps, saying they had secured the countryside. While the number of attacks have decreased in recent years, the jihadists remain active in the region and people have been forced to find refuge elsewhere.

Thousands have fled to Borno State capital, Maiduguri. The official camp GSSS was built to house 25,000 but now hosts 100,000, according to the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...

Link

India-Pakistan

NIA attaches house, land of Hizb chief's two sons in Srinagar, Budgam

2023-04-25

[GreaterKashmir
...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
] National Investigation Agency (NIA) has attached the properties of Hizb Chief Syed Salahuddin

...the aging, morbidly obese chief of Hizbul Mujaheddin and the titular head of the United Jihad Council in idyllic Kashmire. Originally owned body and theoretical soul by Jamaat-e-Islami he and his organization are currently controlled by Pakistain's ISI. Salahuddin's hobbies include crocheting doilies shaped like the Taj Mahal, combing his enormous beard, and eating....
’s two sons in Srinagar and Budgam districts.

"The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday attached two properties of the sons of designated terrorist Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah @ Syed Salahudeen, the self-styled Supreme Commander of Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen (HM) and Chairman of United Jihad Council (UJC)," said an NIA front man, in a statement.

He said the immovable properties of Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel, located in Kashmir — in Soibugh Tehsil, Distt. Budgam and Nursing Garh, Mohalla Ram Bagh, have been attached under section 33(1) of UA( P) Act.

Both Shahid Yusuf and Syed Ahmed Shakeel are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since their arrest in October 2017 and August 2018. They were chargesheeted on 20th April 2018 and 20th November 2018, respectively. "The duo had been receiving funds from abroad from the associates of their father and overground workers of HM," read the statement.

"Syed Salahudeen, who had fled to Pakistain in 1993, was designated as an individual terrorist by India in October 2020. He continues to operate from Pakistain, from where he is guiding and instructing HUM cadres as well as self-proclaimed geniuss of UJC, also known as Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC) which is a conglomerate of around 13 Pakistain-based Kashmir centric terror outfits," said the statement.

"Besides instigating and operationalising murderous Moslem activities in India, primarily in Kashmir valley, Syed Salahudeen has been raising funds and routing finances to India through trade routes, Hawala channels, and international money transfer channels for furthering the terrorist activities of HM cadres."

"The NIA launched investigations in November 2011 into the criminal conspiracy to raise/collect/provide funds to commit terrorist acts and distribute funds among the terror groups and their sympathizers in Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of committing terrorist acts. The Special Cell of Delhi Police had initially started the paperwork but haven't done much else in January 2011 and the case was subsequently taken over by NIA. Chargesheets as well as Supplementary Chargesheets were filed against eight accused in the case, including in 2011 and 2018."

"NIA has been cracking down on terror funding machinery in a bid to dismantle the terrorist financing ecosystem operating in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of individuals based in Pakistain and other countries. On Monday itself, the agency had also seized six shops in Awantipora in a case relating to a 2018 attack on CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora, J&K. Some land, including a house, belonging to the father of one of the accused was also attached in the same case in September 2020. In 2021, NIA had attached residential properties belonging to the kin of two accused in the case of the terrorist attack on CRPF Convoy at Lethpora, Pulwama. Another residential property has also been attached by NIA in the case relating to the killing of two brothers (Anil Parihar and Ajit Parihar)."

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Boko Haram Terrorists Launch Attack On Borno Community, Kill Farmer, Abduct Eight Others

2023-01-19

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

BREAKING: Boko Haram Terrorists Launch Attack On Borno Community, Kill Farmer, Abduct Eight Others | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/FCP1qYpb8h pic.twitter.com/B8rs3Qd80E
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 18, 2023

Fighters of the Boko Haram

...the name means Western education is forbidden, They're what you get as the result of a traditional African or Islamic education...
sect have invaded farmlands in Makilwe village, Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, killing one farmer.

Sources said the bully boyz armed with sophisticated weapons sneaked into the farms on Tuesday evening.

About eight farmers were also kidnapped by the terrorists.

According to one of the sources, families of those kidnapped have been contacted by the sect who demanded millions of Naira as ransom.

"Boko Haram kidnapped eight farmers and killed one here at Makilwe village, which is three kilometers from Jere LGA headquarters, Khaddamari. The incident took place on Tuesday, January 17, 2023, around 4pm.

"The families have been contacted and millions of naira have been demanded as a ransom. The abduction took place 2 kilometres from Zabarmari, the infamous place where 50 farmers were slaughtered by Boko Haram two years ago. There is a military battalion of 300 soldiers in the village of Zabarmari. The attackers came on 10 brand new bikes," he told SaharaReporters.

Boko Haram has increasingly targeted farmers, herders and loggers, accusing them of spying and passing information to the Nigerian military.

Oh? Interesting.

They have also been raiding herding communities, stealing cattle, a valuable commodity in the region to fund their operations.

In 2020, the bully boyz invaded a rice plantation in Zabarmari, a community in Jere Local Government Area, killing at least 43 farmers.

Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
West Africa Province, have become more ferocious in recent times.

The Nigerian Army has repeatedly claimed that the insurgency has been largely defeated and it frequently underplays any losses.

The terror group has caused over 100,000 deaths and displaced millions of individuals mainly in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Home Of Late Boko Haram Founder, Mohammed Yusuf In Borno Becomes Criminal Hideout

2023-01-09

Home Of Late Boko Haram Founder, Mohammed Yusuf In Borno Becomes Criminal Hideouts After 14 Years’ Neglect | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/jcxeZRmIDP pic.twitter.com/EWjt23AnYl
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 7, 2023

The abandoned home and administrative headquarters (markas) of Boko Haram

...killed by police in 2009. His eldest surviving son, Abu Musab al-Barnawi — that last bit cleverly means from Borno — replaced Abubkar Shekau as Boko Haram/ISWAP Big Turban in 2021...

near the Railway Terminus in the heart of Maiduguri, Borno State, has turned into criminals ' hideouts and threat to the community.

Boko Haram faceless myrmidons fired the first shots that put Nigeria on the map of global terrorism in the markas.

The relic was once Yusuf's sacred shrine, which was demolished by authorities in 2009, shortly after he and his followers declared war on the Nigerian state, claiming thousands of lives and counting.

According to Daily Trust, 14 years later, the ruins of the markas, which house criminals and have no idea what the government intends to do with the area, remain a haunting landmark for families of those killed in the insurgency.

When Daily Trust visited the area on Saturday, residents complained that criminals had taken over the demolished markas and were terrorising passers-by, mostly at night.

Sadiq Ibrahim, a resident, complained that the area's major challenge was moral decadence among youths and children, which he noted was breeding another nuisance.

He said, "You will see little boys with bad haircuts, some taking drugs and attending night clubs and all of that.

"Once it’s 8pm, people don’t follow the markas area because hoodlums will attack you and seize your valuables. That’s why many people are calling on the government to build a school there.

"But for me, let the government establish a company that will employ the youths to take them off drugs and other social vices. If you establish a school there, many of us that still live with the trauma of what happened will be afraid to send our children."

Another resident, Bakura Modu, stated that the markas boys targeted evening and night commuters near the enclave's sharp bend.

He said, "They lurk around the rubble of the structure to take drugs, smoke Indian hemp and attack people. Not quite long, they attacked a man and injured him."

Adam Tela, a resident, said, "They will brandish a knife and ask you to surrender your belongings. If you resist, they will injure you and take what they want. My house is nearby but I always make sure I go back home before 5pm."

Falmata (21) said the miscreants also harassed women.

She said, "I don’t want to talk about this, but there is a need to clear the place. They once collected my phone and money. They have done this to some of my friends and to many visitors. They are committing many atrocities."

Babagana Makinta, a community leader, lamented that the area had become a hotbed of criminal activity and urged the government to establish a school there.

Makinta said, "The genesis of the Boko Haram crisis was lack of good education. Most of the people that joined the sect were illiterates who lacked backgrounds of both religious and Western education.

"We thank Gov Zulum for constructing roads and boreholes close to the area for the traumatised residents to rebuild their lives, but we don’t have a good school; which is very critical considering the situation we are in right now."

Muhammad Bukar, who was born and raised in the area, also commented on the situation, saying he did not go into exile during the crisis.

He said, "I stayed back even when people deserted this place. The only time I slept outside my house was when a deadly attack caught up with me in the town and a curfew was imposed. That was how I spent two days in my friend’s house.

"Now, the Boko Haram crisis has ended and peace is gradually returning. That is why we want the government to pay much attention here."

He noted that apart from the criminals that constituted threats around the markas area, a night club was booming close to the place and had been a bad influence on many youths.

He further said, "We want the government to intervene and relocate them elsewhere because it’s ruining the characters of our maiden of tender yearss while feeding the markas area with criminals.

"Not only the markas, we also want the government to convert the moribund railway station to a hospital or cop shoppe so as to avoid a repeat of the situation we found ourselves in."

Chukwuemaka Emmanuel Ani, another resident who has a school in the area teaching Western and Islamic education, said, "If we educate them and disabuse their minds, they would be the ones to help us in future."

Baba Usman Mele, a security guard at the railway station, described the situation as terrifying and that it needed urgent action.

He said, "We have had enough from 2009; blood spilt everywhere. Our women, children and many breadwinners were caught up and died in that avoidable crisis.

"We have really suffered. There is no resident in this area that does not have a bitter story to tell. We all went into exile but returned later when the situation subsided because this is the only place we call home.

"We are appealing to the government to come and do something here."

When asked whether they have reported the ugly trend to the government, he said, "We have not because most of those doing these things are not strangers. They live with people here as good people in the day and turn into monsters at night."

When contacted, the police front man in Borno State, Muhammad Shatambaya, said they received complaints from residents of the area when the new Commissioner of Police (CP) arrived in Maiduguri and that they made some arrests.

He said, "Our surveillance team went into the place and made arrests. Some were paraded while others were taken to court.

"I’m also calling on the residents to contact us through our control room numbers whenever they need our help."

Link

Africa Horn

HirShabelle: US military airstrikes target Al-Shabaab in Somalia, 4 big turbans surrender

2022-12-23

[Garowe] The US Africa Command confirmed two ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
<del>Arclight</del> airstrike

...KABOOM!...
s within Somalia's HirShabelle state, in what comes amid a heightened crackdown against al-Shabaab
...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
gunnies in the Horn of Africa nation, where the national army is working with partners to dismantle the bad boys.

On Sunday, the US Africa Command reported that the airstrikes were purposely for "self-defense" against the Somalia-based al-Shabaab and were conducted last week within the troubled town of Adale in Somalia. The Somali National Army [SNA] confirmed the airstrikes last week.

The airstrikes, US Africa Command added, were conducted upon the request of the Somali National Army which was encountering the gunnies in the town. The army has been pushing in central and southern Somalia to vanquish the gunnies who are dominant in those regions.

The first strike took place 176 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu, killing seven bad boys, while the second strike took place approximately 220 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu, killing eight al-Shabaab fighters.

"U.S. Africa Command will continue to assess the results of these operations and will provide additional information as appropriate," read the statement, noting that no civilian was injured during the two incidents due to proper precautionary measures.

"Specific details about the units involved and assets used will not be released in order to ensure operations security."

Over the weekend, the government of Somalia reported that an operation in two villages left over 88 al-Shabaab gunnies dead. While the operation is yet to be confirmed by US Africa Command and ATMIS, the government did mention that international partners were involved in the crackdown.

Mohammed Yusuf Jingab, a senior al-Shabaab leader who is in charge of recruitment and training is said to have been killed following the airstrikes on Friday. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
the claims cannot be verified independently and the al-Shabaab gunnies are yet to issue any statement pertaining to the death which is a massive blow to them.

4 Al-Shabaab commanders surrender in Somalia

[Garowe] Four Al-Shabaab

...... Somalia's version of the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
commanders have surrendered to government forces in Somalia, state media confirmed, in the latest wave of victories against the Death Eaters which are attributed to ongoing crackdown against the group which controls large swathes of rural central and southern Somalia.

State media reported that Mohammed Ali Hassan alias Moalim Hudeifa, one of the most wanted al-Shabaab snuffies along with his other three colleagues surrendered to the national army within Middle Shabelle in the HirShabelle state. The state is the epicenter of the operations against the al-Shabaab.

Intelligence reports indicate that Mohammed Ali Hassan alias Moalim Hudeifa was the commander of the al-Shabaab Death Eaters who were crushed recently during an operation in parts of Middle Shabelle last week. He took advantage of the amnesty given to snuffies by the Somali National Army [SNA].

To effectively win the war, the national army has given room for defections from the group with those taking advantage being rehabilitated before repatriation to the community. Hundreds of the Death Eaters have previously made use of the grace period window to defect to the government.

According to the state media, his actions were welcomed by top SNA commanders who insisted that the amnesty is part of the "strategy to completely neutralize al-Shabaab bad boys". "The strategy is working well we hope that more of them will use the avenue to reform."

Statistics from the military indicated that dozens of elders who were sympathetic to the group have since changed and defected to the government with senior al-Shabaab commanders also joining them. The al-Shabaab Death Eaters have lost grip in several parts of the country where they were dominant.

At the same time, the national army arrested eight other Death Eaters in Middle Shabelle during an offensive that also saw the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS], US Africa Command, and local militia participate. In line with the military doctrines, the apprehended individuals will face trial in the military courts.

On Sunday, a self-proclaimed elder Said Rage, and another bad boy, both active members of the Khawarij surrendered to the national army, the state media added. The government through President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has announced that it's just a matter of time after HirShabelle and Galmadug are completely liberated from al-Shabaab.

The president, in an interview with al-Jazeera, lauded the significant progress made by the army in liberating various parts of the country, noting that "for the first time, we have sustained the war against these criminals". Hassan Sheikh also pledged to invest in ideological tactics to defeat the bad boys.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

ISWAP Terrorists Hijack UN Food Trucks Meant for Internally Displaced Persons In Borno

2022-07-10

ISWAP Terrorists Hijack UN Food Trucks Meant for Internally Displaced Persons In Borno | Sahara Reporters https://t.co/PfZfZpHv9x pic.twitter.com/FnUYq31tOH
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) July 9, 2022

Terrorists of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction of the Boko Haram

...not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
have attacked a convoy of four food trucks meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and resettled communities in Borno and intercepted four of them.

According to Daily Trust, the attack, which occurred Thursday night around Layi village in Mobbar Local Government Area of the state, came barely 48 hours after holy warriors launched a heavy attack on Kuje Medium Security Prison in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) freeing at least 69 Boko Haram suspects and hundreds of others.

The ISWAP on Wednesday grabbed credit for the attack.

Top security sources who were briefed about the Borno attack told Daily Trust that the food and nutritional products consignment belonged to the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
’ agency, World Food Programme (WFP) and was on its way to Damasak.

It was part of the palliative by the WFP’ intervention for IDPs from Abadam and victims of the Boko Haram violence returning to their homes in Mobbar.

"The attackers were in four gun trucks. After heavy attacks on the convoy, they succeeded in intercepting four of the vehicles and emptied nearly everything from the vehicles," the source said.

It was also gathered that the holy warriors are now firming up their control of major roads and strategic areas in the southern and northern parts of Borno.

Intelligence sources in the area have reported that ISWAP members in four trucks have been deployed to Kareto village in Mobbar Local Government Area.

As part of their expansionist activities, the terror groups are said to have concluded plans to conduct eid prayers in some of the areas under their control, today (Saturday).

Credible sources said like what obtained in the past years, Boko Haram members loyal to late Abubakar Shekau
...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down. Last seen in 2017, sneaking into Cameroon while wearing a burka...
, and those loyal to ISWAP led by late Abu Musab Albarnawi, the son of late Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf, have, among others, cleared grounds around the shores of the Lake Chad and Sambisa forest and would observe the Eid-el-Kabir prayer there.

They, therefore, called on security agencies to checkmate the effrontery of the holy warriors saying they use such festivities for massive recruitments of innocent people into their fold.

One of the sources said even though, Nigerian security forces have uprooted Boko Haram fighters from many villages and forested areas in Borno and neighbouring Yobe State, they are still lurking around in many communities.

"The holy warriors are fully mobilised for celebrations at many Tunbus (islands) on the Lake Chad and their enclaves in Sambisa Forest," he said.

Another source said with the commencement of the rainy season, Nigerian troops are constrained by environmental factors which is affecting their performance.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

10 facts about new ISWAP/Boko Haram leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi

2021-05-31

[THENEWSNIGERIA.NG] His name means "the man from Bornu" in Arabic, but Abu Musab al-Barnawi officially became the leader of the now unified ISWAP/Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
terrorist group following the death of his former principal, Abubakar Shekau
...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down. Last seen in 2017, sneaking into Cameroon while wearing a burka...
, both of whom fell out on ideological grounds in 2015.

For Albarnawy, about whom little is in the public space, this is a dream come true, his re-emergence from the fringes and obscurity into limelight. But unlike his former, expired boss, he is not given to hogging the limelight and rhetorics.

Still, many see his re-emergence as a move by the Islamic State

Al-barnawi is the eldest surviving son of Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram who was extra-judicially murdered by the Nigerian police in 2009.
His name is derived from Arabic, meaning: "The man from Borno."
He first appeared in a Boko Haram video in 2015 claiming he was front man of Boko Haram, before it pledged allegiance to ISIS.
He later fell out with Shekau and went underground. Many thought he had lost relevance and was of little significance.
On 3 August 2016, the Islamic State reported in the 41st issue of its newspaper al-Naba, that he had been appointed the new leader of their West African branch. This was because Shekau refused to adhere to their demands and ideology.
Shekau not only rejected what he regarded as the imposition of al-barnawi, calling it a coup detat in a video, he also refused to recognise Albarnawi’s authority, which made the group to split into two factions, Shekau retained Jamaat Ahlus Sunnah li Dawah wal Jihad as the original name of the group, while al-barnawi led the Islamic State’s West African province (ISWAP).
Al-barnawi was the leader of ISWAP between 2016 and 2019. Though he was considered a figure head then with real power being held by his second in command, Malam Nur. Nur was later assassinated by more radical ISWAP commanders in August 2018.
A-lbarnawy had been living on the fringes since 2019 and many thought he had lost relevance.
Like his late principal, Shekau, he also speaks against western education and democracy, though his tactics are different. While Shekau believes in exterminating all non-adherents of the Koran, A-lbarnawi believes mosques and Moslems should be spared.
In an interview he granted al-Naba Newspaper, al-barnawi was quoted as describing Boko Haram’s activities in Nigeria as a war fought by Moslems against "apostates" and "crusaders."

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Nigeria's Boko Haram leader ~~'badly wounded'~~ dead again after clash with rival group: Sources

2021-05-21

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Nigerian Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
leader Abubakar Shekau
...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down. Last seen in 2017, sneaking into Cameroon while wearing a burka...
has been seriously maimed after trying to kill himself to avoid capture during festivities with rival ISIS-allied forces of Evil in the north of the country, two intelligence sources said on Thursday.

Shekau’s Boko Haram faction and fighters from the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
West Africa Province had been battling in northeastern Borno state, where ISWAP forces of Evil have become the dominant force in Nigeria’s more than decade-long insurgency.

Shekau, who made international headlines when his men kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014, has been reported dead several times since Boko Haram first began its insurgency in 2009.

After a series of festivities, Shekau and some of his fighters were surrounded on Wednesday by ISWAP miltants in Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest stronghold, where they demanded he surrender, one intelligence source said.

"To avoid capture, Shekau shot himself in the chest and the bullet pierced his shoulder," the source said, adding: "He was badly injured."
So he either shot himself or he exploded. I'll go with exploded.
Some of his men managed to escape with him to an unknown destination, the source added.
That would be The Great Beyond if he did explode.
A second intelligence source said Shekau was critically maimed after detonating explosives in the house where he was holed up with his men.

"Is he dead?"
"I dunno fer sure. All the pieces of him I saw are!"
"We are investigating," Nigeria’s army front man Mohammed Yerima told AFP by text, asked about those reports.

Shekau’s critical injury or death would be a blow to his Boko Haram faction which has already been weakened by military air strikes on its bases and defections among his men.

More than 40,000 people have been killed and over two million displaced from their homes by the conflict in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
, and fighting has spread to parts of neighbouring Chad, Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
, and Niger.

Boko Haram and ISWAP have fought battles for control of territory in the past.

ISWAP has emerged as the stronger force, carrying out complex attacks on the military and overrunning army bases.

Shekau took over Boko Haram, formally known as the Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, after its founder Muhammad Yusuf was killed by police in 2009.

Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram turned large swathes of the northeast into a no-go territory, proclaiming a "caliphate" in the Borno town of Gwoza in 2014.

An offensive since 2015 by Nigerian troops backed by soldiers from Cameroon, Chad, and Niger drove miltants from most of the area that they had once controlled.

Angered by Shekau’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians and use of women and kiddies jacket wallahs, a rival faction broke away in 2016 to become ISWAP with the backing of the ISIS group.

Boko Haram leader, Shekau, dead as ISWAP fighters capture Sambisa forest
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
leader, Abubakar Shekau
...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down. Last seen in 2017, sneaking into Cameroon while wearing a burka...
, is dead, HumAngle is reporting.

According to the news platform, the incident occurred on Wednesday evening following the invasion of the terror group’s stronghold in the Sambisa forest area by a column of Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters.

ISWAP, which had broken away from the Shekau-led Boko Haram faction in 2016 after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), raided the group’s hideout using multiple gun trucks.

Mr Shekau’s enclave was tracked down by ISWAP using its forces based in the Timbuktu Triangle. His fighters were killed in the process, followed by a long gunfire exchange between the invading group and Shekau’s bodyguards.

HumAngle gathered that after his bodyguards were subdued, Mr Shekau surrendered and engaged in an hours-long meeting with the ISWAP fighters.

During the parley, he was asked to voluntarily relinquish power and order his fighters in other areas to declare bai’a (allegiance) to ISWAP’s authority. They had expected Shekau to issue a statement.

Sources within the insurgency, however, said that Mr Shekau who secretly had a boom jacket on eventually went kaboom! alongside everyone present during the negotiations.

The identities of the people within ISWAP’s leadership who bit the dust to the earth-shattering kaboom remain unclear at this time.

Mr Shekau had been the leader of Boko Haram since 2009 following the death of the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf. He had been rumoured to have been killed at least four times between July 2009 and Aug. 2015.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Nigeria has no answer after 10 years of Boko Haram

2019-08-04

[ARABNEWS] It is 10 years since Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
transformed from radical Islamist sect to terrorist insurgency group, coinciding with the rise of its current leader, Abubakar Shekau

...the lunatic leader of Boko Haram who has been reported dead at least eleven times, pledged his body and soul to ISIS, told his fighters to hang it up once or twice, and been fired by the Caliph and refused to step down...
. He succeeded Mohammed Yusuf (Abu Yusuf al-Barnawi), a preacher fiercely critical of Nigeria’s wealth inequality and corruption despite the country’s return to democracy in 1999, which many believed would quickly remedy these ills.

In the first decade, the group set about fulfilling its name ‐ decrying Western education and its influences while propagating radical Islamist messages. Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language spoken in parts of northern Nigeria. The group fed on societal frustrations, poverty, illiteracy and widening inequality. Within a few years, Boko Haram became popular and increasingly antagonistic to non-Moslems and the Nigerian state. It became apparent that its escalating confrontations with state security forces were a threat to a young federal republic.

The group was banned in 2009, leading to widespread rioting and festivities with security forces that left more than 300 people dead. Its leader and dozens of its members also perished at the hands of Nigeria law enforcement, the same sort of blood and violence that has become a part of Boko Haram’s creed. Over 10 years, it has killed more than 35,000 people, injured thousands and displaced at least 2 million in an asymmetric "holy war" against the Nigerian state.

Just last week, a Boko Haram attack on a funeral procession in northeastern Nigeria claimed more than 60 lives. A few days earlier, a group of men on cycle of violences opened fire on mourners returning from a burial, killing nearly two dozen, in an attack also linked to the group. A Boko Haram timeline features increasingly frequent massacres, shootouts, suicide kabooms, kidnappings and even prison breaks.

Before the notorious Chibok kidnappings that attracted worldwide attention, Boko Haram attacks were few and far between, but since 2015 they have been a weekly, if not a daily, occurrence. Some victims may be part of the state security apparatus, the regional joint task force or local militias and vigilante groups, but the bulk of deaths and injuries affect innocent civilians. The Chibok tragedy has left a pervasive sense of despair across Nigeria because citizens are finding it difficult to trust that the federal government can protect the citizenry and eradicate Boko Haram.

Years of counter-insurgency operations by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) between Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
, with support from 300 US advisers, have neither eradicated Boko Haram nor slowed its operations. There is no shortage of manpower given the involvement of local militias and a private military company, but the group remains active and appears to show no signs of waning.

At the heart of these failures are reports of low morale among poorly equipped task force troops as well as porous Sahel-West Africa borders and rampant corruption, which allow Boko Haram to stock up on weaponry sourced from ISIS strongholds in Libya. Other factors, such as poor coordination, the lack of coherent strategies and failure to attain agreed objectives, have made success elusive for anti-Boko Haram operations.

Link

Africa Horn

17 dead, 28 wounded in Somalia bomb blast

2019-07-23

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The corpse count from a boom-mobileing in Mogadishu on Monday climbed to 17, hospital officials said, with more than two dozen maimed in the earth-shattering kaboom claimed by al-Shabaab

...... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
hard boys.

"The bodies of 17 people killed in the blast were taken to the hospital mortuary while 28 others were admitted for various wounds," said Mohammed Yusuf, the director of Medina Hospital, the main trauma facility in the Somali capital.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Durotoye says Boko Haram still alive only because powerful people are making money from counter-insurgency

2018-12-06

[PULSE.NG] Presidential candidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Fela Durotoye, believes the only reason Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
's insurgency has not ended after nine years is because there are powerful people making money from the nation's counter-insurgency.

The terrorist group's insurgency escalated in 2009 after its spiritual leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was extra-judicially murdered by coppers. Hundreds of the group's members were also killed during the crackdown by the military.

While speaking during an interview with Pulse on Tuesday, December 4, 2018, Durotoye said the military has not been deliberate in its prosecution of the war because certain people are profiting from it.

He said unnamed military sources have previously told him that soldiers on the frontlines are sometimes ordered to not kill faceless myrmidons in their sights for unexplained reasons.

He further accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of using funds meant to prosecute the war to fund elections instead.

He said, "I spoke with a couple of military guys in the last two weeks and some of them were saying, 'Sir, we don't understand what's going on because sometimes even when you see the people and you want to attack them, they'll tell you not to.'

"This is what they said. They said they'll get orders from above to say, 'Don't kill them, capture them'. But these guys here have guns they want to kill you and you say don't kill them. If you say capture them, then there's a problem.

"I think it's important that we have military that are deliberate about ending this whole terrorism.

"For me, if you see that $1 billion is spent on arms against Boko Haram every four years just before election, you realise that there's more than meets the eye there.

"We know that every war all across the world, there are people, especially in the military, that are making a lot of money from it. In Nigeria, it's no different."

He said the APC and PDP have both used funds meant for financing the military to fight Boko Haram to achieve political means and urged Nigerians to vote both leading parties out in the 2019 general elections to prevent a future recurrence.

He said, "There are people that are making money from this and every war situation because there are people who are there and supposedly buying arms but we saw with Dasuki-gate especially where the money for the arms went. The money for the arms went to Ekiti election.

"PDP did it, APC did it. The only way to make sure it does not happen in the next four years is to make sure that it's not PDP or APC you're voting. That's the only way. We cannot continue to do the same thing the same way and expect different results."

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More