Boko Haram
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Chad's President Idriss Deby said on Monday in Nigeria's capital Abuja the fight against Islamist Boko Haram insurgents was being hindered by failure of the two countries' troops to work together. He said there were plans to form a rapid response force for the African Union from troops of the four countries around the Lake Chad basin - Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Nigeria's outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, Deby said he was disappointed a joint agreement with Nigeria was not working. Chad has repeatedly complained about the lack of co-operation between the two armies since they launched offensives against the Islamist militant group earlier this year.
Deby also met president-elect Muhammadu Buhari, who beat Jonathan in the March 28 polls. "It is regrettable the two armies, that is the Nigerian army and the Chadian Army, are working separately in the field. If they were operating jointly, they would have achieved more results," Deby said. Having defeated al Qaeda in Mali two years ago, Chad's military believes it could finish off Boko Haram alone. It has notched up victories that have pushed the Nigerian militants back from the Cameroonian border. The insurgents seized control of a swathe of north-east Nigeria last year, killing thousands in an unprecedented land grab while increasing incursions on neighbouring countries.
Nigeria has managed to roll back most of the group's gains since the start of the year with the help of offensives launched by Chad and Niger into Nigerian territory while Cameroon has repeatedly repelled attacks on its border towns. Deby said he did not know where Boko Haram's elusive leader Abubakar Shekau was hiding. Earlier this year, Deby threatened the militant chief by saying he knew where he was hiding.
"I cannot tell you today that I know where Shekau is hiding and even if I knew I wouldn't tell you," he said. A statement from Buhari's press team said Deby and Buhari discussed Boko Haram's cross border activities and the impact on trade due to the destruction of key infrastructure, such as bridges, and how to work jointly to defeat the militants once the new administration comes into power. "We know how Chad, Niger and Cameroon have been helping Nigeria to secure our border, we will sit and make sure we have a comprehensive review of the security situation in the north-east," Buhari said.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Clashes reportedly took place on Saturday night in Zelevet, between elements of Boko Haram and the Cameroonian army a military source has hinted Cameroon Concord. According to our source, clashes took place in Zelevet, deep within the Mayo-Tsanaga Division. Two Cameroonian soldiers and several members of the Nigerian Islamic sect were killed. Our source in Maroua also announced the death of sixty Boko Haram fighters and several arrests, including that of a pregnant woman, a member of the Islamic sect.
On May 6, still in the Mayo-Tsanaga Division, Boko Haram militants attacked the village of Tchébé Tchébé in the district of Mayo-Moskota killed 7 and destroyed property including livestock. Cameroon Concord’s chief correspondent in the Far North region revealed at the time of writing this report that Cameroon’s border with Nigeria is almost closed.
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Seven people were brutally slaughtered and nearly 30 houses burnt down during a surprise attack by Boko Haram in the village of Tchébé-Tchébé, a military source has hinted Cameroon Concord. The Boko Haram onslaught which reportedly took place on the night of Wednesday to Thursday in the village Tchebé-Tchébé located in the Mayo-Tsanaga Division in the Far North region of the country also witnessed the stealing of livestock.
Military sources said the Boko Haram fighters were equipped with firearms, machetes and arrows. They asked the villagers to leave their houses and announced that they would kill all those who were not Muslims. The members of the Nigerian Islamic sect made away with cattle, sheep and goats.
Our military informant in Maroua continues to indicate that the elements of Boko Haram are weakened and have few weapons. This is the second surprise attack Boko Haram in less than 10 days. On April 30, the fighters of the sect attacked the village of Mada, 20 km Waza.
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The United Nations (UN) says at least 214 young women and girls recently rescued from the the camps of the Takfiri Boko Haram militants in northeastern Nigeria are pregnant. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA)’s executive director, Babatunde Osotimehin, said Monday that many of these women are undergoing medical tests and screening for various diseases and infections, including HIV/AIDS. "About 214 of those already screened were discovered to be at various stages of pregnancies, some visibly pregnant and some just tested pregnant; but we are supporting all of them with various levels of care to stabilize them," the UN official added.
“Some of the children that were freed along with the women, it was discovered, were born in the forest and had never been out in the open until their release by the Nigerian Army,” Osotimehin said. Nigeria’s army says it freed almost 7,000 women from various Boko Haram camps last week. Army spokesman Chris Olukolade said Monday that soldiers found an additional 260 women and children, who had escaped from the terrorists, on the outskirts of Chalawa Village in the northeastern state of Adamawa.
Most of them come from the nearby town of Madagali and surrounding communities, he added. Earlier on April 31, Nigerian army rescued 234 women and children from a Boko Haram stronghold in Sambisa Forest in the restive northeastern state of Borno. Boko Haram militants regularly abduct women and girls during their attacks on various Nigerian villages and towns. On April 14, 2014, the militants kidnapped 276 girls from a secondary school in the town of Chibok in Borno. Two days later, 57 of the girls managed to escape but 219 remained in captivity, reportedly in the Sambisa Forest.
It is still unclear if the missing Chibok schoolgirls are among those rescued recently. Meanwhile, those who have been freed say the group is fracturing, as shortages of weapons and fuel foment tensions between its foot soldiers and leaders. Boko Haram says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of the country since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far left about 15,000 people dead and displaced about 1.5 million.
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Boko Haram is fracturing as shortages of weapons and fuel foment tensions between its foot soldiers and leaders, women rescued from the Islamist jihadi fighters by Nigerian troops told Reuters. The group abducted an estimated 2,000 women and girls last year as it sought to carve out an Islamic state in the northeast of Africa’s biggest economy. The army has freed nearly 700 in the past week as it advances on Boko Haram's last stronghold in the vast Sambisa forest. The militants began complaining to their captives about lacking guns and ammunition last month, two of the women said, and many were reduced to carrying sticks while some of their vehicles were either broken down or lacked gasoline.
A 45-year old mother of two, Aisha Abbas, who was taken from Dikwa in April, said the fighters all had guns at first but recently, only some carried them. Even the wife of their captors' leader, Adam Bitri, openly criticized him and subsequently fled, two of the women said, with one describing Bitri as short and fat with a beard. Of 275 freed captives brought to a government-run camp for internally displaced people in the Malkohi hamlet on the outskirts of Adamawa state capital, Yola, only 61 were over 18, and many small children hobbled around visibly malnourished. The women said they were kept inside, occasionally brought food and sometimes beaten severely. The children were left to run around or do errands for Boko Haram while those of the fighters were trained to shoot guns. “One evening in April, Boko Haram followers stood before us and said ‘Our leaders don’t want to give us enough fuel and guns and now the soldiers are encroaching on us in Sambisa. We will leave you.’” one of the women, 18-year old Binta Ibrahim from northern Adamawa state said. “They threatened us but after they went we were happy and prayed the soldiers would come and save us.”
The women said once the militants spotted two helicopters circling at noon on the day of their rescue, they began trying to sell the women for up to 2,000 naira (about $10) each. Towards evening, as the army approached, the captives refused to flee with Boko Haram fighters, who began stoning them but then ran away. "We heard bullets flying around ... we lay on the floor. Some of the women were crushed (by army vehicles) and others wounded by bullets. Eighteen were killed. We counted them, they included infants," Salamatu Mohamed from the Damboa area in Borno said. The defence ministry was not immediately available for comment. Mohamed said she gave birth while in captivity and had trouble feeding her newborn as there was not enough food. Boko Haram seemed almost unstoppable and fast becoming a regional threat after it gained control of an area larger than Belgium last year and increased cross-border attacks on Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Its six-year-old insurgency has killed thousands and forced 1.5 million people from their homes and the group caused a global outcry when it abducted over 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok. The women said the men frequently threatened to sell them or bring them to Boko Haram’s elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau, deep in the forest. Nigeria has claimed to have killed him several times. Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade told Reuters the man was not a priority target. Hanatu Musa, a 22-year old mother kidnapped in June from Gwoza in Borno state, quoted the fighters as saying their leader had deceived them into fighting and killing in the name of religion. While the Nigerian army, which launched its counter-attack in January, is confident it has the group cornered in the Sambisa nature reserve, a final push to clear them from the area has been curtailed by landmines. None of the women interviewed had seen any of the Chibok girls, but Abbas said fighters who travelled from a camp in Sambisa where they were held to source food would describe the situation. "They said the Chibok girls were married off this year. Some sold to slavery, then others (militants) each married two or four of the girls," Abbas said.
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Gunmen have killed dozens of civilians, mostly women and children, in Nigeria in a series of attacks across villages in the country’s central-eastern Plateau State. Nanzing Bani, a regional community leader, said on Sunday that the fatalities were caused when heavily-armed gunmen in military uniforms went on an indiscriminate shooting rampage in Kardarko and nearby villages on Saturday. “The soldiers were shooting indiscriminately,” media outlets quoted Bani as saying. He also estimated that the number of fatalities across the troubled region could surpass 100.
Local residents and witnesses say the assailants also set fire to a large number of houses and buildings in the area. The armed raids sent scores of local residents fleeing on foot from the targeted villages. Meanwhile, a report by Nigerian Vanguard newspaper has blamed the country’s anti-terrorist Special Task Force for carrying out the deadly raid against villagers, claiming that they were retaliating for a recent killing of four soldiers in the area. However, Ikedichi Iweha, the force’s spokesman strongly rejected the report and said soldiers have been shielding the local population against attacks by ethnic militants operating across the troubled region.
“Our mandate is to protect the people and that mandate has not changed,” the spokesman said. The Nigerian military had in the past been accused of attacking civilians in retaliation for the death of security personnel and soldiers. Various regions of Nigeria have been marred by militancy as well as ethnic and communal violence in recent years.
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