Boko Haram
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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria—Islamic extremists have attacked the biggest city in northeast Nigeria, Maiduguri, for the third time in a week from four fronts, witnesses said.
The attack comes as Nigeria’s neighbors are forming a multinational force to confront extremist group Boko Haram’s uprising.
Trapped residents said they couldn’t sleep for the crescendo from booming cannon, whooshing rockets and the staccato of submachine gunfire.
A senior army officer who requested anonymity said the militants were “everywhere,” attacking from all four main roads leading into the city of 2 million and were within 15 kilometers (10 miles).
Maiduguri’s international airport has been closed since the insurgents launched a major attack in December 2013 and destroyed five aircraft at a neighboring air-force base.
The city is the birthplace of the extremist movement.
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Nigeria’s military has managed to repel an assault by Takfiri Boko Haram terrorists on the strategic northeastern city of Maiduguri. The militants’ attack triggered hours of clashes with pro-government forces on Sunday in Boko Haram’s second attempt to capture Maiduguri in one week. Separately, at least seven people have been killed in a bomb blast that hit a political meeting in the northeast city of Potiskum while two other explosions left five people dead in the city of Gombe. Boko Haram terrorists stormed Maiduguri on Sunday in a bid to take control of the strategically crucial Borno state capital. The militants engaged in a fierce battle with government troops for several hours.
The militants tried to capture the city on January 25 in an assault which was thwarted by the Nigerian army. However, they managed to seize the town of Monguno, located 125 kilometers (80 miles) outside the city, and took control of a military base. Tensions are similarly high near the border with neighboring Chad.
On Sunday, Chadian helicopters bombarded Boko Haram's positions in the Nigerian border town of Gamboru for a second straight day. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls large parts of northeastern Nigeria and 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 Nigeria since the beginning of its operations in 2009, which have left over 13,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced.Boko Haram has also conducted military operations in Nigeria’s neighboring countries, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
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Three soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants have been killed during a series of fierce clashes between the Chadian army and members of the Nigeria-based Boko Haram Takfiri militant group in northern Cameroon. The Chadian military said in a statement on Friday that the violent clashes erupted after a large group of militants attacked an army contingent near Fotokol town in Cameroon's Far North Region.
At least 12 soldiers were also wounded in attacks carried out by the militant group on Thursday and Friday in the troubled region, the statement added.The N'Djamena government has sent a convoy of troops and 400 military vehicles into neighboring Cameroon to deal with the growing threat of militancy.Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had announced on January 15 that neighboring Chad was going to send military troops to help Cameroonian forces fight the Boko Haram militants.
On January 12, the Cameroonian army killed 143 Boko Haram militants as they mounted an offensive on a military camp in the northern border town of Kolofata. Cameroon also launched airstrikes against Boko Haram on December 28, after nearly 1,000 militants from the group assaulted a military camp located near the northern border. The Cameroonian troops in the camp were forced to flee. However, the base was retaken later. Since last May, when President Biya declared war on Boko Haram, thousands of Cameroonian troops have been deployed to defend the Far North Region.
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An Iranian deputy foreign minister says the Islamic Republic is ready to cooperate with the African countries in the fight against Boko Haram Takfiri militant group. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran's deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said on Saturday that Tehran supports African countries’ fight against the militant group. The Iranian official made the remarks during a press conference on the sidelines of the 24th Summit of the African Union (AU) in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, ISNA reported.
Amir-Abdollahian condemned terrorist attacks by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria and said Iran, which has already shouldered heavy responsibilities in the fight against terrorist groups in the Middle East, is ready to cooperate with the AU against terrorism. On Friday, the African Union called for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to fight Nigeria-based Boko Haram militants. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls large parts of northeastern Nigeria. Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria are the four African countries which have been directly affected by the growing threat of Boko Haram.More than 13,000 people have been killed and over a million made homeless as a result of Boko Haram violence since 2009.
Amir-Abdollahian called the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group in the Middle East as a malicious phenomenon which has destabilized Syria and Iraq, saying that Boko Haram and ISIL Takfiri terrorist groups are two sides of the same coin. ISIL militants control some parts of Iraq, including the northern city of Mosul, as well as areas of neighboring Syria. The terrorist group has committed gross human rights violations and violence against many groups in Iraq including Christians, Izadi Kurds, Sunnis and Shias.
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The African Union (AU) has endorsed a plan to create a joint regional task force with the aim of fighting the Boko Haram Takfiri group, which is wreaking havoc on Nigeria. AU Commission Chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced that a five-nation force from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad as well as neighboring Benin are set to form the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to counter the terror threats posed by the Boko Haram Takfiri militants. “Accordingly, it is recommended that the countries of the region be authorized to increase the strength of MNJTF to up to 7,500,” she said in a statement following the bloc's Peace and Security Council meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, late Thursday.
The Addis Ababa meeting was held ahead of another two-day annual AU summit, which is slated to kick off in the Ethiopian city later on Friday. Dlamini-Zuma added that the joint force, with an initial mandate of one year, would be “conducting military operations to prevent the expansion of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups’ activities and eliminate their presence.” The AU plan will subsequently be submitted to the United Nations Security Council for approval. The UN mandate could help draw international assistance for the African regional force.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. The terrorist group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its operations in 2009, which have claimed lives of thousands of people. According to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, the violence fueled by Boko Haram Takfiris forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes and killed over 10,000 people in 2014 alone.
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Some elements of the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram have slaughtered 7 people on Wednesday in the town of Achigachia. 3 others were killed in the village of Gnam Gnam located some three kilometers from Waza. Part of Gnam Gnam village was also burnt by Boko Haram fighters.
Gnam Gnam and Achigachia are Cameroonian localities not far from the district of Waza, in the Department of Logone andChari deep within the Far North region. Cameroon Concord’s correspondent in Maroua revealed at the time of writing this report that the Chadian army has started deployment this Thursday morning in Fotokol. We gathered that they were given a baptism of fire by Boko Haram militants who fired seven rockets spreading panic in the city.
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