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Nigeria
The military claimed to have killed 74 Boko Haram insurgents during an air and ground assault on their camps in Borno state; other insurgents are said to have fled, and two soldiers were injured. The military imposed a 24-hour curfew on Yobe state after insurgent attacks in Damaratu. Police banned the sale of all forms of explosives, including fireworks, in Kano. The military released three of six suspected Boko Haram members arrested at Maiduguri airport. The trial of 17 alleged Boko Haram members in Lagos Federal High Court was adjourned for the third time and journalists were barred from the…
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Nigeria
Pirates kidnapped two US sailors from a US ship off the coast of Nigeria; US authorities are not treating it as terrorism. Suspected Boko Haram militants killed 18 civilians and injured 12 others in Borno state. Dr. Bello Hakeem Baba Ahmed, a member of the government committee appointed to negotiate with the al Qaeda-linked group, claimed that Boko Haram is purely a Nigerian issue, unconnected with any other international terror organization. He also claimed that 90 percent of Boko Haram’s leaders have been killed, “so the rest want to fight and die.”
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Nigeria
Trial began for two Nigerians, Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and Saidi Adewumi, who are accused of recruiting for an Iran-based terrorist organization; the judge ordered a determination as to whether their confessions had been coerced. Islamic police in Kano publicly paraded 150 people accused of violating sharia law, as part of a new campaign to enforce the Islamic code, which is governing law in nine of Nigeria’s 37 states. This week’s arrests were the first to include men; previously only women were targeted for enforcement.
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Boko Haram
Vigilantes Defeat Boko Haram in Its Nigerian Base
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Benin
East Africa: Maritime Piracy Falls to Lowest Level in 7 Years, Reports IMB
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Nigeria
Boko Haram gunmen wearing army uniforms killed 19 civilians in Borno state near Logumani, close to the Cameroon border. The attackers forced motorists to stop and exit their vehicles, then shot some of the victims and hacked the others to death. The militants also burned five trucks, then fled after reportedly receiving a phone call that the military was on its way; phone service is said to have been suspended in the area for months. The head of a local vigilante group said the militants had tried to attack the nearby town of Gamboru Ngala two days ago but were…
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Nigeria
An Adamawa state official said that over 3,000 residents of the Gwoza and Bama areas of Borno state have fled to Adamawa to escape fighting between Boko Haram and government forces. The governor of Ebonyi state called on Nigerians to rise up against Boko Haram. Amnesty International urged investigation into the alleged deaths of hundreds of Boko Haram militants in Nigerian detention; the Interior Minister dismissed the allegation as “not true.”
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Nigeria
The military claimed that 40 Boko Haram fighters were killed during operations in Konduga and Bama in Borno state. The Boko Haram fighters were preparing to conduct attacks against the two villages.
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Nigeria
After raiding a bomb factory in Guduwawa village, Kano state officials warned that terrorists are developing backpack IEDs and planning to use school-age suicide bombers during the upcoming Sallah holiday. A new video purportedly from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau surfaced on Oct. 8, in which he displayed weapons seized from government forces and threatened more attacks; officials dismissed it as fake, but some analysts disagreed.
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Nigeria
Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a mosque in Damboa town in Borno state, killing five worshipers and setting fire to the palace and residence of the district head; they were then repulsed by the military, which claimed to have killed 15 militants. “Hoodlums” among the estimated 30,000 attendees at Northern Youth Summit in Kaduna attacked campaigners for President Jonathan and event organizers, who escaped harm only because of their private security guards; hundreds of policemen refused to intervene.
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Africa
Islamic fighters connect in Africa
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Nigeria
Fighter jets bombed suspected Boko Haram camps near Majari on the border between Yobe and Borno states. Security forces have arrested 15 suspects linked to last week’s massacre at an agricultural college. The death toll from an attack by alleged Fulani gunmen last week on Zanga village in Kaduna state has risen to about 100; the attackers also destroyed 500 houses. The attacks in the area began in March, when 14 people were killed, and four churches, two schools, and 247 houses were burnt. The army plans to destroy a large quantity of confiscated IEDS in Borno. The trial of…
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Zawahiri’s man in Shabaab’s ‘secret service’
In a July report warning of “new and more complex operations in Kenya,” the UN also identified an al Qaeda operative who has been entrusted by Ayman al Zawahiri to train Somalis and other African recruits. The operative, known as “Hassan,” has also reportedly trained Boko Haram fighters.
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Nigeria
Boko Haram gunmen stormed an agricultural college in Yobe state, killing at least 40 students who had been sleeping in a dormitory, and setting fire to classrooms. Gunmen attacked Zangang village in Kaduna state, killing at least 11 people and burning several houses. Farmers and government officials are fleeing the Gwoza hills area of Borno for fear of imminent attacks by Boko Haram.
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Nigeria
Boko Haram fighters killed 27 Nigerians in attacks on two villages. On Sept. 25, jihadists killed six villagers in Gamboru near the Cameroon border. On Sept. 26, Boko Haram fighters returned to Gamboru and killed 21 more people. The Islamist militant group Ansaru posted a video of French hostage Francis Colump, who was kidnapped near the Niger border in December.
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Nigeria
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video yesterday claiming last week’s attacks in Benisheikh and a similar recent attack in Monguno Town in Borno state. In August, Nigerian authorities had said Shekau was killed in a shootout with soldiers. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot and killed a pastor and his two children, then set fire to his church, in Dorawa in Yobe state.
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Nigeria
An environmental protection official in Borno state said that 142 people had been killed this week; suspected Boko Haram militants dressed in army uniforms were attacking people at checkpoints. Security officials stormed a hospital in Abuja yesterday to question suspected Boko Haram militants injured in a gunbattle with security forces during a raid on insurgent weapons caches in Abuja that left eight people dead.
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Boko Haram
Gunfire From Nigerian Forces Kills Squatters
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Nigeria
Boko Haram killed 23 civilians in yesterday’s attack in the village of Benisheik near Maiduguri; hundreds of homes and cars were torched. Boko Haram fighters also killed a soldier and the wife of a policeman in Yobe.
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Nigeria
Government officials said that 16 soldiers were killed during an operation against Boko Haram in Borno; officials claimed that 150 Boko Haram fighters were killed. One report claimed that 40 soldiers were killed and 65 more are missing. Boko Haram killed five civilians in a raid on a village in Borno.
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Nigeria
The Nigerian military raided a Boko Haram camp in Borno state. The army claims it killed 150 militants, with only 16 losses, but reports allege that approximately 100 soldiers were killed in the attack. Elsewhere in Borno, militants believed to be Boko Haram have begun dressing in military uniforms and killing civilians at roadside checkpoints and torching homes and shops.
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Nigeria
The Borno state youth vigilante group arrested 19 Boko Haram suspects from five villages in Konduga after the killing of a vigilante youth by a policeman in Maiduguri. Schools in Yobe state that had been closed since Boko Haram attacks in May reopened yesterday.
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Nigeria
The Nigerian army killed 10 Boko Haram militants and recovered rifles and ammunition used by the group. Elsewhere in the country, two Nigerian policemen were killed after Boko Haram attacked their station with RPGs.
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Nigeria
Five Boko Haram militants and 13 members of a civilian vigilante group were killed in northern Nigeria on Sunday. The clash occurred the day after at least 50 suspected Boko Haram members were reportedly killed in an encounter with the Nigerian military.
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Nigeria
The military said it raided Boko Haram camps in Borno state and killed 50 militants. Earlier this week, Boko Haram militants attacked council headquarters in two villages in Borno state, killing at least 20 people and setting fire to schools, homes, and a clinic. A vigilante group claimed to have arrested 14 armed Boko Haram “informants” at a Maiduguri hospital who had penetrated security in disguise.
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Nigeria
Why Nigerians turn to vigilante groups
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Nigeria
Boko Haram killed 24 members of a vigilante militia in an ambush in Monguno. Boko Haram fighters attacked the militia, numbering more than 100 members, as it attempted to raid a camp and detained the Islamist fighters.
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Nigerian member of AQAP indicted, faces extradition to US
An indictment unsealed yesterday alleges that Nigerian citizen Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi is a member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who aided in the production of Inspire magazine and was given money to recruit other Nigerians.
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Nigeria
An Abuja court approved the extradition to the US of Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi, an alleged member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Shiite leader Abdullahi Mustapha Berende has been charged with aiding an Iranian militant cell. Berende, who had reportedly confessed to receiving training in Iran, has been held without trial since December, even after he won a court case to secure his release in June.
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Nigeria
At least 24 people have been killed in two separate attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Borno state. The attacks took place 200 km apart, in Damasak on the border with Niger, and in Bama near the border with Cameroon.
