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Nigeria
Suspected Islamists stormed a school in Maiduguri and shot nine students dead. Two days ago, suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed two teachers and seven students in an attack at a school in Damaturu in Yobe state. The insurgents also attacked a nearby military checkpoint, wounding three soldiers critically; two insurgents were killed in the attack and three were captured.
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Nigeria
Security forces detained a Ukrainian plane at Kano International Airport that was suspected of carrying military hardware. The impounded plane, which was said to be carrying military hardware to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was released 12 hours later. Three suspected Lebanese Hezbollah operatives arrested last month in connection to a large weapons cache in Kano are suing the Nigerian government, which has filed a counter-affidavit against them alleging they have links to terrorist organizations.
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Boko Haram
Challenges at frontline of Nigeria extremist fight
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Nigeria
Suspected Boko Haram members killed 13 people in Maiduguri yesterday; witnesses said the attackers had hid their weapons in a coffin. Eight of the attackers were killed. The previous day, security forces killed eight Boko Haram members in a gunfight in Maiduguri. On June 4, the Nigerian government formally banned the Islamist terror groups Boko Haram and Ansaru. The ban came a day after the US offered a $7 million reward for Boko Haram emir Abubakar Shekau.
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Nigeria
“Gunmen” killed 15 people in an attack on a village in Lafia. The Joint Task Force claimed that Abubakar Adam Kamba was killed in March 2012. The US added Kamba to the list of global terrorists in June 2012 for ties to Boko Haram and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
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Boko Haram
Specifics elusive in Nigeria’s extremist fight
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US offers rewards for Boko Haram, African al Qaeda leaders
The $7 million reward for Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s emir, puts him in the top echelon of wanted terrorist leaders. Rewards of $5 million are also offered for Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Yahya Abu Hammam.
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Cameroon
Nigerian Islamist militants return from Mali with weapons, skills
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Nigeria
Security forces arrested three Lebanese Hezbollah members over the past two weeks. The Hezbollah operatives stored weapons and planned attacks against Western and Israeli targets. The military claimed Boko Haram is in “disarray.”
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Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Sahel ulema launch prison campaign
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Nigeria arrests 3 alleged Hezbollah members
Nigerian authorities announced the arrest of three men believed to be tied to Hezbollah. Authorities believe the cell was going to target Israeli and Western interests.
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Nigeria
Security forces claimed that a courier who worked for Boko Haram’s emir, Abubakar Shekau, was killed while trying to cross into Niger. Shekau claimed victory over the military and said Boko Haram dodged the sweeping operation in the north.
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Nigeria
The military said it has seized control of all of Boko Haram’s camps in central and northern Borno; six children and three women who were being held as hostages were freed. Boko Haram fighters killed a security official in Maiduguri.
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MUJAO suicide bombers hit uranium mine, barracks in Niger
The al Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa said the suicide attacks were intended to punish Niger for “cooperation with France in the war against Sharia” in Mali.
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Nigeria
Nigeria formally asked neighboring Niger to help combat Islamists in the northeastern region. Under a 2012 bilateral defense pact, Niger must come to Nigeria’s military aid when asked. The Nigerian military claimed to have arrested 120 militants at the funeral of a slain Boko Haram commander in Maiduguri. Curfews have been relaxed in Yobe and Borno states, and six towns in Borno were liberated from Boko Haram control and six terrorist camps there destroyed. Insurgents are said to be fleeing toward Chad and Niger; the Multi-National Joint Task Force has been deployed to intercept them.
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Nigeria
The government called on Boko Haram members to surrender and offered amnesty to those who will do so. Boko Haram’s leader rejected an amnesty offer last month. The military claimed to have destroyed a number of terrorist camps in Borno state and said the dislodged terrorists are “in disarray.”
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Nigeria
Nigeria kidnap victim Chris McManus was ‘unlawfully killed’
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Nigeria
A curfew was imposed on Maiduguri as the campaign against Islamist groups continued. Military forces killed 10 fighters, arrested 65 more, and seized stockpiles of weapons, including RPGs. Many Borno state residents have fled to the Cameroon border. Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged Boko Haram ringleader behind the deadly Christmas Day 2011 bombing, was arraigned. Witnesses testified that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau considered Sokoto part of the group’s governing “shurah,” and that Boko Haram had received 40 million naira from an Algerian terror group. Prosecutors said Sokoto had run a terror camp outside Abuja and trained over 500 men how…
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Nigeria
The Nigerian military is launching airstrikes against Boko Haram camps and strongholds in the northern states where a state of emergency has been imposed. Thousands of soldiers have been deployed, and the military hopes to prevent the Islamist fighters from fleeing the country.
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Al Qaeda
Global impact to Sahel terror
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Nigeria
Fighter jets flew over Adamawa state, mobile phone service was cut off in Borno state, and troops poured into the northeastern region as the Nigerian military offensive gathered momentum against Boko Haram and other Islamist terror groups. Troops raided terrorist camps in the Sambisa Game Reserve in Borno state, where more than 2,000 soldiers have been deployed. The military reported that the offensive has met with no resistance so far.
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Nigeria
A large number of government troops deployed to northeastern Nigeria to root out Boko Haram and other Islamist militants after the declaration of a state of emergency in the region. Militants are said to control at least 10 districts in Borno state, to maintain links with other Islamist groups in Africa, and to operate across the borders of neighboring Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.
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Nigeria
President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa due to the rising incidence of attacks by the al Qaeda-linked terror group Boko Haram and other Islamist groups. Gunmen armed with AK-47s and shouting “Allahu akbar” attacked a Christian farming village in Kaduna state on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and burning a number of houses.
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Nigeria
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video purporting to show Nigerian women and children taken hostage by the group. He also claimed the group had carried out the May 7 attack in Bama and the April 16 attack in Baga. A federal judge sentenced Azim Aghajani, an Iranian, and Usman Abbas Jega, a Nigerian, to five years in prison for trying to smuggle a container full of military-grade weapons through Nigeria into Gambia in 2010.
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Nigeria
Gunmen from a local militia ambushed police officers in central Nassarawa state, killing 46. The ambush occurred as police were setting out to arrest the leader of the militia. The governor said the gunmen were from the Ombatse cult, which has already attacked officials, churches, and mosques. Ombatse, a banned group likely linked to Boko Haram, seeks to destablize the state.
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Nigeria
Some 200 heavily armed Boko Haram militants launched coordinated attacks in the town of Bama in Borno state, killing 22 policemen, 14 prison officials, two soldiers, and four civilians, and freeing more than 100 prison inmates. Arriving in buses and pickup trucks and dressed in army uniforms, the militants attacked an army barracks and a police station and then raided the town prison; 13 militants were killed in the operation. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen opened fire on a market and a church yesterday in Adamawa state, killing 10 people and injuring nine more, then fled across the border to Cameroon.…
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Nigeria
Thirty-nine people died and 30 were seriously wounded in clashes in Taraba state after a Christian funeral procession passed through a Muslim neighborhood. Gunmen arrived in a convoy of 50 Hilux vans in the Boko Haram stronghold of Marte in Borno state and burned down all the public buildings, including schools, hospitals, and telecommunications masts, after warning residents to leave. Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped an elder statesman in Maiduguri and killed another Borno state official the night before. The military’s Joint Task Force warned that Boko Haram has formed a special squad to kidnap influential people, including foreigners.
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Nigeria
A new jihadist group, Ahlul Jihad, or the Nassiruddeen Li Ahlil Jihad Alal Kitab Was Sunnah, claimed to have seized a large arms cache after attacking a military barracks in Munguno in Borno state. Gunmen shot and killed the head of Borno’s Bale district in front of his wives and children yesterday. Four other district heads in Borno state have been assassinated since December; no arrests have been made. The government is considering offering amnesty to the al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram, which recently received a $3 million ransom for releasing a kidnapped French family.
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Nigeria
Five Boko Haram fighters and two policemen were killed in Gashua in Yobe State as the Islamist fighters were robbing a bank. Boko Haram fighters killed four policemen and wounded the Divisional Police Officer in Bama in Borno State.
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Nigeria
Five Boko Haram fighters and two policemen were killed after the Islamist group attacked a police station in Yobe. Security forces imposed a curfew in Yobe after the attack.
