Nigeria's Boko Haram Kills 49 in Suicide Bombings

[AeonPax]

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YOLA, Nigeria — The suicide bomber exploded as truckers were tucking into dinner at the bustling marketplace where vendors urged them to buy sugar cane. At least 34 people were killed and another 80 wounded in Yola, a town packed with refugees from Nigeria's Islamic uprising, emergency officials said Wednesday. Later Wednesday, two more suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano and injured 53, according to police. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said more than 100 were wounded.

The blasts were the latest by Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown extremists whose 6-year insurgency has killed 20,000 and forced 2.3 million to flee their homes. Boko Haram was named Wednesday as the world's most deadly extremist group in the Global Terrorism Index. Deaths attributed to Boko Haram increased by 317 percent in 2014 to 6,644 compared to 6,073 blamed on the Islamic State group. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to IS in March and calls itself that group's West Africa Province.

Wednesday's explosions came as President Muhammadu Buhari pressed his campaign against Nigeria's endemic corruption, blamed for hampering the fight against the insurgents. Buhari accused his predecessor's national security adviser of stealing billions of dollars meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram, when soldiers had just a few bullets and the Islamic extremists were rampaging across northeast Nigeria.- Source (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/11/17/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html?_r=0)
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While this will not really get any press in the US, my thoughts and prayers to the victims and their loved ones.

[Peter1469]

I saw that.

We periodically send SoF to assist, but our national laws prevent the military from helping if the host nation abuses human rights. We can only turn a blind eye so long.

Interestingly turning a blind eye is one of the tests at Robin Sage (http://www.army.mil/article/151795/Robin_Sage_exercise_set/).

[Captain Obvious]

I saw that.

We periodically send SoF to assist, but our national laws prevent the military from helping if the host nation abuses human rights. We can only turn a blind eye so long.

Interestingly turning a blind eye is one of the tests at Robin Sage (http://www.army.mil/article/151795/Robin_Sage_exercise_set/).

Nigeria's resources need to be a bigger blip on our living standard radar before anything happens.

France is taking a different stance and good for them.

[Peter1469]

Nigeria's resources need to be a bigger blip on our living standard radar before anything happens.

France is taking a different stance and good for them.

France feels guilty over its colonial past. They should consider that had there been no European colonies, things may be much worse on the continent today.

[Common]

Horrible, murderous group of dogs boka haram is

[Captain Obvious]

France feels guilty over its colonial past. They should consider that had there been no European colonies, things may be much worse on the continent today.

I don't think it's "guilt", that's a much different cultural relationship, I think it's more unity than guilt.

If you listen to the BBC, African culture is heavily integrated in European culture from music to sports to politics. It's a much different dynamic than most Westerners might understand.

[Common Sense]

France feels guilty over its colonial past. They should consider that had there been no European colonies, things may be much worse on the continent today.

Oh, that's an interesting debate. Colonialism had some benefits, but a hell of a lot of negative effects as well.

Things may have been worse, or they could have been better.

[Peter1469]

Oh, that's an interesting debate. Colonialism had some benefits, but a hell of a lot of negative effects as well.

Things may have been worse, or they could have been better.

I agree it is an interesting debate. Maybe for another thread.

[waltky]

Boko Haram attacks police camp...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
Corpses, silence remain after Boko Haram attack
Sun, Jun 19, 2016 - Rotting bodies, looted buildings and a grim silence mark the once bustling town of Bosso in southeastern Niger following one of Boko Haram’s deadliest ever attacks in the west African nation.


In the empty, dusty streets, soldiers outnumber the few remaining residents — including elderly people who were unable to flee the insurgents and some who have returned briefly to collect their possessions. “Corpses littered the streets,” said Abdelaziz Zembada, a 50-year-old local shopkeeper on a visit to see if it was safe to return for good. Boko Haram attacked a military post in town on June 3, killing 26 soldiers, including two from neighboring Nigeria, and a number of civilians. Everywhere, there are traces of people’s rush to escape. A single abandoned sandal rests in the courtyard of a building. Pots, pans and containers are scattered on the ground. Inside one earth-and-straw home, there is nothing, save a mattress and broken tea cups. Behind a sheet of corrugated metal, a rotting goat gives off a putrid odor. A man’s unclaimed body decomposes in a local authority building.

Witnesses say there are more undiscovered bodies scattered throughout the town. Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless in its quest to form a Muslim state. Extending the attacks to neighboring countries, the group’s ascendancy has prompted a regional military fightback involving troops from Niger, Chad and Cameroon as well as Nigeria. Zembada said he and his wife whisked three of their children to safety, but their four-year-old daughter was among those killed in the attack. “When we came back to get her, that’s when the shell landed,” he said. “My daughter was inside with two of my neighbor’s children... She hasn’t been buried yet,” he said. During the assault, the local military contingent was overrun, its barracks looted and a handful of their armored vehicles, trucks and cars were torched.

In the charred ruins of their dormitory, only skeletons of beds are still identifiable. All the town’s public buildings — gendarme offices, the town hall and an administration center — were pillaged. A local school and health center, where someone had scrawled “Boko Haram” on a chalkboard, were not spared either. In addition to what they took from the buildings, the attackers also carted off about 200 tonnes of grain that were supposed to feed locals. Niger’s military claim to have regained full control of Bosso, but it refuses to reveal the exact size of its force. “Soldiers are there. It is a consequential number,” Nigerien Minister of the Interior Mohamed Bazoum said. “Within a few weeks we will repopulate Bosso and the residents will return to their lives,” he said.

For now, many residents are shuttling back and forth between neighboring towns and Bosso to pick up what is left of their belongings. Some residents are already home, beginning the struggle to rebuild lives shattered by the attack. “We’re discouraged. We want people to come back,” said Souleymane Salissa, a barber. His home and shop were looted, but he is back and getting by with business from the soldiers. In addition to cutting hair he also offers a service to charge mobile phones. “Things are getting better, even if yesterday we heard gunfire,” Salissa said. “If you hear Allahu Akbar [Allah is great], that’s when you have to worry.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/06/19/2003648988

See also:

Boko Haram says 7 dead in attack on Niger police barracks
Jun 18,`16 -- Extremist group Boko Haram killed seven military police and injured three others in an attack on a barracks in southeast Niger, witnesses said Saturday.


"They arrived around 6 p.m. and went to the police camp," said Idrissa Maman Sani, a humanitarian worker based in the Diffa region where the attack occurred Friday. "They killed six and a seventh died after reaching the hospital in Diffa." The Nigeria-based insurgents claimed responsibility for the deaths of "seven apostates" in the attack, according to a statement distributed by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online extremist activity.

The militants took "weapons and various ammunition" before fleeing, according to the statement. Boko Haram's nearly seven-year-old insurgency has killed some 20,000 people and forced 2 million from their homes. Last year, the group began regular attacks on neighboring countries including Niger, prompting the creation of a regional force tasked with eliminating the extremists.

More than 20 soldiers were killed earlier this month during clashes with Boko Haram in southeast Niger, and the U.N. refugee agency said last week that more than 50,000 people had been forced to flee as a result of the recent fighting. Residents of southeast Niger on Saturday said they feared more attacks and asked for regional security forces to protect them. "We are really waiting for protection from this multinational force," said Ibrahim Abdou, a teacher in the region.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_NIGER_BOKO_HARAM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-06-18-07-28-52

[waltky]

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau wounded but not killed...
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Boko Haram leader mocks Nigerian army, parents of missing girls
Sun September 25, 2016 - Abubakar Shekau also taunted the parents of kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls; "I'm not dead," he says in response to army reports he was fatally wounded


Boko Haram's embattled leader, Abubakar Shekau, appears in a new video to deny reports of his death and to taunt the parents of the nearly 300 school girls the group kidnapped from their boarding school in 2014. "To the despot Nigerian government: Die with envy. I'm not dead," Shekau says in the video. An ISIS flag is visible in the background. That terrorist organization has said it is supporting Shekau's rival, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, as the legitimate leader of the Nigerian ISIS-affiliated terrorist movement.


http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/151229093353-boko-haram-flag-large-169.jpg
A Boko Haram flag flutters from an abandoned command post in Gamboru deserted after Chadian troops chased them from the border town on February 4, 2015. Nigerian Boko Haram fighters went on the rampage in the Cameroonian border town of Fotokol, massacring dozens of civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.

The video was a response to the Nigerian army's claim that it "fatally wounded" Shekau in a raid August 19. The army dismissed the video Sunday as evidence of Shekau's desperation. "The video has shown beyond all reasonable doubt the earlier suspicion that the purported factional terrorists' group leader is mentally sick and unstable," the army statement said. CNN cannot independently confirm when the video was shot, or confirm its claims.


http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160925152401-abubakar-shekau-0925-large-169.jpg
A Boko Haram video shows embattled leader Abubakar Shekau

The attack that brought Boko Haram international notoriety was when Shekau's forces captured approximately 300 girls -- between the ages of 16 and 18 -- from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in Borno state in April 2014. Boko Haram, which opposes western education, wants to set up an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria. In the video, Shekau teases parents of the Chibok schoolgirls about whether their daughters will be released and insists detained Boko Haram fighters must be released for the return of the schoolgirls. The kidnapping sparked global outrage and prompted global figures, including activist Malala Yousafzai and US first lady Michelle Obama, to support the campaign to #BringBackOurGirls.


http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160814180901-new-boko-haram-video-of-missing-girls-busari-looklive-00011430-large-169.jpg
Boko Haram video shows missing Chibok girls

For a year after they were taken, the abducted girls were kept together, Amina Ali, an escaped schoolgirl told CNN in August. Then some of the teenagers -- including her -- were "given" to the terrorists as wives. Shekau, however, is still shrouded in mystery. A Boko Haram insider told CNN in August the group had split after new leader al-Barnawi broke with Shekau and left with some followers, a move which the insider said left Shekau with most of the fighters in the Sambisa forest and also in control of the schoolgirls, a powerful bargaining chip for the group. The army contends Boko Haram is significantly weakened and has been "irrational and unreliable" in negotiations over the schoolgirls.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/25/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-video/

[waltky]

Nigerian refugees raped by police, officials, security force...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
HRW: Boko Haram refugees raped by officials, security force
October 31, 2016 — Nigerian government officials, soldiers and police are raping and sexually exploiting women and girl refugees from Boko Haram, instead of protecting them, Human Rights Watch said in a report Monday.


Shortages of food, medicine and clothing in refugee camps compounds the vulnerability of victims who include many unaccompanied girls and women orphaned and widowed by the 7-year uprising, the New York-based organization said. In July, it documented the rapes and sexual exploitation of 37 females, including four who said they were drugged and then abused. Some described having sex in exchange for food for their children, including a woman at a camp that had received no food for about seven weeks.

Camp guards demand sexual favors to allow women out of the gates to beg or buy food, even though U.N. guidelines say there should be freedom of movement in camps, the report said. It quoted some victims saying their abusers abandoned them when they became pregnant. "I just feel sorry for the baby because I have no food or love to give him," it quoted a raped 16-year-old as saying. "I think he might die."

The report quoted a health worker at a camp housing 10,000 as saying the number of people needing treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections had risen from 200 cases in 2014 to more than 500 in July 2016. For months, aid workers have been reporting such abuse only to have the Emergency Management Agency, which manages the camps, deny it.

Human Rights Watch said it met Sept. 5 with the minister of women affairs, Sen. Aisha Jumai Alhassan, who promised to investigate and respond. She never did. But on Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered Nigeria's police chief and governors of affected states to investigate immediately. A statement promised his government will "do its very best" to protect "these most vulnerable of Nigerian citizens."

HRW: Boko Haram refugees raped by officials, security force (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hrw-boko-haram-refugees-raped-officials-security-force)

[waltky]

Boko Haram, running out of money...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/fingerscrossed.gif
Nigeria's jihadists, Boko Haram, running out of money
Feb. 8, 2017 - -- The Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram remains a threat but is running out of money, United Nations envoy Jeffrey Feltman said.


Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, said Tuesday in a Security Council briefing on the Islamic State and its affiliates that Boko Haram has been weakened by internal feuding and a funding problem.

"Boko Haram is attempting to spread its influence and commit terrorist acts beyond Nigeria, and remains a serious threat, with several thousand fighters at its disposal. It is, however, plagued by financial difficulties and an internal power struggle, and has split in two factions." Boko Haram publicly pledged allegiance to IS in March of 2015.


http://cdnph.upi.com/svc/sv/i/8731486560763/2017/1/14865631511676/Nigerias-jihadists-Boko-Haram-running-out-of-money.jpg
Nigerian Army troops pose with armaments taken in a Feb. 1 attack on a Boko Haram camp. United Nations envoy Jeffrey Feltmen told the Security Council on Tuesday that Boko Haram is running out of funding.

Feltman said that Boko Haram has moved from its stronghold in northeastern Nigeria to other parts of the country and to adjacent countries, and said that despite its problems, its influence must not be minimized. In his address to the Security Council, he added that IS "is on the defensive militarily in several regions, but although its income and the territory under its control are shrinking, ISIL [IS] still appears to have sufficient funds to continue fighting."

The report to the U.N. is the fourth in a series on IS activities but the first to concentrate on Europe, North Africa and West Africa, the government-owned News Agency of Nigeria said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/02/08/Nigerias-jihadists-Boko-Haram-running-out-of-money/8731486560763/?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=12

[Captain Obvious]

Iran will be more than glad to send them some of the billion plus we served up to them on our bare asses thanks to teh O'bama and his idiot cronies.

[exotix]

No sweat, Trumpf will wage another *successful* Military Strike like he did in Yemen.