Wüstenschiff

Many people are feared dead after suspected Boko Haram Islamist gunmen attacked a town in north-east Nigeria. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that half of Damboa had been burnt down, including the town's main market. At least 18 bodies so far have been recovered from the attack, which lasted for several hours. The death toll is expected to rise, residents say.

Two explosions have ripped through the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, killing at least 40 people, police say. The first explosion targeted moderate Islamic cleric Dahiru Bauchi while the second one targeted senior opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari, a BBC reporter in the city says. Both escaped unhurt.

IRIN hat geschrieben:
Boko Haram steps up Cameroon raids

YAOUNDE, 24 July 2014 (IRIN) - Nigerian radical Islamist group Boko Haram's free-wheeling ruthlessness is increasingly troubling the remote Far North Region of Cameroon, which has seen several attacks in recent months, with foreigners also abducted for ransom.

This month, heavily armed men suspected to be Boko Haram fighters attacked Bonderi village 5km from the border with Nigeria and stole a military vehicle, four motorbikes and weapons from the gendarmerie base there, government officials told IRIN.

Another group of suspected Boko Haram gunmen also raided a gendarmerie border post in Zina town on 8 July, three days prior to the Bonderi attack, and stole guns and ammunition. In June, two teenage sons of a Muslim cleric were kidnapped in Limani border town.

The attacks, the latest of which claimed the life of a policeman and wounded another on 18 July, have occurred despite the deployment in June of 1,000 additional soldiers to the Far North.

At least 2,053 civilians have been killed in some 95 Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria since January, according to Human Rights Watch. [ http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/15/nige ... s-6-months ]

Cameroon's Far North Region, home to some four million of the country's 20 million people, lies adjacent to Boko Haram's heartland of northeastern Nigeria. Around eight million people live in the northeastern Nigerian States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. [ http://population.gov.ng/images/Priorit ... update.pdf ]

Battling an "invisible" enemy

"Attacks are still common [in the Far North Region] because the war is not won in Nigeria," Cameroonian military spokesman Didier Badjeck told IRIN. "It is difficult to lead a major operation against Boko Haram due to the fact that they are `invisible'. So the strategy of the military is to secure major points such as the border posts, bridges, villages and military bases."

"We cannot put security on every kilometre or area in the region. Boko Haram may have 100 percent advantage over the traditional military style because we don't know their base, how they look like, how many they are and what direction they will come from. They use both vehicles and motorcycles and have a good mastery of the border communities. They use some of the local population to operate in Cameroon," Badjeck explained.

Despite this, he said, the security forces have arrested dozens of suspects, including some believed to be high-profile members of the group.

Some of the arrests have been possible due to information provided by residents. But some locals are worried that such cooperation led to the June abduction of the two teenagers. The kidnapping is seen as punishment of the boys' father.

"The abduction. was a way to settle scores with him [the boys' father] because he was seriously involved in the war against Boko Haram. He is suspected by Boko Haram of informing the military about their activities," said Baba Amidu, a resident of Maroua, the capital of the Far North Region.

Last year, Boko Haram claimed kidnapping a seven-member French family and a French priest whom they later freed. A Canadian nun and two Italian priests who were seized earlier this year by suspected Boko Haram gunmen were also released after a few weeks in captivity. The group is also believed to be holding 10 Chinese construction workers abducted in May 2014.

Curfew disruption

While feeling reassured by the military presence, the mainly Muslim residents of the Far North Region are nonetheless caught between stricter security measures, such as an overnight curfew across the region, and restricted movement due to fears of insurgent attacks. [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/99396/ca ... boko-haram ]

"One can now go to bed less fearful because there is military patrol. But life is still difficult due to the fact that activities are not operating normally. People are scared to go to farms, cross-border trade is dying down and people are losing livelihood activities," said Etien Fomuluh, a resident of Mora in the Far North's Mayo-Sava area.

A series of cross-border abductions by Boko Haram since 2013, weapons smuggling through northern Cameroon, insecurity and military operations against the Nigerian insurgents have slowed down economic activity in the Far North Region. [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/99682/ar ... s-cameroon ]

The Far North depends on northeastern Nigeria for industrial and pharmaceutical products, construction materials and cheap adulterated fuel, while the region exports livestock and crops across the border. By late 2013, the authorities there said prices of imported products were becoming dearer while local produce fetched less at markets.

The overnight curfew, imposed since security was stepped up with the deployment of fresh troops, prohibits human and vehicle movement between 8pm and 6am.

"Although security is assured now, most peripheral areas still live in perpetual fear and some have moved to central villages with more people and security," said Ibrahim Haman, an Islamic leader in Mora District of the Far North.

Farming, fetching firewood and other routine activities are becoming risky for many in the Far North, an arid Sahel region and one of Cameroon's most deprived and impoverished.

"It is the planting season and we have no choice but to risk our lives going into the fields," said Fahdi Yahadi who lives in Kolofata area of the Far North Region. "We used to feel that since Boko Haram kidnapped only white people, we could not be targeted, but the recent kidnapping of girls in Nigeria and the two local boys has increased people's fears."

Militants with suspected ties to Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have killed 10 people in a raid on a remote village in north Cameroon, police say. Nine bus passengers and a soldier were shot dead after coming "face-to-face" with heavily armed militants in Zigague, they add. The son of a local chief was kidnapped in the attack, local media reports.

IRIN hat geschrieben:
Nigeria - the community turns against Boko Haram
11.08.2014 - IRIN

MAIDUGURI - Young men with machetes manning road blocks is usually a bad sign. In Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, for years tormented by the Boko Haram insurgency, it actually signifies progress.

Rather than the military's Joint Task Force (JTF), it is these volunteer vigilantes dubbed "Civilian JTF" that are largely credited with pacifying the city over the past year. Whereas the often blundering and brutal JTF regarded everyone in Maiduguri as a potential Salafist, the community-rooted volunteers - officially the Borno Youth Association for Peace and Justice -actually know who Boko Haram members are. They are the eyes and ears of the security forces watching for infiltration and, though the best of their weapons are antique single-shot "Dane" guns, or the odd shotgun, they are often the first responders to trouble.

"Before, the community was afraid. If you opened your mouth against Boko Haram, that night they would kill you. But Borno State youth are tired of it," Civilian JTF secretary and second-in-command, Abba Tijjani Sadiq, told IRIN. "God lifted us up. No matter you come with a gun, we will pursue you. For now there are no Boko Haram in Maiduguri."

Borno was the birthplace of Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad), better known as Boko Haram. It was founded in 2002 by cleric Mohamed Yusuf and grew into a popular grassroots movement based on its strict adherence to conservative Islamic values and rejection of the political corruption and venality that has come to epitomize Nigeria. The execution of Yusuf and a number of his lieutenants in 2009 while in police custody won Boko Haram sympathy, but that popularity has soured as the death toll has soared in the shootings and bombings by the militants of their perceived enemies - the majority of them Muslims. The supposed support from the community was one reason the JTF meted out such indiscriminate punishment. [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/94296/an ... boko-haram ]

"The army took us as the enemy and vice-versa. We didn't see them as here to protect us," explained school headmaster Suleiman Ali. "[If there was a Boko Haram attack] they don't come on time, they arrest whoever they see, or open fire, or burn shops and houses in revenge. The boys [Boko Haram] used to come and hide among us in the community. But later on we saw that couldn't work. You hide them, then later on they can come into your house and kill your father. People were pressed to the wall, we needed to stand, to protect ourselves."

He sees Borno's insecurity as "a failure of government and ourselves" and celebrates the new-found "spirit of self-sufficiency" animating the civilian JTF. What began in just one of the city's 14 wards in June last year has snowballed. "Everybody is a civilian JTF. Whenever we hear gunshots we pick up our axes and cutlasses [machetes] and go and see what's wrong."

Propaganda battle

The civilian JTF is stood up in all of Borno's 27 Local Government Areas, but it is in the more remote border regions where Boko Haram is strongest, and the communities most at risk. Nevertheless it was over Maiduguri that a propaganda battle was waged this month. Boko Haram boasted it would celebrate the end of Ramadan in the city's prayer grounds. "We said, 'No way'," Sadiq recounted, and a huge security operation, including a movement ban on all vehicles, made for a subdued but safe holiday period.

"This is what a government hearts and minds campaign should have been from the start," said Abuja-based analyst Husseini Abdu. "But this wasn't the case of a deliberate strategy; luckily the government didn't antagonize them, and the military felt they were useful."

The state government was quick to embrace the civilian JTF. It provided training to 1,700 volunteers last year through a Borno Youth Empowerment Scheme, kitting out the graduates in sky-blue uniforms, providing vehicles, and a monthly stipend of around US$100. It, however, has baulked at the idea of arming them.

The civilian JTF claim they have 45,000 members, led by local businessmen and former civil servants like Sadiq. Their ranks reflect the spectrum of Maiduguri society, from Christians to the unemployed, to former Boko Haram. Aside from parade ground drilling, the state government has also introduced civics lessons for the young men, previously noted for their eagerness to lynch suspects. "We know we can't take the law into our own hands," said Sadiq. "Now we take [suspects] to the barracks, and the army kills them," he grinned. [http://www.irinnews.org/report/99320/ci ... rn-nigeria ]

Three civilian JTF leaders IRIN spoke to insisted they were solely after Boko Haram (rather than a broader role as a public morals police), and loyal to all the centres of authority in Borno. These include "our father" President Goodluck Jonathan, the opposition controlled state government, the "royal father" the Shehu of Borno, and the military. Organizationally their structure corresponds to the army's sector commands, and spokesman Bello Dambatta extolled the strength of that relationship, refusing to criticize the JTF's performance. "They tell us that before the end of December Boko Haram will be finished," he added.

Politics and money

Despite the general support and respect the vigilantes have won, there are voices of caution. Once the Boko Haram insurgency ends, the "next challenge could be how do you demobilize the civilian JTF", said Abdu. In a state where the government's own figures put the jobless rate at over 40 percent, there is a danger of history repeating itself.

Few in Maiduguri believe Boko Haram still retains a genuine ideological message - especially under the ruthless current leadership of Abubaker Shekau. Much of Boko Haram's support was generated by fury over the in-discipline of the security forces, and the state government's hurried ban on motorbike taxis to end ride-by shootings - a business that had put a little money in the pocket of so many young men in the city.

Money has been an effective recruiting tool for Boko Haram. "Someone can come and give you a gun and [US$30] to kill someone. You don't have anything in your pocket, you are easily recruited," said Sadiq. "It's all about poverty", and Borno is even worse off now as a result of the insurgency, which has shuttered businesses, driven up prices and closed the borders with Cameroon and Chad, squeezing the crucial livestock trade.

And then there are Nigeria's upcoming elections in 2015. Polls are always a violent affair, but this is a particularly knife-edge ballot, with Jonathan facing extreme antipathy in the north. There is the possibility that his interests and Boko Haram's may bizarrely coincide with the cancellation of voting in the most insecure areas of the region.

As elsewhere in the world, young men will be hired by the politicians as thugs and enforcers - and deals will be struck with vote influencers. It is a danger that Sadiq is aware of. "When you bring politics into this, it will bring problems for us. The root of Boko Haram is politics," he said, a reference to an agreement struck with former state governor Ali Modu Sheriff to introduce Shariah law in exchange for Yusuf's political support, which went horribly wrong.

Sheriff's failure to abide by the deal led to the resignation in 2007 of Boko Haram's representative in the government, Commissioner of Religious Affairs Buji Foi. In the fallout, a group of Boko Haram followers were killed by the police, but the federal government ignored Yusuf's repeated calls for justice. In July 2009 his militants launched coordinated attacks against police stations and government buildings in four northern states, which left over 800 people dead - the beginning of the bloodletting that has continued unabated.

Where does it end? Boko Haram's insurgency is concentrated in the northern states of Borno, Bauchi and Yobe. Human Rights Watch researcher Mausi Segun believes Shekau's strategy is territory where he can build his Islamic caliphate. "He still believes he can take Borno State, that's his goal," she told IRIN. "But this is not about religion, it's all about power."

Die Terrorgruppe Boko Haram hat in einer von ihr eroberten Stadt im Nordosten Nigerias ein "Islamisches Kalifat" ausgerufen. Gwoza, eine Stadt im Bundesstaat Borno, habe nach dem "Sieg" seiner Kämpfer "nichts mehr mit Nigeria zu tun", sagte Boko-Haram-Führer Abubakar Shekau. Die Islamisten verkündeten ihre Botschaft in einem fast einstündigen Video. Gwoza sei nun "Teil des Islamischen Kalifats", sagte Shekau. "Wir werden die Stadt nicht verlassen. Wir sind gekommen, um zu bleiben." Gwoza war UN-Vertretern zufolge in diesem Monat von Boko-Haram-Kämpfer erobert worden, die nigerianische Armee bereitet nach eigenen Angaben die Rückeroberung der Stadt vor.

Militant group Boko Haram has said it has set up an Islamic state in the towns and villages it has seized in north-eastern Nigeria. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was speaking in a video released to congratulate his fighters for seizing the town of Gwoza earlier this month. It is not clear if Mr Shekau has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria. Nigeria's army has rejected the claim as "empty".

Some 480 Nigerian soldiers have fled into Cameroon following fierce fighting with Boko Haram militants, Cameroon's army has said. Army spokesman Lt Col Didier Badjek said the soldiers had been disarmed and were now being accommodated in schools. Clashes are said to be continuing in the border town of Gamboru Ngala. Boko Haram on Sunday released a video in which it said it had established an Islamic state in the towns and villages it controls in north-eastern Nigeria.

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram has seized the key north-eastern town of Bama after fierce fighting with government forces, residents say. Thousands of civilians have fled the town, along with soldiers, they added. The military has not yet officially commented on the claim that it has lost control of Bama, the second biggest town in Borno state.

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram has captured the town of Banki, which borders Cameroon, after government troops fled, residents say. The military has not yet commented on the latest town to reportedly fall to the insurgents in recent weeks. Fears have been raised that their main target is Maiduguri, the capital of north-eastern Borno state. Boko Haram's "lightning territorial gains" could lead to Nigeria breaking up like Iraq, a think-thank has warned. Last month, Boko Haram leader's declared an Islamic caliphate in areas under the group's control, following a similar declaration by the Islamic State (IS) group, previously known by the acronym Isis, after it captured parts of Iraq and Syria. "Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a large area of its territory reminiscent of Isis's lightning advances in Iraq," the Nigeria Security Network (NSN) said in a special report released on Tuesday entitled North-East Nigeria On The Brink.

Boko Haram-Kämpfer haben offenbar eine weitere Stadt unter ihre Kontrolle gebracht. Viele fürchten, die Islamisten könnten als nächstes die Provinzhauptstadt Maiduguri einnehmen. Warum kann das Militär sie nicht stoppen?