Tales from Nigeria

Timeline of  Boko Haram violence against Christians, other non-muslim minorities and police stations.  It all started in 2002, but the world has been hearing of their atrocities only of late because the inefficient Nigerian govt. finds itself unable to tackle the trouble at this late stage in the game.  Such "heads in the sand" attitude is also that of  governments of other countries who opine that  this is just "hooliganism" and a passing phrase the muslim youth are going through. The single main factor contributing to the spread of muslim terrorism against non-muslims  around the entire world is the downright stupidity of  the politicians.

Case of governments not nipping islamism at inception
  ....2002: Mohammed Yusuf founded Boko Haram in 2002,establishing a mosque called Markaz as the headquarters of his movement, following his expulsion from two mosques in Maiduguri by Muslim clerics for propagating his radical views.

23-31 December 2003: A group of about 200 members of a BH splinter group launched attacks on police stations in the towns of Kanamma and Geidam in Yobe State from their enclave outside Kanamma on the Nigerian border with Niger. The militants killed several policemen and requisitioned police weapons and vehicles. Following the deployment of military troops to contain the insurrection, 18 militants were killed, and a number arrested...........

Islam and drugs compliment each other
....Shocking revelation emerged on Saturday from camps of the Boko Haram sect, following the discovery of packs of unused condoms by the Nigerian Military. Discovered also were used condoms.
Items such as syringes and narcotic drugs believed to have been used by the insurgents were also found in their camps.
A statement by the Director, Defence Information, Brig-General Chris Olukolade entitled, ‘Life in Terrorists Camp: Condoms Everywhere’ reads:

“More of the dirty sides of the insurgents’ life style are being revealed as troops continue to stumble on strange and bizarre objects such as several used and unused condoms as well as charms of various shapes seen in the captured terrorists’ camps.
“Other common items are syringes, test tubes and hand gloves usually found in the rubbles of most of the destroyed camps.
“Apart from chemicals and materials for producing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) narcotics of all types are also found to be common features as troops combed through camps in Sambisa forest, New Marte, and others......

Wonder who's funding all the weaponry to the supposedly "poverty ridden" north Nigerians.  It's either Saudi Arabia or Qatar ... that's a given... even if we don't have concrete proof about it.
...Members of the violent jihadist movement have infiltrated this town along the dozens of sandy footpaths leading to their hideouts across the Sahara desert. Their attack on the Nigerian corporal, using a sophisticated rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), was so violent that Kia's head had to be sewn back on before his body could be returned to his family for burial, officials said.
After the decapitation, the insurgents fled deep into the desert, another Baga village elder said, leaving the civilian population to face the wrath of the army. The military denies that, saying the militants were hiding in Baga and were extremely well armed.
"There was a firefight, which lasted four hours after reinforcements were brought in. The terrorists used IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and rocket-propelled grenades, which caused the thatch-roof houses to catch fire," Brigadier General Austin Edokpaye, head of the Joint Task Force stationed in Baga, told a delegation of senators investigating the incident this week.
Tellingly, the mission stationed in Baga includes soldiers from Niger and Chad, as west African forces increasingly share concerns about growing links between jihadist groups.
Outside the bleak Baga military outpost, Edokpaye showed an array of weapons, including sophisticated machine guns and RPGs, which he said had been captured from the fighters. "When you hear the sound of some of these weapons – these were not any weapons from Nigeria," he said.....


Boko Haram hires child soldiers
...One of the teenagers also revealed that they were paid N5, 000 and provided with fuel in kegs to set schools ablaze in Maiduguri.
He said: “We were given a keg of petrol by our bosses to set some schools ablaze, which we did within Maiduguri, and we were paid N5, 000.”
One of the children also revealed that he was usually sent to steal clothes from houses for use by insurgents........
.....As for the children, we are going to hand them over to the Ministry of Women Affairs and social welfare. We will advertise for their parents to come and claim them after they might have signed a written undertaking to inculcate good behaviour and to enroll them in schools.”
Gusau added: “The governor also said for each released child that is enrolled in school, their parents would get N10, 000 for 30 days of uninterrupted stay in school.........

Jews in Nigeria harassed by both Muslims and Christians (the Christian missionaries are not doing a good job in educating the new converts to Christianity, I presume.)
“Re-Emerging,” which will screen at Raw Space   in Harlem on June 4 as part of the 10th annual Sheba Film Festival, focuses on a man named Shmuel Tikvah, who learned of the Igbo/Jewish connection through the aforementioned ways. But the sense of identity in this part of Africa, and many other parts, is lost due to colonialism of the political and religious kind. Between the Pentecostal preachers who made their way to Africa in the 1980s to promote Christianity and the British colonists who bent the Igbo people to their will centuries before (shipping many people out as part of the trans-atlantic slave trade), the documentary depicts a nation attempting to gain back a heart and soul that was once lost.
Nigeria, a nation of 130 million people equally divided by Christianity and Islam, isn’t the most welcoming place for Tikvah and his ilk. The documentary makes clear that Jews in Nigeria are under constant threat from both sides and face even greater danger with terrorist groups on the rise. With religion a daily source of debate and friction, Tikvah and company demonstrate a staunch devotion in the face of hate..........

Boko Haram is growing in membership and now plaguing border states too.
Unidentified gunmen on Saturday attacked the central prison in Niger's capital, opening fire on the guards and killing at least two people, according to a government spokesman and a witness who was 200 meters (yards) from the prison when the incident occurred. It was not immediately clear if the assailants had come from inside or outside the jail.
Two security guards were killed and a third was gravely wounded, said Niger government spokesman Marou Amadou. He said the attackers had been captured and the incident is being investigated.
"There are two versions of what happened, and right now we think it's more likely that they came from inside the jail," Amadou said by telephone. "These are people who are wanted for terrorism. We do not know how they were able to arm themselves inside the prison, and how they were able to get out to attack the guards. We have two dead guards already and one seriously wounded," he said.........