Category Archives: Boko Haram

Escaped girls tell of insurgents’ mass abductions in Mozambique

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Interviews undermine the US state department claim that extremist group has links to Islamic State

Insurgents in Mozambique have abducted hundreds of women and girls, forcing many into sexual relations with fighters and possibly trafficking others elsewhere in Africa, interviews with some who have escaped the extremists reveal.

Most of the abducted women are under 18, with the youngest about 12 years old. They are being held in a series of camps and bases across insurgent-controlled territory in north-eastern Mozambique.

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Smuggled diary tells how abducted women survived Boko Haram camp

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There was a rescue campaign on Twitter, but the women taken from a Nigerian school were saved by their strength and diplomacy

The resistance began three months after the young women were taken from their school dormitory by Islamist militants and hidden in the depths of a forest. It would end in direct confrontation and disobedience, and an unlikely victory which saved their lives.

But as the extremists of Boko Haram drove them through the bush to camps beyond the reach of any rescue, freedom was years away.

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Nigeria cattle crisis: how drought and urbanisation led to deadly land grabs

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The death toll of animals and humans is mounting as herders seeking dwindling reserves of pasture clash with farmers

In February last year, Sunday Ikenna’s fields were green and lush. Then, one evening, a herd of cattle led into the farm by roving pastoralists crushed, ate, and uprooted the crops.

“I lost everything. The situation was sorrowful, watching another human being destroy your farm,” says Ikenna, a father of 10 who farms in Ukpabi-Nimbo in Enugu state, southern Nigeria. “I farmed a smaller portion this year because I am still scared of another invasion.”

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Boko Haram kidnaps 40 loggers and kills three in north-east Nigeria

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Hostages have been taken and three bodies found in the Wulgo forest, close to the border with Cameroon

Boko Haram jihadists have seized about 40 loggers and killed three others in north-east Nigeria near the border with Cameroon, militia sources and residents have said.

The hostages were rounded up by the insurgents on Thursday in Wulgo forest near the town of Gamboru, where they went to collect firewood, the sources said.

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Nigerian schoolboys meet president after kidnap ordeal

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Some of 344 children recount their ordeal as they meet with Muhammdu Buhari in Katsina

Nigeria’s president, Muhammdu Buhari, has met with more than 300 schoolboys kidnapped a week ago in the country’s restive north-west as authorities celebrated their freedom amid widespread anger in the country at deepening insecurity.

The 344 boys arrived in the city of Katsina on Friday morning, relieved to be free but exhausted from a week spent in captivity following their abduction by local bandit groups in a raid claimed by the Islamist militants Boko Haram. They were rescued on Thursday night from a forest enclave, according to the governor of Katsina state, Aminu Masari.

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Group of 344 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys handed to government

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Katsina state governor reveals rescue in televised interview, after abduction claimed by Boko Haram

More than 300 schoolboys kidnapped in northern Nigeria have been rescued, the Katsina state governor has said.

The 344 boys, whose abduction was claimed by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, were on their way back to Katsina, Aminu Masari told the state broadcaster on Thursday.

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Boko Haram claims responsibility for kidnapping hundreds of boys in Nigeria

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Doubts over Islamist extremists’ involvement in abduction of more than 300 students last week

The leader of Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group that abducted hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria six years ago, has claimed responsibility for the mass abduction of students in north-western Katsina state last week.

In an audio tape released on Tuesday, Abubakar Shekau said: “Our brothers were behind the abduction in Katsina.”

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Landmine casualty rates in Nigeria now fifth highest in the world

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Mines laid by Boko Haram and other groups leave millions at risk, particularly in Borno state where insurgency most acute

More than 100 people were killed or injured by landmines across north-east Nigeria in the first three months of this year, according to a new report.

Mines laid during the conflict between Boko Haram, other armed groups and the Nigerian army left 408 people dead and 644 injured between January 2016 and August this year, says the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a landmine clearance charity. Since March 2018, the country has recorded an average of five landmine casualties a week. Actual numbers are thought to be higher due to underreporting. The first 15 weeks of this year saw one casualty a day.

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Sub-Saharan Africa named riskiest investment region due to violence

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Annual global terror index highlights attacks in Mozambique and DRC and says human rights abuses are driving violence

Militant violence and abuses by security forces have made sub-Saharan Africa the riskiest region in the world for business and investors, a new report says.

Seven of the world’s 10 highest-risk countries for militant violence are in the region with significant deteriorations in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the annual Terrorism Intensity Index released on Friday by risk consultants Verisk Maplecroft.

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At least 110 dead in Nigeria after suspected Boko Haram attack

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Attack took place in village near Maiduguri, with assailants targeting farmers in rice fields

At least 110 people have been killed in an attack on a village in north-east Nigeria blamed on the Boko Haram jihadist group, according to the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country.

“At least 110 civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack,” Edward Kallon said in a statement after initial tolls indicated 43 and then at least 70 dead from the massacre on Saturday by suspected Boko Haram fighters.

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Boko Haram kill dozens of farm workers in Nigeria

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Up to 43 slaughtered and a further six seriously injured, say anti-jihadist militia

Boko Haram fighters killed at least 43 farm workers and wounded six in rice fields near the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, anti-jihadist militia told AFP.

The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe, the militia said.

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Jihadists kill 14 soldiers in attack on Nigerian army base

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Islamic State West Africa Province fighters fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, sources say

Jihadists linked to the Islamic State group have killed 14 Nigerian soldiers in an attack on an army base, military sources have said.

Two sources told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity that fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group had attacked the base in Jakana on Friday evening, firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

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At least 11 people killed in attack on convoy in Nigeria

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President urges greater checks for sabotage before displaced people are returned

Suspected Islamist militants have killed at least 11 people in north-eastern Nigeria in an attack on a security convoy that was taking people displaced by an insurgency back to their homes, police and security sources said on Saturday.

Islamic State, to whom a breakaway faction of Nigerian militant group Boko Haram pledged allegiance in 2016, said on its Amaq news agency that 30 police officers and soldiers were killed in the attack on Friday on a road leading to the strategic fishing town of Baga in Borno state.

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Jihadists take hundreds hostage during raid in north-east Nigeria

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Residents of Kukawa in Borno state had just returned home after almost two years displaced in refugee camps

Jihadists in the restive north-east of Nigeria have taken hundreds of people hostage who had only recently returned home from refugee camps, after local government officials claimed their town was safe.

More than 20 trucks of militants stormed into Kukawa town, in Borno state on Tuesday night. The jihadists captured hundreds of fleeing residents and attacked a nearby military base protecting the town.

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Islamic militants kill at least 60 people in north-east Nigeria

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The attack in Borno state follows the massacre of 69 villagers in a raid in the same area

Islamic militants have killed at least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians and injured hundreds in twin attacks in north-east Nigeria, residents and a civilian task force fighter said.

The attacks, in the Monguno and Nganzai districts of Borno state, came just days after militants killed at least 69 people in a raid on a village in a third area, Gubio.

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Nigerian forces accused of torture and illegal detention of children – report

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Amnesty International alleges that at least 10,000 died while being wrongly held – some of them in a centre part funded by the UK

Widespread unlawful detention and torture by Nigerian security forces has aggravated the suffering of a generation of children and tens of thousands of people in north-east Nigeria, according to a new report.

At least 10,000 victims – many of them children – have died in military detention, among the many thousands more arrested during a decade-long conflict with jihadist groups, according to Amnesty International.

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44 suspected Boko Haram members found dead in Chad prison

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The group of men appeared to have been poisoned, according to country’s chief prosecutor

A group of 44 suspected members of Boko Haram who had been arrested in Chad during a recent operation against the jihadist group have been found dead in their prison cell, apparently poisoned, Chad’s chief prosecutor has announced. Speaking on national television on Saturday, Youssouf Tom said the prisoners were found dead on Thursday.

Autopsies on four dead prisoners revealed traces of a lethal substance which had caused heart attacks in some victims and severe asphyxiation in others, he said. The dead men were among a group of 58 suspects captured during a major army operation around Lake Chad launched by the president, Idriss Déby Itno, at the end of March.

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Fears for civilians in Chad after army suffers devastating Boko Haram attack

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Local communities flee as boundaries with Lake Chad become a war zone following ambush in which almost 100 soldiers died

The Chadian army that lost nearly 100 soldiers to a Boko Haram ambush a week ago has declared the Lake Chad borderlands a war zone, heightening fears that civilians will suffer an escalation in violence.

President Idriss Déby travelled to the region to announce the Wrath of Boma operation, named after the island where Boko Haram launched a seven-hour assault that Déby said was the worst the country’s military had ever suffered.

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