Boko Haram

by Mike Smith

  2   Next has since gone out of business, but summaries of the story can be found at various sites and in other newspapers, including here: Mike Pflanz, ‘Nigeria in crisis after president left “seriously brain-damaged”’, Telegraph (UK), 11 January 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/6962983/Nigeria-in-crisis-after-president-left-seriously-brain-damaged.html.

  3   ‘Nigeria’s ailing President Yar’Adua breaks silence’, BBC, 12 January 2010.

  4   Wikileaks, ‘Goodluck Jonathan remains acting President of Nigeria’, 26 February 2010. Nigeria’s presidency dismissed the contents of the diplomatic cable as ‘largely inaccurate’.

  5   ‘Nigeria governor to be impeached’, BBC, 23 November 2005.

  6   Sanders declined to comment for this book.

  7   Aminu Abubakar, ‘Islamists free hundreds of inmates in Nigerian jail attack’, Agence France-Presse, 8 September 2010.

  8   Henry Umoru, ‘Boko Haram: arrest Ciroma, Lawal Kaita – Clark’, Vanguard, 9 August 2012, http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/08/boko-haram-arrest-ciroma-lawal-kaita-clark/.

  9   Aminu Abubakar, ‘Gunmen kill three in Nigerian Muslim emir’s convoy’, Agence France-Presse, 19 January 2013.

  10    Human Rights Watch, ‘Leave everything to God: accountability for inter-communal violence in Plateau and Kaduna states, Nigeria’, December 2013, pp. 48–65.

  11    Taye Obateru and Daniel Idonor, ‘Jos Xmas Eve Blast: 32 people confirmed dead, 74 hospitalised’, Vanguard, 26 December 2010, http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/jos-xmas-eve-blast-32-people-confirmed-dead-74-hospitalised/.

  12    Translation from Hausa by Aminu Abubakar.

  13    Ola Awoniyi, ‘Bomb attack on Nigerian military barracks kills four’, Agence France-Presse, 1 January 2011.

  14    Quotations from Jonathan noted at the time by my AFP colleague Ola Awoniyi. Used here with his permission.

  15    Several stories reported this, including: Sule Lazarus, ‘2011: inside Nigeria’s expensive presidential primary elections’, Sunday Trust (Nigeria), 23 January 2011, http://sundaytrust.com.ng/index.php/news/10548-2011-inside-nigerias-expensive-presidential-primary-elections.

  16    Aisha Wakaso, ‘Bomb targeting Nigerian election shatters young lives’, Agence France-Presse, 9 April 2011.

  17    Nigeria Civil Society Election Situation Room, ‘Final Statement on the Presidential Election’, 19 April 2011, http://electionsituationroom.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/civil-society-election-situation-room-final-statement-on-the-presidential-election-tuesday-april-192011/.

  18    Human Rights Watch, ‘Nigeria: post-election violence killed 800’, 17 May 2011.

  19    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Nigeria probes deadly blasts after president’s inauguration’, Agence France-Presse, 30 May 2011.

  20    Wikileaks, ‘Jonathan tells former president his plans for new INEC commissioners’, 23 February 2010.

  21    Boko Haram is believed to have some form of welfare operation that provides financing to the families of ‘martyrs’, but I have not confirmed further details.

  22    Ahmad Salkida, ‘The story of Nigeria’s first suicide bomber’, BluePrint magazine via Sahara Reporters, http://saharareporters.com/news-page/story-nigerias-first-suicide-bomber-blueprint-magazine.

  23    ‘Nigeria Islamists claim suicide bombing’, Agence France-Presse, 17 June 2011.

  24    Salkida, ‘Story’.

  25    Quotations from a Nigerian Presidency press release, 20 June 2011.

  26    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Police kill “would-be suicide bomber” in Maiduguri’, Agence France-Presse via Vanguard (Nigeria), 15 August 2011.

  27    Joe Brock, ‘Special report: Boko Haram – between rebellion and jihad’, Reuters, 31 January 2012.

  28    ‘Mamman Nur: “mastermind” of UN attack in Nigeria’, Agence France-Presse, 31 August 2011; Jacob Zenn, ‘Leadership Analysis of Boko Haram and Ansaru in Nigeria’, CTC Sentinel (US), February 2014.

  29    Nigerian Department of State Services press release, 31 August 2011.

  30    Translated from Hausa to English by my AFP colleague Aminu Abubakar, who obtained the video through sources. Some of the quotations were included in our story from 18 September 2011 (Aminu Abubakar and M.J. Smith, ‘Nigerian “bomber” videos emerge as Islamist fears mount’, Agence France-Presse, 18 September 2011).

  4 ‘That Is How Complex the Situation Is’

  1   Ola Awoniyi, ‘Bomb at Nigerian church sparks dying pleas for blessings’, Agence France-Presse, 25 December 2011.

  2   ‘Jonathan visits Madalla, says “cancerous” Boko Haram wants to kill Nigeria’, Agence France-Presse via Vanguard, 31 December 2011, http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/cancerous-islamist-sect-wants-to-kill-nigeria-jonathan/#sthash.J7QK8jMK.dpuf.

  3   Ola Awoniyi, ‘Nigeria declares state of emergency’, Agence France-Presse, 31 December 2011.

  4   These quotations were reported to me by a journalist who covered Jonathan’s speech for my news agency. Some of the quotes were used in our story (Wole Oyetunji, ‘Nigeria unrest “worse than 1960s civil war”: president’, Agence France-Presse, 8 January 2012). Used here with his permission.

  5   ‘We are open to dialogue with Boko Haram – Kwankwaso’, Agence France-Presse via Vanguard, 27 January 2012, http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/01/we-are-open-to-dialogue-with-boko-haram-kwankwaso/#sthash.lKfbWEpD.dpuf.

  6   Press briefing by Idris after the attacks, which I attended.

  7   Aminu Abubakar, ‘“At least 80 bodies in morgue” after Nigeria attacks’, Agence France-Presse, 21 January 2012.

  8   Translation from Hausa to English by Aminu Abubakar.

  9   Aminu Abubakar, ‘German hostage killed in Nigeria during rescue bid’, Agence France-Presse, 31 May 2012.

  10    This is taken from my own reporting in Sokoto the day after the raid.

  11    The phrase could also be translated as ‘Support Group for Muslims in Black Africa’, according to Professor M.A.S. Abdel Haleem of SOAS, University of London.

  12    Sources who closely follow the group mentioned some of this to me, but also see: ‘Kambar, Barnawi: Qaeda-linked militants with Boko Haram ties’, Agence France-Presse, 21 June 2012 and Jacob Zenn, ‘Leadership analysis of Boko Haram and Ansaru in Nigeria’, CTC Sentinel, February 2014.

  13    According to the Nigerian military, Kambar was killed in March 2012, even before the USA designated him a global terrorist. The US government has never confirmed this.

  14    ‘Video shows British, Italian hostages “held by Al-Qaeda”’, Agence France-Presse, 3 August 2011; ‘British, Italian hostages killed amid Nigerian rescue bid’, Agence France-Presse, 8 March 2012.

  15    House of Commons Official Report, Parliament Debates (Hansard), 13 March 2012, p. 142.

  16    Press release from Nigeria’s Department of State Services, 14 March 2012.

  17    ‘SSS detains 5 with “Al Qaeda-links” over German kidnap’, Agence France-Presse via Vanguard (Nigeria), http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/03/sss-detains-5-with-al-qaeda-links-over-german-kidnap/#sthash.jVLHl2a3.dpuf.

  18    Robert Winnett and Thomas Harding, ‘British hostage killed in failed SBS rescue bid’, Telegraph (UK), 8 March 2012.

  19    Press release from DSS.

  20    House of Commons, p. 142, and ‘Chris McManus killed by kidnappers minutes after rescue mission began’, Press Association via Guardian (UK), 17 May 2013.

  21    Press Association, ‘McManus’.

  22    House of Commons, p. 142.

  23    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Nigeria grills kidnappers of slain European hostages’, Agence France-Presse, 10 March 2012.

  24    For a detailed look at European governments paying ransoms, see: Rukmini Callimachi, ‘Paying ransoms, Europe bankrolls Qaeda terror’, New York Times, 29 July 2014.

  25
   UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Nigeria Travel Advice, https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/nigeria/terrorism.

  26    DSS press release.

  27    Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: trapped in the cycle of violence’, November 2012.

  28    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Islamists claim attack that killed 2 Mali-bound Nigerian troops’, Agence France-Presse, 20 January 2013.

  29    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Ansaru claims kidnap of 7 foreigners in Nigeria’, Agence France-Presse, 18 February 2013.

  30    SITE Intelligence Group, ‘Ansar al-Muslimeen announces execution of foreign hostages’, 9 March 2013.

  31    Robert Booth, ‘William Hague says British hostage “likely to have been killed” in Nigeria’, Guardian (UK), 10 March 2013.

  32    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Boko Haram video of kidnapped French family emerges’, Agence France-Presse, 21 March 2013.

  33    ‘Otages au Cameroun: l’hypothèse d’une rançon se confirme’, iTele, 25 April 2013, http://www.itele.fr/monde/video/otages-au-cameroun-lhypothese-dune-rancon-se-confirme-46925.

  34    Tim Cocks, ‘Nigerian Islamists got $3.15 million to free French hostages: document’, Reuters, 26 April 2013.

  35    Video special effects or trickery cannot be ruled out with this footage and others, but the beheading certainly looked gruesomely real.

  36    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Gunmen kill 10 in attacks on Nigeria polio clinics’, Agence France-Presse via dawn.com, 9 February 2013.

  37    Those quoted provided me with their names and agreed that I could use them, but I have withheld them out of fears for their safety.

  38    Human Rights Watch, ‘Spiraling violence: Boko Haram attacks and security force abuses in Nigeria’, October 2012.

  39    Amnesty, ‘Trapped’.

  40    National Human Rights Commission, ‘The Baga Incident and the Situation in North-East Nigeria: An Interim Assessment and Report’, Abuja, June 2013.

  41    Human Rights Watch, ‘Violence’, p. 58.

  42    Human Rights Watch, ‘Violence’, p. 72.

  43    National Human Rights Commission, ‘Baga’, pp. 18–19.

  44    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Nigeria fishing town paralysed by fear after slaughter’, Agence France-Presse, 1 May 2013.

  45    Abubakar, ‘Nigeria fishing town’.

  46    Human Rights Watch, ‘Nigeria: Massive Destruction, Deaths from Military Raid’, 1 May 2013.

  47    National Human Rights Commission, ‘Baga’, p. 19.

  5 ‘I Don’t Know. They’re in the Bush’

  1   ‘Channels TV visits liberated Boko Haram’s camp in Borno’, Channels Television, 7 June 2013, http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/06/07/channels-tv-visits-liberated-boko-harams-camp-in-borno/.

  2   Olukolade was later promoted to major-general.

  3   Hamza Idris, ‘Who are Borno’s “Civilian JTF”?’, Weekly Trust, 29 March 2014; Heather Murdock, ‘Civilian security on front lines to fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram’, Voice of America, 9 December 2013.

  4   M.J. Smith, ‘Nigeria insurgents targeting schools for mayhem’, Agence France-Presse, 8 July 2013.

  5   Smith, ‘Insurgents’.

  6   Aminu Abubakar, ‘Nigeria mosque attack raises questions over army offensive’, Agence France-Presse, 13 August 2013.

  7   ‘Death toll in northeast Nigeria attack “at least 142”’, Agence France-Presse, 22 September 2013; ‘Nigeria reinforces town after Boko Haram massacre’, Agence France-Presse, 20 September 2013; ‘Nigeria: Boko Haram Abducts Women, Recruits Children’, Human Rights Watch, 29 November 2013.

  8   Adam Nossiter, ‘Bodies pour in as Nigeria hunts for Islamists’, New York Times, 7 May 2013.

  9   I later sought to contact the commissioner, who sent me a message saying I should call the hospital’s chief medical director and provided me with a number. No one answered and I received no response to a text message sent to it. This was, of course, after mobile phone service was reconnected in Maiduguri.

  10    Amnesty International, ‘Nigeria: war crimes and crimes against humanity as violence escalates in north-east’, 31 March 2014.

  6 ‘Our Girls Were Kidnapped and They Did Not Do Anything’

  1   He said he was appointed as a ‘peace ambassador’. He has never worked as a Nigerian ambassador in another country.

  2   When I asked him in a later phone call what exactly his ‘security’ role was, he told me that he was in fact working for an NGO that aims to bring together the country’s north and south.

  3   I should stress that I have not visited Chibok myself and have relied on interviews with residents and others, as well as a history of the Chibok people written by Gerald Neher, the missionary I quote who lived there in the 1950s and 1960s. I sought to visit Chibok when I returned to Nigeria in late May and early June 2014 after the attack on the town, but decided against travelling by road because of security concerns.

  4   Church of the Brethren’s website: http://www.brethren.org/partners/nigeria/history/.

  5   Nigeria’s official 2006 census put the population at more than 66,000.

  6   ‘Boko Haram: Borno schools closed indefinitely’, 22 March 2014, Agence France-Presse via Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper.

  7   ‘National Literacy Action Plan for 2012–2015’, High-Level International Round Table on Literacy, UNESCO, Paris, 6–7 September 2012 (http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/Nigeria.pdf).

  8   ‘Nigerian authorities failed to act on warnings about Boko Haram raid on school’, Amnesty International, 9 May 2014; a school official in an interview with me estimated there had been about 15 soldiers, though he admitted he was not sure.

  9   Talatu Usman, ‘How Borno Governor caused kidnap of Chibok schoolgirls – WAEC’, Premium Times, 3 May 2014.

  10    Footage from Channels TV interview with Jidda can be found on YouTube in several parts. The first is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmzexqk8xs. Links are provided in the video window for each subsequent part.

  11    The principal told me that she never said she was there on the night of the kidnappings and that she was misquoted if reports said otherwise.

  12    Joe Brock, ‘Boko Haram, taking to hills, seize slave “brides”’, Reuters, 13 November 2013; and Human Rights Watch, ‘Nigeria: Boko Haram abducts women, recruits children’, 29 November 2013.

  13    A Nigerian security source spoke to me about this on condition of anonymity in October 2013.

  14    Aminu Abubakar, ‘Boko Haram leader claims Nigeria capital bombing in new video’, Agence France-Presse, 19 April 2014.

  15    ‘Nigerian authorities failed to act’.

  16    Adam Nossiter, ‘Tales of escapees in Nigeria add to worries about other kidnapped girls’, New York Times, 14 May 2014.

  17    Nossiter, ‘Tales of escapees’.

  18    Details on the forest come mainly from two papers: P. Omondi, R. Mayienda, J.S. Mamza and M.S. Massalatchi, ‘Total Aerial Count of Elephants and other Wildlife Species in Sambisa Game Reserve in Borno State, Nigeria’, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, July 2006 (available at http://www.cites.org/common/prog/mike/survey/0607_FW_AT_Survey_Sambisa_big.pdf); Y.P. Mbaya, and H. Malgwi, ‘Species List and Status of Mammals and Birds in Sambisa Game Reserve, Borno State, Nigeria’, Journal of Research in Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, 2(1) (March 2010), pp. 135–40.

  19    The father I spoke with was only aware of two, but there have been reports of others.

  20    These numbers were as of 26 July 2014.

  21    ‘#BBCtrending: The creator of #BringBackOurGirls’, BBC, 7 May 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-27315124.

  22    Video from the meeting can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMwIkuoAMj0.

  23    ‘Nigeria arrests woman protesting for
schoolgirls’ release: activist’, Agence France-Presse, 5 May 2014. Other reports said two people were arrested.

  24    The man in the video resembled past images identified as being of Shekau and appeared to be authentic, but it is impossible to know for certain whether it was him, as with all such videos.

  25    Translation by Aminu Abubakar, who was also the first journalist for a foreign news organisation (AFP) to obtain the video. The full video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrfWS_vL0D4.