12 Saturday May 2018
Tags
banking, communitarian politics, conservative progressive politics, economic development, economic disparity, economic distribution, free trade, human agency and choice, humanism, Kano Lamido Sanusi II, leadership, liberal economics, Nigeria, post-colonial Africa, values
Amen!
Conversation welcomed.
–33–
24 Saturday Mar 2018
Of the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped in Dapchi in February, 104 were released by the Boko Haram, five died during the kidnap while one remains with the terrorists for allegedly refusing to put on a hijab and renounce her Christian faith.
Her name: Aisha Adamu.
Her killers wear masks and appear to have no names.
From The Awesome Conversation —
The Ummah of Islam has bloody edges, and the Christian community of Nigeria appears to be an edge. The “Fulani Land Pirates” — that’s what I’m calling them — are nibbling away Nigerian Christian territory with rape and rapine, and the Christian community disarmed by the state is become “internally displaced”, currently by about 200,000 souls in relation to the Land Pirates, about 2 million in relation to Boko Haram, who have got a kind of game going: abduct, convert or kill, and return the sworn converts to their parents.
There are multiple levels in these conflicts — locally, Boko Haram is a scourge; however, the arms are Kalashnikov, generally speaking; we know today that Moscow arms and backs the Taliban in Afghanistan; we know that the same defends politically absolute systems, AKA “dictatorships”, and we know that the sponsors in the surrounds of these fighting elements, emir, general this or that, fit that description.
My call: it’s not overpopulation or too much imagination that drive the Islamic Small Wars, although that would be true for producing recruits for war parties: Nigeria provides dual images — the assaults of the Fulani Land Pirates in one part, the barbarism practiced by Boko Haram in the other — of the Islamist program of conquest “by the sword” in action.
Whatever reassurances and sweet words may come from the “leadership” may appear more and more as cover.
The marauders keep getting away — and refreshed with arms and funding keep returning too.
Posted to YouTube on February 26, 2018 — before the return of most of the schoolgirls: ” . . . and just asking how could our daughters be left unprotected to be taken again . . .?
CNN. “Inside Nigeria’s internal displacement camps”. Africa View, January 11, 2017.
Speaking in tears, the middle-aged resident of Jumbam, a village 2km away from Dapchi, said rather than the Nigerian soldiers combating the insurgents after they came back to drop the girls, the soldiers simply “watched with folded arms while the insurgents left triumphantly.”
The resident spoken was the father of Aisha Adamu, Adamu Jumbam.
The report involved 3,455 household surveys and 46 focus group discussions across 12 local government areas in Borno State. Most of the IDPs surveyed expressed fears about security as their main reasons for not wanting to return home.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed on several occasions that Boko Haram—which has fractured into at least two major factions—was no longer a fighting force in Nigeria. But the militants have continued to launch attacks and have been solely responsible for some 700 deaths so far in 2017, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. “Nigeria IDP Figures Analysis — As of December 31, 2015 —
IDMC estimates that there are almost 2,152,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria as of 31 December 2015 . . . .
Of the total figure of IDPs, the assessment indicates that 12.6 per cent were displaced due to communal clashes, 2.4 per cent by natural disasters and 85 per cent as a result of insurgency attacks by Islamists. The decrease in the percentage of IDPs who were displaced by insurgency from 95.3 per cent in August to 85 per cent in December 2015 and the increase in the numbers of those displaced by communal clashes from 4.6 per cent to 10.1 per cent in October were due to the inclusion of five additional States witnessing communal violence more than insurgency by Islamist groups.
But a source who also participated in the negotiations with Boko Haram that led to release of over 80 Chibok girls in 2017 told SaharaReporters that the federal government not only made the ransom payment of five million euros to the insurgents, it also exchanged some Boko Haram prisoners in return for the Dapchi girls.
However, the lie that no ransom was paid to secure the return of the Dapchi girls followed a consistent pattern of such under the table millions of dollars payments by the Nigerian government to Boko Haram to secure freedom of abductees, especially since the advent of the Buhari administration.
Moscow’s hidden hand may be behind both conflicts — Boko Haram and the Fulani Land Pirates — for the still medieval Russian state appears to promote “political absolutism” — the power of the tyrant to destroy both property and persons with impunity — worldwide. In such systems, the state exists to serve the Great Leader who may hold his position beneath a banner and program essentially swallowed by the public. As regards dictatorships, one may say: “Different Talks — Same Walk!” Always.
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18 Sunday Mar 2018
BackChannels source this morning relayed the following from Lagos, Nigeria in relation to raids by apparent herdsman against largely disarmed villages.
In 2013, news reports mentioned a Hezbollah cell and weapons cache in Nigeria; the latest weapons seizure of similar scale in 2017 appears to have originated through Turkish channels.
Although Fulani herdsman have been blamed en masse for the aggression noted, BackChannels has heard suggestion that the weaponizing may devolve to the same forces backing extremist organizations elsewhere. The 2013 Hezbollah connection and the more recent 2017 interdiction involving Turkey would appear to support that thesis.
Recruitment into raiding units would also appear to correspond to conditions channeling fighters into rogue organizations elsewhere.
Dr. Omolade Adunbi, Assistant Professor, Political Anthropology, University of Michigan noted the following earlier this year in the publication Africa is a Country: “The question then becomes, how are these insurgents with no clarity of purpose able to recruit members into their dysfunctional group? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. First, the effect of climate change on the rise of social inequality in many parts of the country has meant the increased susceptibility of socially vulnerable groups to recruitment.”
Related on YouTube
Posted to YouTube 3/28/2014
Posted to YouTube 1/11/2018
Posted to YouTube 8/2/2016
BackChannels can never “vet” these videos, but most recognize this conflict in Nigeria as involving cattlemen, basically, and farmers. Less played may be the role played by religion in the conflict, which here has been made apparent:
Posted to YouTube 1/16/2018
Considering the 2013 Hezbollah weapons cache story, the latest interdiction of arms involving Turkish (criminal, of course) channeling, the claim of arms coming from Libya and more recent participation associated with Turkey and the activities of Moscow and Tehran in manipulating conflicts and extremism into existence (listen to the BBC interview of a once Soviet admiral on the Ogaden War), the drivers of this latest tragedy in Nigeria may start to surface.
The Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Hakan Cakil, in a meeting with the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), over importation of four containers of pump-action rifles into Nigeria in last eight months vowed to help Nigeria fish out criminals behind the illegal arms shipment to Nigeria.
The question then becomes, how are these insurgents with no clarity of purpose able to recruit members into their dysfunctional group? The answer to this question is not far-fetched. First, the effect of climate change on the rise of social inequality in many parts of the country has meant the increased susceptibility of socially vulnerable groups to recruitment . . . .
Amnesty International: Nigeria 2017/2018.
On 4 December 2017, Nigeria’s air force sent fighter jets to fire rockets at villages as a “warning” to deter spiralling communal violence, as hundreds of herdsmen attacked at least five villages in Adamawa state to avenge the massacre of up to 51 members of their community, mostly children, the previous month in Kikan.
An Amnesty International team visited the villages in the aftermath of the air raids and gathered witness testimony from residents who described being attacked by a fighter jet and a military helicopter as they attempted to flee.
BBC News. “Nigeria: Hezbollah armoury discovered in Kano city.” May 30, 2013 —
The cache, including rifles, anti-tank weapons and an RPG, were found in a warehouse in the city of Kano, he said.
Nigeria’s State Security Service said they were intended for use against “Israeli and Western interests”.
BBC News. “Nigeria: How Customs seize 1,100 guns for port.” September 11, 2017.
BBC News. “Nigeria’s Benue clashes: Mass burial after farmer-Fulani clashes.” January 11, 2018 —
Mr Onoja, who was at the funeral, said 73 people were being buried.
He defended his state’s controversial ban on open cattle grazing implemented in November, which Fulani herders have complained targets them unfairly.
“Our economy in Benue State depends on agriculture,” he said. “Take that away and we have a serious problem.”
Come to Nigeria. “Hausa and Fulani People”.
(Reuters) – Nigeria’s secret service say they have arrested a “terrorist cell” trained in Iran who planned to attack U.S. and Israeli targets in Africa’s most populous nation.
The State Security Service (SSS) said they arrested Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and two other Nigerians in December after Berende made several suspicious trips to Iran where he interacted with Iranians in a “high profile terrorist network”.
The National Chairman of Fulbe (Fulani) Development Association of Nigeria (FULDAN), Malam Ahmad Usman Bello, has declared that they cannot be defeated by any ethnic group in the country.
Bello made the remarks while speaking with Saturday Tribune in Kano, amid the widespread outcry against the murderous activities of Fulani herdsmen in Benue, Plateau and Taraba states and many other parts of the country.
Sahara Reporters. “470 Guns Seized at Lagos Port.” September 22, 2017.
The federal government is set to meet Turkish diplomats today over the spate of illegal importation of rifles from Turkey to Nigeria.
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Comptroller-General (CG) Col. Hameed Ali (retd) said this when he briefed reporters over the seizure of another 470 rifles at Tin-Can Island port in Lagos.
The body also said communal clashes have claimed over 700 lives since last year. AI made its position known in a statement issued on Monday. It stated that clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna states have resulted in 168 deaths in January alone.
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14 Wednesday Mar 2018
Tags
Bassa, Dundu Village, Fulani, Fulani Herdsman, Islamic Small Wars, Kwall District, Nigeria, Plateau State, small wars, terrorism
BackChannels’ source has reported nineteen men, three women, and three children killed by Fulani herdsman Monday night (March 12, 2018) in Dundu Village, Kwall District, Bassa Governate, Plateu State, Nigeria. The attack follows by three days the burning of 50 homes and the killing of two children, twins, and 9 adults in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
Source claims Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari “has been paying lip service to the atrocities committed by Fulani terrorists.”
President Buhari has urged patience on the part of the Nigerian public:
Nigeria’s issues with the nomadic Fulani, pressured by drought and motivated some by Islamic supremacist egotism, has been a developing conflict issue in Nigeria for some time. Herewith a smattering of related reports and news news reports and fair use excerpts from them.
All excerpts are partial (there’s more to be read at the source) and dated either in the address line or short after the URL.
https://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/fulani-herdsmen-nigeria – 2014
Fulani herdsmen and farmers conflict in Nigeria is a land resource based conflict in north-eastern Nigeria. According to a Human Rights Watch report of December 2013 violence between Fulani herdsmen, farmers and local communities had killed 3,000 people since 2010.
Attributed to Chief Adebanjo:
On herdsmen, Adebanjo said he had no trust on the ability of the police to quell the activities of the group as the police hierarchy had already described the killings as communal clashes.
He further lambasted President Buhari over his handling of the killings, stressing that “even when someone in the caliber of Falae was kidnapped, he didn’t utter a word. He has also refused to identify Fulani herdsmen as terrorists.
http://punchng.com/herdsmen-kill-11-torch-50-houses-in-plateau/ – 3/10/2018
President Muhammadu Buhari had barely left Plateau State when the attacks were launched on Ganda village of Daffo District in Bokkos Local Government Area and Miango village in Bassa Local Government Area. The communities were attacked few hours after the inauguration of Plateau State Peace Building Agency by the President, who was in Jos, the state capital, on a working visit.
https://newtelegraphonline.com/2018/03/herdsmen-kill-25-raze-houses-plateau/
He said: “Twenty-five people lost their lives in a fresh attack on Dundu village of Kwall District of Bassa Local Government Area. The incident occurred just as the Irigwe community had planned a mass burial for four of the five earlier killed in a similar attack on Nzhauvo village.
“When we reacted to a claim by the Miyetti Allah group in January of missing cattle, we told you it was a ploy to justify another round of killings. True to this, the Fulani militia, which the Federal Government has refused to brand a terrorist organisation to the dismay of Nigerians, have continued to visit our villages with orchestrated and unwarranted carnage.
https://naijanewsandevents.com/fulani-herdsmen-attack-dundu-village-in-plateau-kill-25/ – 3/14/2018
Daily Sun gathered that the attack, which occurred at about 7pm, left several houses burnt and scores injured.
It was learnt that the attackers took the villagers unawares when they were preparing to take their dinner and the entire village was enveloped by gunfire from the attackers, leaving children, women and the aged scampering for safety.
A youth leader, Lawrence Timothy, said 25 corpses have been found, while more were still being recovered from the bush
http://punchng.com/herdsmen-kill-26-torch-11-houses-in-fresh-plateau-attacks/ – 3/14/2018
Attributed to Lawrence Zongo, spokesman, Miango Youth Development Association:
“Others, including two women are now receiving treatment in a nearby hospital in the community. One girl later died in the hospital, making it 26 victims. This is too bad as we are planning for a mass burial of the last attack. So far, we have more than 500 in Internally Displaced Persons camp. The international organisations should please come to our aid.”
Source and Search:
http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?search=Fulani&sa.x=38&sa.y=9&sa=Search
Notice the spike on the chart from 2010 into 2016.
Information about perpetrator groups was reported for 77% of terrorist attacks in Nigeria in 2016. Due to a 63% decrease in the number of attacks carried out by Boko Haram and a 62% increase in the number of attacks carried out by Fulani militants, Fulani militants were responsible for the most terrorist attacks in Nigeria in 2016.
https://jamestown.org/program/alleged-connection-between-boko-haram-and-nigerias-fulani-herdsmen-could-spark-a-nigerian-civil-war/ – March 16, 2014.
In recent weeks, Nigerian security forces have claimed that some groups of semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen engaged in bitter and bloody conflicts with farmers in several Nigerian states are actually composed of members of Boko Haram. A statement from Nigerian Director of Defense Information Major General Chris Olukolade claimed the potentially dangerous identification came during the interrogation of Fulani herdsmen arrested after a series of killings and arson attacks in Taraba State (Vanguard [Lagos], April 23; Leadership [Abuja], April 24; Nigerian Tribune, April 24). Reports of Boko Haram members (who are mostly members of the Kanuri ethno-cultural group) disguising themselves as Fulani herdsmen while carrying out attacks in rural Nigeria are common. Though many of these reports may be attempts to deflect responsibility from Fulani herders for attacks on sedentary farming communities throughout north and central Nigeria, even the perception that the Fulani herdsmen have joined forces with Boko Haram could propel Nigeria into a new and devastating civil war.
Note: because Russia has been cited as arming the Taliban in Afghanistan in its war against liberal and democratic modernity in that state, BackChannels may suggest searching for similar connection in the “handling” of both Boko Haram and the portion of Fulani Herdsmen engaged in creating chaos, dispossession, and ruin in Nigeria.
It should be evident worldwide that Soviet / post-Soviet Moscow works to weaken states: Syria has been half destroyed in association with Moscow, Crimea invaded and today badgered daily by related military and terrorist-type elements, and so one may ask — or must ask — where else? And for whose benefit?
For more immediate Nigerian and practical realpolitik, the response to Fulani “softening” for incursion may turn out the state’s army and armed local militia.
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04 Sunday May 2014
Tags
I’ll go straight to the point. Why is Boko Haram pummelling us from every angle and we are so helpless? Why are we being battered and bruised? How can insurgents roam so freely within our territory, take over military barracks, slaughter teenage students in their hostels, abduct hundreds of young girls without trace for three weeks, burn down their schools, kill our soldiers at will, attack and kill innocent citizens at any location of their choice and then we are here, unable to stop them? How did Boko Haram become so powerful that the state is becoming powerless? How can the tail be wagging the dog when it should be the other way round?
http://www.ynaija.com/simon-kolawole-how-did-boko-haram-become-so-powerful/ – May 4, 2014.
Related: http://www.ynaija.com/mark-amaza-9-questions-we-should-be-asking-about-chibok-yissueoftheweek/ – May 4, 2014.
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“Nigerians have never been lucky in the department of leadership,” Ndibe says. “There is this old joke in Nigeria about the football coach who was asked how his team was going to win a game, and he said, ‘We’re going to fumble our way to victory.’ It seems to me that is the same ethos that drives Nigerian affairs.”
http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/nigerian-author-reflects-tragic-kidnapping/ – May 2, 2014.
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25 Tuesday Feb 2014
Tags
commentary, defense, intelligence, Nigeria, political, politics, terrorism
It is a co-ed school about 45 miles south of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and difficult to communicate with because extremists last year destroyed the cell phone tower there.
Islamist group slaughters 43 children in Nigerian boarding school | Mail Online – 2/25/2014.
“Dark space” has nothing to do with color, race, creed, religion: it has to do with communicating and policing.
Any location without reliable 24/7 cellular communication becomes an easy target for marauders — and these most barbaric and sadist of Muslims, so they claim that status for themselves, prove the worst of marauding gangs.
Reactive tactics and strategies fail just as reliably as cell service.
Show business — shows of force, state public relations — won’t work either, and so far plainly hasn’t.
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But, how do we encourage security agencies that refuse to use intelligence information sent to them by citizens or fail to coordinate intelligence information from various security outfits and government agencies?
Recently, a fellow gave sensitive information to a policeman on some suspicious activities within his workplace but the policeman waved it aside that even if he tells his boss, the officer will not trust his information or may accuse him of belonging to Boko Haram. Now how do we encourage the government or security services when a junior policeman does not have confidence in his superior officer?
Opinion: Nigerian security agencies and the fight against Boko Haram | – 1/24/2014.
Nigeria’s army may be brave, but as much as it may request weapons, what it needs most is a locked tight loyal intelligence service, one capable of tracing financing and arms sales, detecting related cabal and traffic in planning, and knowing, not guessing, where its enemy wanders.
*
In the backs-of-beyond, whether the remote corners of Columbia-Ecuador, the Durand Line separating Afghanistan from Pakistan, or the remote villages of Nigeria, producing structural changes may prove the most expensive but necessary response to a force now roaming and killing at will: cell systems, forts, roads, helicopter pads, airfields — all of it: and then, as too often demonstrated in Pakistan, mere police, even a barracks full of them, simply will not stand off a force superior in numbers for the 30- to 45-minutes it may take to lose a firefight while waiting for “backup”.
Opposite that tack: as refugees spill in from affected areas, they are doing defense naturally: fleeing the death for the safety of great numbers and improved state response to attack.
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Boko Haram are better armed and are better motivated than our own troops.
Boko Haram and a Nation at War, Articles | THISDAY LIVE – 2/20/2014.
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“It would appear that they have established bases in certain parts of the northeast that nobody can even penetrate or go to, and they’ve excluded every symbol of authority in those areas,” he said. “Some even say they are in control of various local governments in the northeast and are collecting taxes and running the show in those places.”
Boko Haram’s Funding Remains ‘Elusive’ – 5/22/2013.
* * *
BBC News – Nigeria school raid in Yobe state ‘leaves dozens dead’
Thousands fleeing Boko Haram find little comfort in Niger | Reuters
29 Boys Killed as Boko Haram Attacks Boarding School in Nigeria – NBC News.com
* * *
“Boko Haram came in at about 4.00 a.m. (0300 GMT), just when we were getting ready for the morning prayers,” said Bama resident Abba Masta, who lives near the palace.
“There was shooting everywhere and they set the palace on fire. Many died. Students had to run for their lives as they attacked the government girls college as well.”
It was one of several deadly attacks this week.
Boko Haram fighters kill 47 in attack in northeast Nigeria -police | The Indian Express – 2/20/2014.
Related: NCTC.gov – 2014 Counterterrorism Calendar, n.d.
When a government asks “Islamists” to lay down their arms (say “Pretty Please”?), it may do so with faith in reason, but better with these to have faith in the savagery that drives and the greed and lust that ensures their continued swimming in blood and money.
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29 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted in Africa, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria, Politics
Tags
arming, atrocity, Boko Haram, funding, Nigeria, select links, Yobe
Islamic terrorists dressed in Nigerian military uniforms assaulted a college inside the country Sunday, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in their dorms and shot others trying to flee, witnesses say.
Islamic terrorists kill at least 40 students in attack on Nigerian college | Fox News – 9/29/2013.
AFP: Boko Haram kills 40 students in Nigeria college dorm – 9/29/2013
Nigeria college attack: Extremists gun down sleeping students | Toronto Star – 9/29/2013.
Update: Conflicting Figures Trail Yobe College Attack – www.channelstv.com – 9/29/2013.
BBC News – Nigeria attack: Students shot dead as they slept – 9/23-2013.
Nigeria says 50 Boko Haram fighters killed – Africa – Al Jazeera English – 9/6/2013: “”Troops are pursuing the remnants of the fleeing terrorists by blocking all possible escape routes.”
A costume du jour provides the Trojan horse and malevolent uncloaking suffices to murder with least risk dangerous merchants and sleeping students. One may start to wonder at this point whether the civilian targets of Boko Haram ambush should themselves be trained and armed.
They’re certainly not being defended by their government even as the same may pursue them.
One report noted a government shutdown of communications intended to impede Boko Haram’s coordination, but the same, so one might reason, would seem to prevent a common SOS getting through to Nigeria’s military.
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BBC News – Nigeria’s Boko Haram unrest: Scores dead in Benisheik raid – 9/19/2013: “Local vigilante groups have been formed to help counter the militants but scores of these volunteers have been killed in recent weeks.”
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Communication blackout
“A friend who came from Mubi at the weekend told me that there is no fighting in Mubi, but the curfew imposed on the state is affecting business and free movement,” Sani said. “You cannot communicate because phones have been cut. Farmers cannot farm because of fear, and food prices have gone up.”
Nigeria has experienced a recent spate of terrorist activities and protracted security challenges. In addition to the attacks in May, a suicide booming in March claimed the lives of 41 people, and in April, fighting between the army and Boko Haram claimed the lives of 187 people.
Communication blackout and abuses in three Nigerian states | Radio Netherlands Worldwide – 6/10/2013.
Related: Nigeria’s silent war on Boko Haram – Al Jazeera Blogs – 6/3/2013.
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When the Nigerian military announces its victories against Boko Haram, it usually includes a list of the weapons that soldiers have recovered. It used to be mostly AK-47s, ammunition and bombs. More recently the list has included machine guns mounted on trucks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns.
Boko Haram’s Funding Remains ‘Elusive’ – 5/22/2013.
As Nigerians were on the street protesting over fuel subsidy removal, a British based man was being arraigned in UK over the shipping of 80,000 rifles and pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition to Nigeria. The shipment included 40,000 AK47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 9mm pistols.
Excerpt from a bulletin board-type notation – Who is arming Boko Haram? 8/2011
Same story, different source:
Gary Hyde, 43, helped ship 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles, 10,000 pistols and 32 million rounds of ammunition from China in 2007.
He was convicted of breaching UK trade controls in October and sentenced to seven years in December.
Gary Hyde told to pay £780,000 over Nigeria arms shipment | June12Post – 6/8/2013.
Related: “we Pay Police To Kill Police, N500,000 Per Head” – Boko Haram – Politics (2) – Nairaland / (Source of reporting) Insights: Who is sending the guns to Nigeria? (Very good article on the subject, and I recommend it) / (I read it in the BBC): BBC News – Gary Hyde told to pay £780,000 over Nigeria arms shipment – 6/7/2013.
Whose money has been paying for Boko Haram’s rampage?
Value of Hyde’s arms shipment according to the above cited BBC article: $10 million (£6.2m).
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BackChannels 