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.
Related
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.
Earlier this Month
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.
*
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.”
______
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.
______
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).
# # #
BackChannels 