Boko Haram Wreak Havoc In Adamawa, as there is no single soldier in Michika

Latest reports from Michika local government area of Adamawa state, northern Nigeria, informed that no fewer than 500 houses have been destroyed in Kubi and Watu villages by Boko Haram insurgents.

According to Vanguard report, the dreaded Islamist militants are in full control of Michika and Madagali local governments of Adamawa state.

It was gathered from residents in both villages that the absence of Military personnel in Michika and its environs has completely dampened the hope of the people that the insurgents will be wiped out soonest. “

Since the complete take-over of Michika and Madagali by the insurgents on the 7th of September 2014, no single soldier is noticed in Michika Community.

“The only thing we hear is Jet fighters that came from Yola to drop bombs and go back. Our people are in the state of complete helplessness .

Government seems not to be coming to our aids as the insurgents control everything in our local government,” the villagers lamented from their hideouts.

They claimed the Boko Haram terrorists are killing and maiming their people, adding that nobody is allow to bury the dead. The villagers also alleged that only Vimtim, the hometown of the Chief of Defence Staff, Air marshal Alex Badeh, has been fortified by the military.

They called on the Federal Government to ensure that military personnel are deployed to all the affected areas to assure the people that the FG cares about them. The residents also accused politicians in the state of abandoning them when they needed them most.

They said that: “Adamawa state Acting Governor, Alhaji Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, Senator Bindow Jibrilla representing Adamawa Northern Zone, Member house Reps, for Michika and Madagali Federal Constituency, Mr Tistsi Gana our member in the Adamawa State House of Assembly, Mr Adamu Kamale have all not been of any assistance to us since the take over of Michika by the insurgents.”

No fewer than 5, 000 people are reported to have been killed through terror attacks by the Boko Haram militants.

The leader of the Islamist sect, Abubakar Shekau, is reported to have been killed by the Nigerian military recently.

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I suspect Boko Haram leader, Shekau, is alive —John Campbell

With his gruesome videos and fierce rhetoric, Abubakar Shekau is the public face of Boko Haram, the Islamist insurrection against the Nigerian secular state centred in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

However, there is little hard intelligence on the internal dynamics of Boko Haram’s leadership. The Nigerian security forces claimed to have killed Shekau in 2009, at the same time they extra-judicially executed the movement’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf.

No outsider has seen Shekau since that time. Subsequently, there have been regular reports that the security services have killed him. Each time, however, ‘Shekau’ has issued a video in order to prove he is still alive. However, the ‘Shekau’ figure in some of the videos looks different from others.

Accordingly, there are numerous conspiracy theories involving Skekau’s alleged doubles. On September 21, the Cameroonian authorities claimed that they had killed Shekau in a shoot-out, and they released a photograph of a corpse with some resemblance to Shekau.

However, Sahara Reporters cites Nigerian intelligence as saying that the dead man is Mohammed Bashir, an important Boko Haram lieutenant, and that the Nigerians, not the Cameroonians, deserved the credit. Who knows whether Shekau is alive or dead? The question may not matter much.

As Boko Haram’s resurrection after the killing of its genuinely charismatic leader Mohammed Yusuf shows, the movement is remarkably resilient, and not dependent on a single leader.

Further, if Shekau is alive, as I suspect he is, evidence is scant as to what his actual role in the movement’s leadership is.

Boko Haram is more than Abubakar Shekau, alive or dead. Campbell, a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, posted this piece on the blog.

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Troops Overpower Boko Haram Again, Scores Killed And Weapon Seized

Despite having victory over the Boko Haram group these past weeks, the group made an attempt to attack again but the Nigerian troops overpowered them.

PRNigeria reports that despite resounding victory over the insurgent group called Boko Haram, the group is bent on attacking some communities to retaliate its losses.

They were reportedly said to have been repelled back to their base when members of the terror group tried to attack communities such as Konduga, Beneshek and Damboa where they made a number of attempts on

Thursday and Friday September 25-26, 2014. While over 40 of the terrorists died in this recent attack which took place in three different locations, a multi barrel T55 tank, 9 rifles, two Machine Guns, two Rocket Propelled Grenade tubes, five boxes of ammunition and other weapons were captured from them. Although 11 soldiers were recorded to have lost their lives while 15 others are still under intensive medical care, 3 of the soldiers were said to be missing up till now during the Troops’ search of the Boko Haram’s den.

Meanwhile, air and land operations are ongoing to clear the terrorists from other communities where their activities have become prevalent recently in the states under the state of emergency.

It would be recalled that just recently, troops who were from the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri were said to have made members of the insurgent group to hands down during a showdown in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

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Boko Haram blamed as 13 die in Nigeria college shooting, blast

Kano: Boko Haram insurgents have been blamed after at least 13 people died during a shoot-out between police and suspected suicide bombers at a teacher training college in northern Nigeria on Wednesday.

Kano State police commissioner Adelere Shinaba said the "insurgents", ran into the Federal College of Education after exchanging fire with police outside the grounds.

Most of the victims were in a lecture hall inside the Kano college, where the two gunmen opened fire on students. One student who was having lunch nearby and asked not to be identified, said he saw the gunmen, dressed in black, and heard them shouting for all female students to lie face down.

"They were saying (in pidgin English), `No be you say Boko Haram no they exist` (Is it not you who say Boko Haram doesn`t exist?)," he added. As shooting started, police opened fire and the explosives vest of one of the gunmen detonated. The other was shot dead, according to Shinaba.

The blast shattered glass and brought down the ceiling in the room, while pools of blood and the remains of the bomber could be seen, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

"They were obviously suicide bombers," said Shinaba. "One of our officers shot at one of the gunmen and the explosives on him went off, killing him on the spot," he told AFP. "Another gunman was also killed. Thirteen people were killed by the gunmen and 34 others have been taken to hospital with injuries."

Police recovered explosives and two Kalashnikov assault weapons, he added. President Goodluck Jonathan extended his condolences to the victims` families after what he called a "dastardly attack".

Educational establishments in Kano -- the commercial capital of the north and a centre of Islamic scholarship dating back centuries -- have been hit several times in recent months. On July 30, a female suicide bomber killed six people after detonating her explosives at a noticeboard on the campus of the Kano Polytechnic College while students were crowded around it.

The attack was the fourth by a female bomber in the city in a week and prompted the authorities to cancel celebrations marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The bombings were linked to Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group opposed to so-called "Western education" that has been waging a deadly five-year insurgency in Nigeria`s Muslim-majority north.

The latest incident came a day after the Emir of Kano, Nigeria`s second-highest Muslim leader, gave his first interview since his appointment in June and called for action against militancy.

Muhammad Sanusi II, who as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said more investment was needed in the conflict-ridden north to prevent radicalisation. "As long as people are gainfully employed, they`re not likely to jump onto the bandwagon of insurgency," he told BBC television.

Nigeria`s military are under pressure to crush the insurgency after Boko Haram seized territory in the far northeast in recent weeks, declaring one captured town part of an Islamic caliphate. On Tuesday, senators said they would urge Jonathan to declare "total war" on Boko Haram to bring the five-year insurgency to an end.

In other violence, several Boko Haram insurgents were killed in a fierce battle with Nigerian troops in the northeastern town of Konduga near Maiduguri, the army said.

Pick-up vehicles with mounted machine- and anti-aircraft guns, an armoured personnel carrier and assorted arms and ammunition were recovered after the battle late Tuesday, an army spokesman was quoted as saying.

 Konduga is about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and former headquarters of Boko Haram. A military source who requested anonymity said "scores" had been killed, claiming "the terrorists suffered heavy casualties for the second time in a few days."

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Five Boko Haram terrorists surrender in Nigeria

Abuja: Authorities in Nigeria Sunday confirmed that some Boko Haram terrorists have begun to surrender voluntarily following relentless onslaught by troops.

At least five terrorists surrendered Saturday with all their weapons to troops in Borno state`s Konduga pleading for mercy, Xinhua quoted the Nigerian Defense Headquarters (DHQ) as saying in a statement.

Other captured terrorists who refused to surrender have also been giving useful information on the subsequent plans of the group in an apparent effort to cooperate, the statement added.

In the last few days there had been several attempts by desperate terrorists to gain entry into Konduga which were foiled by the troops.

The terrorists` move, according to the statement, is aimed at recovering the bodies of their prominent fighters who died in previous encounters in the area.

The country`s defence authority last Thursday arrested a senior commander of the Boko Haram sect which is blamed for killing hundreds of people since 2009.

The commander, whose identity remain unknown, was captured in a military operation last Wednesday. Sixty fighters of the Boko Haram were reported killed in series of attacks they launched to gain access to Konduga area of northeast Borno State.

The Boko Haram, an Islamist sect, has proved to be a major security threat in Nigeria, Africa`s most populous country, in the last five years.

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Boko Haram: 700 Gwoza refugees flee to Nasarawa

About 700 displaced persons from Gwoza, Chibok, Bama in Borno State and its environs have fled to Kwubaru village, in Karu Local Government of Nasarawa State.

The refugees who include men, women and children are divided into three different camps of Kwubaru, Angwar Jama’a and Takwa.

They have been relocating to the village since March this year, in a bid to flee the troubled North-eastern part of the country. Since their arrival, the no government agency has acknowledged their presence or sent relive materials.

They have had to survive on contributions from well meaning Nigerians and hand me downs from their host community.

The only recognition accorded to them by the government according to their leaders was when they arrived and soldiers came in trucks and Hilux vans to harass them and arrest the Chief of Kwubaru for harbouring them.

In the Kwubaru camp for example, women and children are the only ones that sleep in any one of the nine mud houses and they can be as many as 12 people or more in one room while the men sleep on sacks and mats outside even under the rain.

Members of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) advocacy visited the camp on a humanitarian visit to confirm the existence of internally displaced persons close to Abuja and donate relieve materials which included foodstuffs, clothing, blankets and mattresses Leader of the refugees and former Headmaster of Ghwaa primary school, Gwoza, Mallam Yohanna Wurawa explained that he escaped Gwoza with his family after his house and school was burnt down to the refugee camp in Cameroon.

Eventually, he said, his family and a few others were assisted by the Stephanus foundation to Kwabaru.

Leader of the BBOG Hajia Saudatu Mahdi said that the group had visited the refugees as part of their humanitarian effort and to establish the fact that there is truly Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) since the government denied knowledge of them.

Saudatu promised that they group will write to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons to notify them of the presence of the refugees and the need to come to their assistance immediately.

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Conflicting claims trail purported killing of Boko Haram leader, Shekau

If the ongoing report from the troubled Northeast Nigeria is anything to go by, then a prominent Boko Haram Commander suspected to be the sect’s leader, Abubakar Shekau might have been killed. However, one report that appears conflicting is whether the alleged victory was actually won by the Nigerian Army or the Cameroonian soldiers. The conflicting reports stemmed from the claim by troops of both countries of being responssible for the death of the most wanted terrorist in the North. While troops from Cameroon on Sunday night claimed responsibility for killing Shekau with photos of the Boko Haram leader’s corpse as one of the proofs, the Nigerian Army has equally claimed that its troops killed the sect leader. The report from the side of the Nigerian troops was however not supported by images. The conflict in the claim equally became visible when troops from Cameroon said it killed Shekau at the Gamboru Ngala border town, contrary to claims by the Nigerian Army that said Shekau was killed in Konduga town, few kilometres away from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. Both troops also have different versions to how the terrorist was allegedly killed. While Cameroon military disclosed that Shekau was killed in an aerial bombardment in his hideout inside Nigeria, the Nigerian military claimed that its troops might have killed Shekau on September 17 when the sect members tried to capture Konduga, and consequently invade Maiduguri. The Nigerian Military has further claimed that “It is getting more certain that the terrorists’ commander who has been mimicking Shekau in those videos is the one killed in Konduga on September 17, 2014″. The military however cautioned that, “The process of confirming that the dead body we have is the same as that character who has been posing as Shekau is ongoing. He is definitely a prominent terrorist Commander. I don’t want to say anything about this yet please.” A military source had further revealed that the semblance between Shekau and the corpse in their custody was too striking and cannot be a coincidence, citing his facial marks, beards and teeth in addition to the recovery by the Nigerian troops of some of the Armoured Vehicles and Hilux jeeps that had featured in previous videos of the prime suspect as possible evidences. The Army further assured that the Defence Headquarters will soon address the nation after full investigation is carried out to verify the real identity of the dead leader.

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