Boko Haram: 2 schools set on fire in Maiduguri •As JTF kills 4 sect members

Posted by admin Armed Forces, Bauchi, Boko Haram, Latest Politics, State News Thursday, March 1st, 2012

RESIDENTS of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital have called on members of the Boko Haram sect to consider the well-being of the common man in their activities, adding that it is the common man that suffers whenever there is an attack.

A resident who spoke to Nigerian Tribune on condition of anonymity said he found it hard to reconcile the burning of schools with the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

He said: “We are made to understand that they are fighting government, because they do not want democracy. But even Allah said that a Muslim should seek knowledge. Also Quar’an emphasises on the search for knowledge. Now, our children cannot go to school, because their schools were set ablaze. We hope that they would consider us the poor people and stop burning schools.”

He told Nigerian Tribune that following the burning of Gwange 3 Primary School and Success Primary and Secondary School, many children had to go back home, as they could not go to school because soldiers had cordoned off the area.

“If they succeed in taking over government, we are still going to be ruled under them; therefore, they should, please, stop burning schools, because that is the only thing a poor man can give his children,” he added.

In a related development, members of the Boko Haram sect were said to have issued threat letter to Innovative Primary and Secondary School in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to review their school fees downward or risk being set on fire.

A resident of Pompomari ward where the school is situated informed Nigerian Tribune on Thursday in Maiduguri.

Also, suspected members of the Boko Haram sect were said to have robbed an Igbo shop in Baban Layi area of Maiduguri,
where they made away with about N25 million.

This is just as the Joint Task Force (JTF) on Operation Restore Order in Maiduguri, on Thursday said it gunned down four members of the Boko Haram sect.

JTF’s spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Hassan Mohammed, made this disclosure while parading the corpse of the fourth sect member at Bayan Quarters area, the spot he was killed while driving a Volkswagen Golf taxi.

He said the sect members might have been out for a deadly operation, considering the heavy arms in their possession.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammed, who described the day’s operation as “a bad day for the sect”, added that “this is the fourth that has been gunned down in the last three hours today.”

His refusal to stop at checkpoints, Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammed said, prompted soldiers in the JTF to trail him, “and as he made attempt to escape, “our men did not waste chance to bring him down.”

“Two of them in the passenger seats fled with bullet wounds and our men are still on their hot pursuit,” added the JTF spokesman.

The dead gunman, in his mid-20s, was dressed in dark green robe and was armed with two AK47 rifles and extra loaded set of magazines.

Meanwhile, terrorist groups in Somalia, North Africa and Nigeria are eyeing ways to coordinate their training, funding and terror activities, triggering increased US national security worries, the top American commander for Africa told Congress on Wednesday.

Army General Carter Ham said terror leaders from al-Shabab, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram in Nigeria want to more closely synchronise their efforts.

If they are able to better share their training and funding, “that presents a real challenge for us,” he told the House Armed Services Committee.

The three groups represent the greatest threats to security in the region, and all three have strong ties to al-Qaeda.

And Ham laid out ongoing efforts by the US to provide training, equipment and support to a number of nations across northern and east Africa where militants have launched a range of dramatic attacks over the past year or more.

Increased US-backed operations around Mogadishu, largely by Ugandan and Burundian troops, as part of an African force, have weakened al-Shabab.

And Ham said the recent announcement of al-Qaeda’s formal alliance with al-Shabab suggests the Somalia-based insurgency has been weakened and is looking for greater international support.

“It’s not quite a last gasp,” Ham said, but it indicates that al-Shabab is under duress by the military operations that are working to free swaths of Mogadishu from the insurgents’ control.

He added that the formalised merger of al-Shabab and al-Qaeda, announced on February 9 by al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, may allow the groups to focus on threats against American interests.

In other comments, Ham said there are small pockets of foreign fighters who were involved in the resistance in Libya that ended up fighting against US and coalition troops in Iraq.

And he said al-Qaeda may be trying to re-establish those insurgent networks.

Members of the committee questioned why the headquarters for US Africa Command is in Germany, and why the command has so much fewer resources than US European Command, when much of the emerging threats against America come from Africa.

Ham said the African nations don’t necessarily want a big US presence in their countries.

And Navy Admiral James Stravidis, head of US European Command, said it is important to keep a strong presence in Europe because those are the allies America will turn to in a crisis.

The US military is cutting the number of Army combat brigades in Europe from four to two and pulling out two other smaller units – a total reduction of about 12,000 troops.

The cuts will leave about 68,000 US forces in Europe, down from a high of about 400,000 at the height of the Cold War.

Stravidis and Ham also told the committee that the forces in Europe can more quickly get to hotspots in the region, including the Middle East, Eastern Europe or Africa.

They pointed to last year’s Libyan conflict as an example.

-Tribunewp_posts