Boko Haram - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

A decade on, tragedy of Nigeria’s Chibok Girls endures outside the spotlight

TEN years ago, Solomon Maina's daughter, Debora, was one of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped from their dormitory in the middle of the night by Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants. Global outrage was swift. A ubiquitous "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign, drawing support from the likes of Michelle Obama and Sylvester Stallone, shined a spotlight on the abductions. Then, in 2016 and 2017, negotiations led to the highly publicised liberation of around 100 of the captives. Debora was not one of them. A decade after that fateful night in April 2014, the world has largely forgotten the plight of the so-called Chibok…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

Suspected insurgents kidnap 50 people in northeast Nigeria

NEWS

Suspected Islamist insurgents kidnapped 50 people, mostly women, in northeastern Nigeria this week, local officials and a resident said, the latest mass abduction by fighters who have waged an insurgency for more than a decade. Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters have mainly operated in Borno state in the northeast, targeting security forces and civilians, in the process killing and displacing tens of thousands of people. Advertisement · Scroll to continue The latest incident took place on Monday in the remote Gamboru area, which shares a border with Chad and Cameroon, said an official of the…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Suspected militants kill four Nigerian police officers

NEWS

AT least four police officers were killed in Nigeria's northeast Borno state after a gun battle with suspected Islamist insurgents, a police spokesperson said. Borno has been the heartland of an insurgency by Boko Haram and splinter outfit Islamist State West Africa Province (ISWAP) for more than a decade in the northeast, where they continue to carry out deadly attacks against civilian and security targets. Borno state police spokesperson Nahum Daso Kenneth said the militants had on Friday night attacked Gajiram town in the Nganzai local government area, some 82 kilometres (51 miles) from Maiduguri, the state capital. "Our men…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Suspected insurgents kill 14 in northeast Nigeria, residents say

NEWS

SUSPECTED insurgents in Nigeria killed 14 people in a rampage that began in a nightclub and proceeded into the surrounding neighbourhood in northeastern Yobe state, residents said, two months after another attack in the state killed 40 people. The Boko Haram and splinter Islamic West Africa Province have waged an insurgency in Nigeria's northeast for more than one decade and continue to carry out sporadic attacks against civilians and the military. Ali Musa, a resident from the Kwari community in Yobe told Reuters by phone that the gunmen arrived around 1:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) at a nightclub and started to shoot sporadically,…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

U.N. seeks $1.3 billion for Nigerians affected by insurgency

NEWS

THE United Nations appealed for $1.3 billion to provide assistance to six million Nigerians who are suffering the impact of a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast of the country. The militant Boko Haram group and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, have been fighting Nigerian security forces in the northeast for over a decade, displacing more than 2 million people and killing hundreds of others, aid agencies say. Matthias Schmale, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria said the "large-scale humanitarian and protection crisis shows no sign of abating". The number of children suffering from acute malnutrition…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

Gunmen abduct at least 10 hospital workers in Nigeria’s Niger state

NEWS

GUNMEN have abducted at least 10 healthcare workers in Nigeria's Niger state and killed an unspecified number after bandits invaded a general hospital early, a hospital and a military source said. Armed bandits operating for cash have kidnapped or killed hundreds across northwest Nigeria. Niger state officials have said that the Islamist militant group Boko Haram had taken over multiple communities in the state, offering villagers money and incorporating them into their ranks to fight the government. The hospital source said more than 20 staff were kidnapped, including patient relatives, while the security source said two people had been killed…

Aug

2022

By The African Mirror

Christians in Nigeria feel under attack: why it’s a complicated story

RELIGION

NIGERIA has a long history of religious tensions against which the current spate of violence against Christians must be seen. There are a number of factors that have heightened religious tensions in Nigeria. The first is the competition for space between the two main religions of Islam and Christianity. Secondly, there is the perception that Nigerian leaders use the state to promote their religion or faith at the expense of others. Thirdly, there’s a culture of insensitivity to the feelings of minorities. Author JIDEOFOR ADIBE, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi The root of Islam…

Oct

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian army says 24 Islamist insurgents killed

NEWS

NIGERIAN troops killed 24 suspected Islamist insurgents in two attacks in the northeast and recovered some weapons, the army said on Tuesday. Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been fighting the Nigerian armed forces for more than a decade in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. Major General Christopher Musa, commander of the anti-insurgency task force, told Reuters that soldiers killed 16 Boko Haram insurgents a few kilometres from Maiduguri city, the capital of Borno state. Musa said that during the encounter with the insurgents two gun trucks were…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Nigerian jet kills civilians in pursuit of militants

NEWS

NINE people were killed and 23 injured in a village in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe State that was hit by an airstrike by the Nigerian air force, which is battling Islamist insurgents in the area, the state's emergency response agency has announced. The air force said earlier it may have killed and injured civilians while pursuing insurgents in Yobe and that it was investigating the incident. Earlier, an air force spokesman said a fighter jet responded to intelligence on suspicious movements of suspected insurgents from either the Boko Haram group or ISWAP on Wednesday and fired "some probing shots", killing and…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Boko Haram’s bomb material seized’

NEWS

Islamist group Boko HaramNIGERIAN troops have seized 14 tonnes of fertiliser that the insurgent Islamist group Boko Haram had planned to turn into roadside bombs, the army has announced. Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people in bombings during its 12-year war against the armed forces in northeast Nigeria, a conflict that has spilled over into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon and caused an estimated 350,000 deaths. The army said it had broken up a urea fertiliser syndicate that supplied the insurgents with materials to make IEDs or improvised explosive devices. Troops seized 281 bags of urea, each weighing 50kg,…