At least 100 of Boko Haram guerrillas on Monday seized control of the town of Gao in Northern Mali, news agencies reportedly quoted Abu Sidibe, a Local Deputy Governor in the country to have said.

“There are a good 100 Boko Haram fighters in Gao. They are Nigerians and from Niger,” Mr Sidibe was quoted to have said.

“They’re not hiding. Some are even able to speak in the local tongue, explaining that they are Boko Haram,” he added.

The news was confirmed also by the Bamako security forces.

Militants from Boko Haram “were in a majority among those who attacked the Algerian consulate” in Gao on Thursday, a Malian security official said, adding that “they had black skin”.
Seven Algerian diplomats, including the consul, were taken hostage at the time.

Mali has been grappling with a separatist uprising in the north. It intensified after the coup by army officers on 22 March.

Seven people were killed today, including a girl of seven, in a new wave of attacks launched by the Boko Haram Islamic group.

In Dikwa, Yobe state, the terrorists killed a policeman, a civilian and a local politician during the night, as made known by the Nigerian army.

They attacked a police station, a bank, and a hotel but was forced back by the soldiers, as lieutenant-colonel Sagir Musa, the Joint Task Force of the Borno State spokesperson announced.

Three of the guerillas were killed, the others, though injured, managed to run away.

Here are some facts about Boko Haram

THE GROUP

* Boko Haram became active in about 2003 and is concentrated mainly in the northern Nigerian states of Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna.

* Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria means “Western education is sinful,” is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

* The group considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they be Christian or Muslim. It demands the adoption of sharia, or Islamic law, across Nigeria.

* Boko Haram followers have prayed in their own mosques in cities including Maiduguri, Kano and Sokoto, and wear long beards and red or black headscarves.

* The group published an ultimatum in January 2012 giving Christians three days to leave northern Nigeria. Since then, attacks in northeastern Nigeria have killed many and hundreds of Christians have fled to the south. President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Dec. 31 in an effort to contain the violence.

* Human Rights Watch said in January that the sect had killed at least 935 people since 2009.

* Jonathan said the violent sect had supporters within his own government and the insecurity the group had created was worse than during the civil war that broke out in 1967 and killed more than a million people.

* In a recent success, Nigeria arrested the purported spokesman for Boko Haram on Feb. 1, known as Abu Qaqa.

* Abu Qaqa, a shadowy figure and purported spokesman for Boko Haram said on March 20 it had “closed all possible doors of negotiation” with a government of “unbelievers” that it cannot trust, and called on Muslims to join the fight against it.

Read the rest here

Militants from Boko Haram “were in a majority among those who attacked the Algerian consulate” in Gao on Thursday, a Malian security official said, adding that “they had black skin”.
Seven Algerian diplomats, including the consul, were taken hostage at the time.

jmaine:

Are the Malians strictly fair skinned . . .

ndu_chucks: Unfortunately, so are the Eastern, Western, and Southern borders. We are a very vulnerable nation. A real external threat to the whole country may very well be what we need to push us towards unity. Tribalism would go out of the window instantly, replaced by nationalism.

ekt_bear:

The rest of the militants in the north are Tuareg. Who are not dark-skinned.

Thanks bruv

ndu_chucks: Unfortunately, so are the Eastern, Western, and Southern borders. We are a very vulnerable nation. A real external threat to the whole country may very well be what we need to push us towards unity. Tribalism would go out of the window instantly, replaced by nationalism.

shymmex: I view this bs as a propaganda to drag Nigeria into the fight against AQIM.. AQIM is not a threat to Nigeria, we already have BH and MEND to contend with - and that's enough for us.. America and France should deal with the monster they created in the Sahara...

If you guys can't see the hypocrisy in this propaganda, then there is definitely something wrong with Nigeria.. On one hand, they're fighting against Al-qaeda - on the other hand they funded them and gave them weapons in Libya...

Nigeria shouldn't get involved in this bs - let the french stooge a la Quattara, and Ivorien soldiers liberate Mali - and leave us out of this mess... We've nothing in common with Malians. France is the sole benefactor from Mali, and all of French West Africa.. French and Ivorien troops should liberate Mali, it's none of our business.

Beaf:

Who is "Quattara?" I get disgusted by people who do not even bother to read, yet feel the need to comment on issues. Who is "Quattara?"

Secondly, the rest of your post is completely illogical.
AQIM is not a threat to Nigeria, yet there are boko haram apes fighting for them and striving to establish an independent enclave? No one needs to elaborate any further for the agile mind to tie loose ends.

To help your re-analysis further (whenever you decide to do it); consider that Nigeria supplies the US 15% of its oil needs... Ask someone to help with joining the dots.

Beaf:

...Nigeria supplies 15% of US oil

Beaf:

You mentioned Quattara, because you are a name dropping, ignorant dunce. There is most likely nobody in the whole wide World called Quattara, except to rumour mongering dullards like you who get their news from Dugbe market and come to NL's politics section to air their crusty arses through their smelly mouths.

It pays to feel your head with solid stuff before opening your mouth in public, only to reveal an anus.

Nematode.

Beaf:

If you do not have the intelligence to understand a simple sentence about 15%, what hope is there that you can understand anything more complex?
Its like theres a pile of shiit in your head. Yet you think you are qualified to post in this section.

"Quattara!"

Mentally impaired twerp.

Alassane Dramane Ouattara (French pronunciation: [alasan wataʁa]; born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2011. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - where he rose to be deputy head - [1] and the Central Bank of West African States (French: Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, BCEAO), and he was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993, appointed to that post by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny.[2][3][4][5] Ouattara became the President of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), an Ivorian political party, in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alassane_Ouattara

ndu_chucks: Unfortunately, so are the Eastern, Western, and Southern borders. We are a very vulnerable nation. A real external threat to the whole country may very well be what we need to push us towards unity. Tribalism would go out of the window instantly, replaced by nationalism.