European diplomats said yesterday that seven foreign hostages kidnapped in Bauchi State had been killed as claimed by the Ansaru group, the worst such foreign abduction violence to hit Nigeria since armed groups launched an uprising in the North nearly four years ago.
Both Britain and Italy said all seven of those taken from Setraco construction company’s camp in Jama’are on February 16 were killed by the group.
Greece also confirmed one of its citizens was killed, while Lebanese authorities did not immediately comment.
The fairly new Ansaru group claimed in a grainy internet video on Saturday that it executed the captives because of a reported joint Nigerian-British military operation intended to free the hostages.
In a statement yesterday, British Foreign Minister William Hague said, “It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that a British construction worker, held hostage in Nigeria since 16 February, is likely to have been killed at the hands of his captors, along with six other foreign nationals who we believe were also tragically murdered. This was an act of cold-blooded murder, which I condemn in the strongest terms.”
Without directly addressing the rescue mission claim, Hague said, “Responsibility for this tragic outcome rests squarely with the terrorists. I am grateful to the Nigerian Government for their unstinting help and cooperation. We are utterly determined to work with them to hold the perpetrators of this heinous act to account, and to combat the terrorism which so blights the lives of people in Northern Nigeria and in the wider region.”
Italy’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “It’s an atrocious act of terrorism, against which the Italian government expresses its firmest condemnation, and which has no explanation, if not that of barbarous and blind violence.”
Italian Premier Mario Monti identified the slain Italian hostage as Silvano Trevisan and promised the Rome government will use “every effort” to stop the killers.
For its part, Greece’s foreign ministry said one of its citizens was among the dead, and that his captors “at no stage either communicated or expressed demands for the release of the hostages.”
In claiming responsibility for the kidnapping, Ansaru said it took the captives because of “transgression and atrocities” against Islam in Afghanistan, Mali and other locations.
Who are Ansaru?
In an online statement Saturday claiming the killings, Ansaru said it killed the hostages in part due to Nigerian journalists reporting on the arrival of British military aircraft to Bauchi. However, the online statement from Ansaru cited local news articles that instead said the airplanes were spotted at the international airport in Abuja.
The British Ministry of Defense said yesterday that the planes it flew to Abuja ferried Nigerian troops and equipment to Bamako, Mali.
Ansaru had said it believed the planes were part of a Nigerian and British rescue mission for the abducted hostages.
In January 2012, Ansaru declared itself a splinter group independent from Boko Haram.
“For the first time, we are glad to announce to the public the formation of this group that has genuine basis,” said a statement issued by the group in January 2012 and quoted in the media.
“We will have [a] dispassionate look into everything, to encourage what is good and see to its spread and to discourage evil and try to eliminate it.”
Its full Arabic name, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan, means, “Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa”.
This suggests that it has a wider regional agenda, marking it out from the more established Boko Haram group, which has focused mainly on bombings and assassinations in the North since launching its insurgency in 2009.
Ansaru has previously claimed responsibility for the December kidnapping of a French citizen in Katsina and for an attack on a prison in Abuja in November.
In January, it said it had carried out an attack which killed two Nigerian soldiers as they prepared to deploy to Mali.
In December, French journal Jeune Afrique-L’Intelligent said Ansaru was led by the little-known Abu Ussamata al-Ansary, the BBC Online reported.
It quoted a statement by him as saying that the Nigerian government was “incapable of defending Muslims in inter-religious violence with Christians.”
The UK government blamed Ansaru for taking a Briton and an Italian hostage in 2011 in Sokoto. The two died in March 2012 during a failed attempt to rescue them.
According to a BBC report, analysts believe that Nigeria’s government will find it more difficult to end the insurgency now that two groups are operating.