[size=14pt]Nigerian air force joins bid to contain Islamic sect[/size]
Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:07pm GMT
By Ibrahim Mshelizza

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigeria's security services are beefing up efforts to contain a radical Islamic sect in the remote north, launching joint army and police exercises and using attack helicopters to help with patrols.

Army Chief of Staff Azubuike Ihejirika, appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan just over a month ago, said on Tuesday he had instructed the security forces to be at the ready after a string of attacks blamed on the radical Boko Haram sect.

The group, which wants sharia (Islamic law) more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, launched an uprising in the city of Maiduguri last year which led to days of gun battles with the security forces in which hundreds died.

"I have directed that henceforth the army and police are to carry out joint exercises to enhance their operational readiness," Ihejirika told reporters during a visit to Maiduguri to assess the security situation.

"The air force has also joined the operation by deploying helicopter gunships to cover a wider area," he said.

Suspected Boko Haram members burned down a police station in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, last week, and have been blamed for the targeted killings of police officers, politicians and traditional leaders in recent weeks.

The unrest has raised fears of a repeat of last year's uprising, which began with attacks on police stations, government offices, prisons and schools.

Nigeria is preparing for a fiercely contested presidential election due in January and can ill-afford insecurity in the north. It was shaken by car bomb attacks in the capital Abuja on October 1, claimed by a rebel group in the oil-producing Niger Delta, hundreds of kilometres to the south.

"CRIMINAL NOT RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE"
Borno state governor Ali Sheriff, who was in Abuja last week to discuss the situation in Maiduguri with the president, said the targeted shooting of police officers meant the situation had gone beyond the control of the police force.

Four 100-strong units of anti-riot police (MOPOL) along with soldiers from neighbouring Bauchi and Plateau states have already been sent to Maiduguri, although the situation has been calm for the past week.

A self-proclaimed Boko Haram spokesman was interviewed on local radio stations last week saying the violence would stop if imprisoned members of the sect were released and given amnesty. But Sheriff said there was no question of negotiating with the group.

"We cannot and we shall never negotiate with criminals who want to be allowed to continue killing innocent individuals. No true religion encourages killing of people and that is what they want," the state governor said.

Nigeria, a vast nation of more than 140 million people, is roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslims. The vast majority of the Muslim population, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, do not espouse Boko Haram's views.

Its followers eschew the use of Western-made goods and are sometimes referred to as the "Nigerian Taliban" for their long beards and turbans. But there is no published evidence of any links with foreign groups.

Maiduguri sits in one of Nigeria's poorest regions near its northeastern borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the Sahel, a strip of arid savannah on the southern edge of the Sahara.

It is unclear how many followers Boko Haram has, but poverty, unemployment and a lack of education have meant its leaders have managed to build a cult-like following who are as much violently anti-establishment as fervently religious.

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE69I0JZ20101019?sp=true

finally, they should stop this people that want to turn the whole nigeria into islam

jason12345:

finally, they should stop this people that want to turn the whole nigeria into islam

It is not fair to call Boko Haram Islam.

This is good news diversity in the Armed forces really makes a big difference. Had it been the same formula used as by the past administration this kind of change and pro-active moves could never have happened in the north. Thumbs up to GEJ on that great move.

Double standards

Niger-|Delta terrorists are invited for tea party and given amnesty

while BokoHaram terrorists are chased with air gun ships

krendo:

Double standards

Niger-|Delta terrorists are invited for tea party and given amnesty

while BokoHaram terrorists are chased with air gun ships

I guest you've already forgotten that mend was chased air gun ships and more but could not really be penetrated. Boko Haram is going all or nothing.They dont want to dine or get amnesty( id all this boko haram nonsense is even true).

Thank God

krendo:

Double standards

Niger-|Delta terrorists are invited for tea party and given amnesty

while BokoHaram terrorists are chased with air gun ships

Not double standards.

What it is is what it is.

chyz:

I guest you've already forgotten that mend was chased air gun ships and more but could not really be penetrated. Boko Haram is going all or nothing.They dont want to dine or get amnesty( id all this boko haram nonsense is even true).

Bokoharam has called for amnesty and was not given audience

meanwhile our President dey dine with Tompolo, Ateke, Asari etc

krendo:

Bokoharam has called for amnesty and was not given audience

meanwhile our President dey dine with Tompolo, Ateke, Asari etc

When the trial time comes for those who chopped up and burnt women and babies in Jos, I'm sure you would ask that they be given amnesty too, since their actions were for the same class of tribal and religious reason that drive Boko Haram.

Your position is very foolish. What is the political message of Boko Haram?

Beaf:

Maybe when the trial time comes for those who chopped up and burnt women and babies in Jos, I'm sure you would ask that they be given amnesty, since their actions were for the same class of tribal and religious reasons that drive Boko Haram.

Your position is very foolish. What is the political message of Boko Haram?

it wont be a first because MEND killed civilians including babies. They also killed our soldiers and police so what is new?

Time for Mi-35 to have some fun
I wish i was among the pilots though,spray some bullets

MEND and Boko Haram are not in the same league. MEND is fighting for the rights of Easterners who have for years been abused and stripped off any right over their land and resources while Boko Haram is fighting to spread a demonic type of Islam and have gone after civilians from opposite religious and ethnic background.

chyz:

I guess you've already forgotten that mend was chased air gun ships and more but could not really be penetrated. Boko Haram is going all or nothing.They dont want to dine or get amnesty( id all this boko haram nonsense is even true).

There is NO jungle canopy for the Islamic zealots to hide under, in their desert domain.  Helo gunships are IDEALLY suited to conduct gun runs against those camel jockeys in their sandy heartland, and the door-gunners will certainly enjoy that turkey shoot.

krendo:

Double standards

Niger-|Delta terrorists are invited for tea party and given amnesty

while BokoHaram terrorists are chased with air gun ships

Do you the meaning of BOKO HARAM at all?

If you know the meaning of these words at all, you wouldn't be making this foolish comparison and argument.

Double standards

Niger-|Delta terrorists are invited for tea party and given amnesty

while BokoHaram terrorists are chased with air gun ships

I assume you are joking.

Why is it that some tribalistic blockheads always try to derail every story with their foolishness.

This is a thread about the welfare of krendo's North, but can you imagine he has nothing to contribute? Not even words for his peoples safety?
Contrast this with the period Aba was under siege and you could almost feel slap1 love and passion for his homeland.

It is a massive shame that all krendo can think about is MEND (to the extent of derailing the thread), while Boko Haram is directly threatening his people with cold blooded murder, rabid mayhem and religious extremism, in their so called fight for the "right " to remain illiterate and Neanderthal?

Wonders shall never cease!

Boko Haram and Mend are exactly the same thing, they are all taking up arms against the state and in the process innocent people are getting killed. The Boko Harams believe they are fighting for their right to associate and to denounce education, MEND believes it is fighting for the emancipation of its people, as the Nigerian constitution stands they are both criminal organisations. The Government should deal decisively with both MEND and Boko Haram while using the resources of the state to correct the ills in the society.

hercules07:

Boko Haram and Mend are exactly the same thing, they are all taking up arms against the state and in the process innocent people are getting killed. The Boko Harams believe they are fighting for their right to associate and to denounce education, MEND believes it is fighting for the emancipation of its people, as the Nigerian constitution stands they are both criminal organisations. The Government should deal decisively with both MEND and Boko Haram while using the resources of the state to correct the ills in the society.

udezue:

MEND and Boko Haram are not in the same league. MEND is fighting for the rights of Easterners who have for years been abused and stripped off any right over their land and resources while Boko Haram is fighting to spread a demonic type of Islam and have gone after civilians from opposite religious and ethnic background.

Beaf:

When the trial time comes for those who chopped up and burnt women and babies in Jos, I'm sure you would ask that they be given amnesty too, since their actions were for the same class of tribal and religious reason that drive Boko Haram.

[s]Your position is very foolish. What is the political message of Boko Haram?
[/s]

What has the bolded comment above got to do with tribalism ? People have the right to freedom of education,religion,association and others.
Boko harams believes in something which no one can change until we learn to take them as part of our existence,then the problem will continue.Take a look at Iraq and Afghan ,after about 10 years of sophisticated war,the problem of extremism and fundamentalism still continue just because the talibanism Ideas have become a cultural thing and a normal aspect of life
What Boko haram need is to be re-oriened and absorbed into the society.This is a region where common polio vaccines is seen as poison,so until you change that cultural ideology,nothing purposeful will come out of attacking them.