A suicide car bombing, targeting an African Union military convoy in south-eastern Somalia, has killing several people, says a Somali senior military commander.

The attack occurred in Janaale, where the Islamist group al-Shabaab stormed an AU military base, killing about 20 soldiers.

“I can confirm that there are deaths and wounded,” said the commander, who asked not to be named, without giving numbers.

He said details were still to be verified.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on pro-insurgent radio Andalus, saying it had killed several Ugandan AU soldiers.

Al-Shabaab on Friday conquered the key district of Kuntuwarey in the same region after Somali and AU troops pulled out of there, local officials said. The reason for the withdrawal was not clear.

The AU has more than 20 000 peacekeepers in Somalia to help the government fight al-Shabaab.

Nigerian Army announced that it had driven the Islamic State in West Africa, also known as Boko Haram, from Gamboru, a town on the border with Cameroon and an important crossing point between the two countries. Boko Haram had held the town for over a year—apart from a brief period in February when it was forced out by the Chadian army. This is not the first victory claimed by the Nigerian Army since President Muhammadu Buhari took over the government in late May, but his recent orders to the army to destroy Boko Haram within three months nonetheless look completely unattainable.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 people have died from attacks by Boko Haram since its campaign began in earnest in 2009, and around 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. High-profile attacks, such as the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in April last year—219 of whom remain missing—are dwarfed by less widely reported incidents that have resulted, for example, in the group’s abduction of another 2,000 women since the start of 2014. In the four days immediately preceding the army assault on Gamboru, up to 80 people died in Boko Haram attacks on three villages in the same region. About 1,000 have been killed since Boko Haram changed its name to the Islamic State in West Africa in April.

Clearly the task of defeating Boko Haram is not straightforward. Some 60,000 Nigerian troops have been deployed and the neighboring countries of Benin, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon have agreed with Nigeria to form a joint task force of 8,700 troops based in the Chadian capital N’Djamena. Such regional cooperation has been difficult in the past, and still presents problems. This agreement, should it come to fruition, demonstrates a shared and growing concern that Boko Haram attacks could lead to serious instability and further disruption of cross-border trade unless met with considerably more determination than has been evident in the past.

Although Boko Haram has been most active in northeastern Nigeria and the bordering areas of Niger, Chad, and Cameroon around Lake Chad—even conducting attacks in N’Djamena—it has often struck further afield. Attacks and arrests of Boko Haram cells have been reported as far away as Lagos and in the capital Abuja. Army successes are well broadcast, but are often exaggerated uncredible; reports of the death of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, have become so frequent that many government loyalists argue that he has had a number of doubles operating in his name. An announcement on August 12 by Idriss Deby, the President of Chad, that Shekau had died yet again, and that his successor was willing to negotiate, was met by a scornful audiotape from Shekau that reassured the movement that he was still its leader.

The alliance between Boko Haram and the Islamic State does not appear to have made any significant difference to its support. Although Ansaru, a Nigerian group similarly inspired by bin Ladinism, has been critical of Boko Haram for its frequent attacks against mosques, markets, and bus stations, it does not appear to have drawn defectors as a result. Boko Haram never pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, and although it received some support and training from al-Qaeda groups in the Maghreb, it has by now acquired enough expertise and weaponry to be self-sufficient. Indeed, it has found ready resupply from the Nigerian Army, whether as a result of successful operations or through more devious means.

In a clear break with the lackluster campaign of the past, President Buhari sacked the heads of all three branches of his armed forces as well as his Chief of Defense Staff and the National Security Advisor in July and August. One of his first acts upon inauguration was to order the army command to base itself in Maiduguri, the capital of the troubled Borno State in the northeast. But although more pressure may have driven Boko Haram to mount more traditional terrorist attacks rather than military assaults, the levels of violence have not gone down.

Indeed, it may have been advice from the Islamic State that has caused Boko Haram to retreat from urban areas that were hard to hold and focus on retaining territory where the armed forces find it difficult to operate, such as the hills and forests along the border with Cameroon. In an ugly parallel with Islamic State tactics, Boko Haram continues to terrorize the population over a wide and unpredictable area through suicide bombings, often carried out by very young girls. As Shekau said in his broadcast on August 16, President Buhari might just as well have set a three year deadline for his armed forces as a three month one. The fight will go on for some time to come.

Al-Shabab militants seized control of two towns over two days in southwestern Somalia, a spokesman for the group and local officials said on Saturday, less than a week after its fighters attacked an African Union base in the same area.

Al-Shabab said it had seized two small towns in the Lower Shabelle region — El Saliindi, 65 km south of Mogadishu en route to the port town of Marka, and Kuntuwarey, on the road between the capital and the port of Barawe.
The militant group, which is seeking to overthrow the Western-backed government in Somalia, stages regular attacks on the AU-led peacekeeping force and on Somali officials as the country struggles to rebuild after more than two decades of chaos.
Ali Nur, the acting governor of Lower Shabelle, confirmed the towns had been captured.
“It is sad to say al Shabab has taken El Saliindi. AU forces withdrew and al Shabab now controls it,” said Nur, adding that Kuntuwarey had been seized on Friday.
Also on Saturday, the militants attacked an African Union convoy outside Marka, claiming they killed several soldiers in the attack. But a local official said the death toll had not been determined.
“A roadside bomb targeted an AU vehicle as the AU convoy passed in the outskirts of Marka today. We do not know details about casualties,” said Nur.
The AU peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM, could not immediately be reached for comment. On Sept. 1, Al-Shabab stormed an African Union base about 90 km (55 miles) south of Mogadishu, killing at least 12 Ugandan soldiers who served as African Union peacekeepers.
Al-Shabab, which often exaggerates the success of its attacks, claimed it had killed 70 people in the assault, which came roughly a year after Al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a US air strike.
The militants were pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011.

http://www.arabnews.com/world/news/802046

Mounting attacks by Nigeria’s ferocious Boko Haram Islamists have sent more than 2.1 million people fleeing their homes in northeast Nigeria, the International Organization for Migration said Friday, September 4, AFP reports.

Revising sharply upwards its previous estimate of 1.5 million, the Geneva-based IOM agency attributed the increase to a very recent spike in Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency.

The IOM said the new figure covered internally displaced people (IDPs) in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe as well as the central state of Nassarawa and Abuja.

It urged the government as well as the international community to step in quickly as many were in dire need of food and shelter.

“Many IDPs, especially in host communities, have yet to receive basic items including food and shelter,” Enira Krdzalic, IOM Nigeria Chief of Mission said, according to AFP.

The IOM said the majority of those displaced (92%) now live in host communities while the remainder live in camps or camp-like sites.

But Manzo Ezekiel, spokesman for the state-run National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the agency was already aware of the increase in IDPs and denied this was solely due to the upsurge in Boko Haram attacks.

“We are aware of the new figure of 2.1 million displaced people but it should be noted that there were other factors that brought about the increase apart from the Boko conflict,” he said.”We have people displaced by communal violence in several states like Nassarawa and Taraba included in the figure,” he said.

Ezekiel said there were also thousands of Nigerians who fled the country but were just returning home.

At least 30 people were killed in two suicide bombings in northern Cameroon, the latest violence to hit the area since dozens died in attacks in July.
The blasts also left 143 wounded when a bomb went off near an army camp, where soldiers are battling Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria, army and police sources said.
The attacks were launched three days after Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed dozens of people in a village across the border in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state.
The fresh violence comes even as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who marks 100 days in office on Saturday, has intensified the battle against the group.
The Nigerian Army said Thursday it had reinstated about 3,000 soldiers who were dismissed for alleged indiscipline in the battle against the insurgents. Attacks by Boko Haram have killed at least 15,000 people and displaced 1.5 million since 2009.
Military and police sources in Cameroon said the first suicide bombing took place shortly before noon in the marketplace of Kerawa, a city on the border with Nigeria.
It was followed by a second attack about 200 meters from a military camp, said a police officer who asked not to be identified.
At least 30 people were killed, the sources said. Some 50 people were killed in July in the same region in five suicide attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
Cameroon is part of a five-nation coalition fighting Boko Haram with Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Benin. Cameroon’s far north region bordering Nigeria and Chad for the past two years has seen frequent Boko Haram raids, kidnappings and, more recently, suicide attacks.
Witnesses in the village of Fatawe in Nigeria’s Borno state told AFP that Boko Haram militants on Monday rounded up residents, tying their hands behind their backs then slitting their throats.
“They killed several dozens but I can’t give a precise number because we have yet to go back and take a headcount of the dead,” said Amodu Kadir, a village resident who fled to Mubi village in neighboring Adamawa state.
Kadir, whose father was among the victims, said the “macabre sight sent the terrified crowd fleeing in all directions in a frenzied effort to escape.
“But the attackers pursued us on their horses, shooting and trampling to death their victims,” he said.
Galadima Bubba, another resident who fled to the town of Michika, gave a similar account.
He said the village had ignored advice by Nigerian troops to relocate to Gwoza, eight kilometers away, after troops retook the town from Boko Haram forces in March.
Boko Haram militants had seized Gwoza in July last year and made it into the headquarters of their so-called Caliphate.
Nigerian troops based in the northeast have at times defied orders to battle Boko Haram, citing a lack of adequate weapons and other essential equipment.
Nigerian army spokesman Col. Sani Usman told reporters in Abuja that the cases of 5,000 soldiers who were dismissed for indiscipline were reviewed, out of which 3,032 soldiers were pardoned and recalled.
“The reinstated soldiers have shown their total readiness to be re-launched into the theatre to combat insurgency and have now commenced retraining exercise,” he said.
Usman said the army authorities had upheld the sentences of those “with criminal cases,” without explaining the nature of the crimes.
He said a judicial process would however determine the fate of 66 soldiers sentenced to death for mutiny and abandoning the war front.

The Nigerian Air Force intensified in recent hours its attacks against camps of the Islamic group Boko Haram, in support of the ground troops that are operating in that area, an official source reported today.

Air Force spokesman Dele Alonge said bases of the extremist sect, located in the regions of Ngoshe and Pulka, in the northeastern state of Borno, were destroyed.

As a result of the bombings, elimination of a solar-panel power station installed by the fundamentalists to render electricity to their facilities in that wooded area, the source added.

On August 13, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered Vice-Marshal Sadique Abubakar, new Air Force chief, to increase the offensive actions and strengthen cooperation with the rest of the rest of the military forces to dismantle the extremist group in three months.

Buhari reiterated recently that his Administration gives priority to reinfocing the Armed Forces and would devote the necessary resources to put an end to the attacks, kidnappings and other activities by that sect, with a high cost in lives and economic losses.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al Qaeda’s official branch in North Africa, has released a video showcasing an attack on UN troops in Mali. The date given for the attack corresponds to the July 2 ambush of Burkinabe peacekeepers near Timbuktu. The video was produced by the Saharan branch of AQIM’s media wing, Al Andalus, and it was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

The video begins with a short audio statement from Osama bin Laden before shifting to the sands of northern Mali. Several fighters are seen gathered around a figure, identified in the video as Talha al Azwadi, the emir of AQIM’s Al Quds [Jerusalem] Brigade. The name Azwadi implies that he is an ethnic Tuareg from northern Mali. The jihadist is then shown going over a plan to ambush UN troops before several other jihadists speak to the camera. These men include fighters from the region, Morocco, Spain, and Egypt.

One fighter, identified as Abu Anwar al Andalusi, calls on “Muslims in Spain and the city of Melilla to join the jihad” in his Spanish-language address. He is also identified as a “field commander” of the Al Quds Brigade.

The video then shows the ambush. Several jihadists fire at UN vehicles with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, or RPG’s. One UN vehicle is shown leaving the scene, however, two others are destroyed. Near one of these vehicles, at least four UN troops are shown dead on the ground. The attack on July 2, which took place near Timbuktu, killed six Burkinabe peacekeepers.

The video ends with Abu Talha al Azwadi sending a message “to the people of Azawad [northern Mali].” The jihadist exclaims that “we possessed the land through the religion of Allah the Great and Almighty, and through the garrisoned ones.” He then makes a reference to a Medieval battle in Spain in which the Almoravid dynasty defeated the Spanish forces. The focus is turned to the French by saying, “The French campaign did not come for their sake, or to build a state for them. Rather, France is the one that split this land. It is impossible that it will return to it and fix this land. It is impossible to return and fix it.”

“They came here and managed to run the regime of the apostates. They taught them racism and made them follow it,” Azawadi claims. However, he then says, “The black is the brother to the white, and the Arab to the non-Arab, and the Fullani to the Bombari, and the Bombari to the Arabi, the Barboshi, the Kalensawi, and the Kentawi, and everyone.” He then makes the case that only governance by Shariah can remove racism.

Azawadi ends his statement by saying, “they [mujahideen] will be the support from this land of Azawad. Allah willing, they will enter al Andalus [Spain] and Rome. Even for the brothers in Sham [Syria], Iraq, al-Hijaz [Saudi Arabia], and the Islamic Maghreb, Allah willing, the target will be Rome.”

The video ends with a short clip of a speech from Abdulmalek Droukdel, the overall emir of AQIM, who is a staunch opponent of the Islamic State.

A statement released by MINUSMA at the time said that its forces were the “target of an armed attack by unidentified men on [the] Goundam-Timbuktu axis 45 kilometers southwest of Timbuktu.” Two UN vehicles were destroyed in the assault. AQIM claimed this attack in a statement sent to the Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar. [For more, see LWJ report, AQIM attack on UN convoy near Timbuktu kills 6 peacekeepers.]

AQIM has been behind several similar operations in the region in the past.

On May 28, AQIM killed three Burkinabe peacekeepers traveling in a UN convoy, also near Timbuktu. In Sept. 2014, AQIM took responsibility for several assaults on UN forces near Timbuktu. In Ber, east of Timbuktu, a suicide bomber killed two Burkinabe peacekeepers in August. Additionally, AQIM claimed attacks on MINUSMA convoys near Goundam and Timbuktu in June 2014.

Al Qaeda continues to operate in Mali despite a French-led counterterrorism mission in the region. The jihadist group and its many affiliates in the country retain the ability to mount rocket, mortar, and IED attacks on UN and French forces. Over 50 UN peacekeepers have been killed in Mali since 2013, making it the most dangerous UN mission in the world.

At least 30 people were killed in the far north of Cameroon on Thursday in two successive suicide attacks, military and police sources said. The first bombing took place shortly before noon in the marketplace of Kerawa, a city on the border with Nigeria, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It was followed by a second attack about 200 metres from a military camp, said a police officer who asked not to be identified. At least 30 people were killed, the sources said.Some 50 people were killed in July in the same region in five suicide attacks blamed on Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamist group.