Northern Tuareg rebels shot at United Nations peacekeepers in Mali outside the town of Timbuktu on Tuesday amid growing tensions that threaten a fragile peace process, the country’s UN mission said.

“They fired at us and they then called us to tell us that they thought we were (Malian government soldiers), that it was a mistake,” mission spokesman Olivier Salgado said, noting that no one had been wounded in the shooting.

Hundreds of people have been found dead in the north-east Nigerian town of Damasak, apparently victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, as details emerged on Monday of fresh attacks by the militants.

Reports of decomposing bodies littering the streets of Damasak came as the president elect, Muhammadu Buhari, denounced the Islamists as a bogus religious group and vowed a hard line against them when he comes to power at the end of next month.

North-east Nigeria has been relentlessly targeted throughout the jihadists’ six-year uprising but there had been a lull in violence in recent weeks.

A coalition of troops from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria has claimed major victories since February, reportedly flushing the militants out of areas they previously controlled.
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The discovery of hundreds of bodies, including women and children, and the latest attacks underline both the brutality of the conflict and the continuing threat posed by the extremists.

The grim find in Damasak “far outnumbered” that of about 100 bodies found in a mass grave under a bridge after the town was liberated in early March by Chadian forces, said local resident Kaumi Kusur.

“Bodies were found in houses, streets and many more in the Damasak river which has dried up,” he said, adding the victims were buried in 20 mass graves at the weekend.

Mohammed Sadiq, another local who helped in the burials on Saturday, put the death toll at more than 400 but the Borno state government did not state a precise figure, giving a toll of “hundreds”.

The victims had been covered by sand from the encroaching desert, with the burial ordered by the state authorities, which are looking at the return of thousands of people displaced by the violence.

Buhari, who takes office on 29 May, was elected last month on a pledge of a tougher approach to Boko Haram than the current administration of president Goodluck Jonathan.

The former military ruler said in a statement issued by his All Progressives Congress party: “No religion allows for the killing of children in school dormitories, in markets and places of worship.

“They have nothing to do with religion. They are terrorists and we are going to deal with them as we deal with terrorists.”
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Buhari was speaking after Boko Haram fighters stormed the island of Karamga on Lake Chad in motorised canoes before sunrise on Saturday.

Troops from Niger stationed on the island “were caught off guard” and suffered heavy losses, said Umar Yerima, a fisherman who witnessed the raid but escaped by hiding in long grass near the shore.

Niger’s military confirmed the attack but did not provide a death toll. A security source in Chad said Niger lost 48 soldiers and another 36 were missing.

Another source, an official from south-eastern Niger’s Diffa region, said the toll was much higher at 80 dead and some 30 missing.

Yerima said the militants, now allied with Islamic State, turned their guns onto civilians after overpowering the troops, firing at people who had jumped into the water to avoid detection.

Some residents were also burnt alive in their homes, he said.

On Friday, suspected Boko Haram fighters disguised as soldiers intercepted a group of people trying to return to their homes to collect abandoned food supplies in north-eastern Yobe state.

“The men, 21 of them, were stopped at Bultaram (village) by gunmen we believe are Boko Haram who shot them dead,” said Baba Nuhu, an official with the Gujba local government.

Like many Gujba residents, Nuhu and Haruna Maram, the brother of one of the victims, have sought refuge from the violence in Yobe’s capital Damaturu.

“My brother and 20 others wanted to bring back their grains to augment their lean food supplies,” Maram said. “Unfortunately, they were killed by (the) same Boko Haram we ran away from.”

Gujba is one of a handful of districts in Yobe that Boko Haram captured during its sweeping offensive from mid-2014.

It was also the scene of a gruesome massacre at an agricultural college in 2013 that targeted students sleeping their dormitories.

Community leaders have warned civilians are still at risk, especially those returning to remote areas like Gujba where the military’s deployment has typically been thin.

Many experts agree that Boko Haram is likely to transition from capturing and holding territory to reverting to a pattern of hit-and-run attacks.

Analysts say boastings from regional armies should be treated with caution, as the Islamists are far from defeated and can easily regroup, especially if there is a let-up in the military pressure.

The government revealed that 30 of the 86 al Shabaab financiers and/or supporters whose accounts were frozen by the government are sugar smuggler barons.

The barons’ accounts were frozen through Kenya Gazette Vol. CXVII, No 36, of April 7, 2015.

According to the government, the smuggling of sugar from Somalia into Kenya finances terrorism.

A confidential government report seen by the Star says: “Most of the smuggled sugar enters the country from areas controlled by al Shabaab in Somalia. The sugar barons pay illegal levies (or protection fees) to al Shabaab, who in turn uses the proceeds to fund terrorist activities/operations. Many others are being pursued and will soon face the full force of the law as the country’s security agencies zero in on them in a concerted effort to rid the country of the al Shabaab menace.”

The government has also released the names of the barons whose accounts have been frozen. They include Abdullahi Mohammed, alias Abdullahi Mrefu, who, Intelligence sources say, is the head of sugar smugglers inside the IFO Refugee Camp.

Another is identified as Abass Ibrahim, alias Abass Kidogo, deputy to Abdullahi Mrefu.

According to the Intelligence report, Ali Dumaa’al heads the Hagadera Refugee Camp sugar smugglers’ ring.

Abdifatah Yare Mohamud is another sugar baron and al Shabaab sympathiser operating in Garissa.

Yet another al Shabaab financier is identified as Abdalla Godana, who owns a go-down in Bondeni, Mombasa, where it is alleged that smuggled sugar from the United Arab Emirates through the Kismayu-Hulugho-Ijara-Lamu entry points is repackaged in Mumias Sugar Company bags and sold as local sugar.

A Busia-based businessman, Mohammed Hassan Duale, is also implicated in the sugar smuggling syndicate.

Eastleigh businessman Abdi Gedi Amin too has been named as an al Shabaab booster and transporter of smuggled sugar alongside Abdalla Godana and Mohammed Hassan Duale.

The manager of Shibale Market-based HY Transporters, Ali Bashir Hassan Adan, is alleged to be the one who transports sugar smuggled by Abdalla Godana, Mohammed Hassan Duale and Abdi Amin into the Kenyan market.

Ali Gedi Ali is a smuggler and resident of Hodhan location, Wajir East subcounty, as is Mohamed Yarrow Adan Mohamed.

Another sugar smuggler identified by Intelligence is Abdullahi Mohamed Holale, a resident of Wagberi location, Wajir East subcounty, as the supplier to all businessmen in the sector within the county.

Turan Adan Hirsi Sheikh, a resident of Shalete village, Hodhan location, Wajir East subcounty, operates the Awale Spare Parts Shop in Wajir town while Mahbub Abdullahi Adan operates a money transfer bureau in Wajir Plaza and also smuggles contraband goods from Somalia.

Another al Shabaab sympathiser and financier is identified as Abdi Mohamed Dahiye, the proprietor of Al Hamda Wholesale. He also owns a petrol station and smuggles petroleum products and sugar from Somalia.

Boko Haram reportedly renamed itself, adopting the name “Islamic State’s West Africa Province” (ISWAP).

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram renamed itself, adopting the name “Islamic State’s West Africa Province” (ISWAP), The Independent newspaper reported Sunday.

The reports on the change of the group’s name appeared in the Nigerian media on Friday. Boko Haram was used as group’s name since it was founded in 2002.

Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants, which the ISIL accepted on March 13, calling it an “expansion of caliphate to West Africa.”

Boko Haram fighters in motorized canoes attacked a Niger army base on an island in Lake Chad, the body of water touching all four countries that have been targeted by Nigeria’s Islamic insurgency, Niger’s defence ministry said Saturday.

The army may have suffered “heavy losses” in the attack on Karamga Island, said a Niger military source in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

Casualty figures were not provided in a defence ministry statement broadcast Saturday night on state television.

A similar attack on Karamga Island in February killed seven Niger soldiers, and 14 Boko Haram fighters were also killed, military officials said at the time.

In the latest attack, the assailants approached at dawn on Saturday in about 10 motorized canoes, the defence ministry statement said.

“Operations are ongoing with the aid of allies” to put an end to the insurgent movement, the statement said.

Niger joined a regional offensive earlier this year that is credited with retaking large swaths of territory in Nigeria from Boko Haram. The original plans called for an 8,750-member regional force with troops also coming from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Benin.

In addition to the Lake Chad violence, Niger towns bordering Nigeria were targeted in the early weeks of the offensive.

Somalia’s Shebab militants are divided over whether to maintain their allegiance to Al-Qaeda or shift to Islamic State, according to militant and security sources, analysts and clan elders.

The division comes at a time when Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has become the jihadist franchise of choice, attracting fighters from abroad and other militant groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, while Al-Qaeda too has recently expanded its territory in Yemen.

“Why is it a surprise to hear that Shebab may join the Islamic State? All Muslims have to unite against their enemy,” said a Shebab commander, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.

The commander said Shebab “would be more than happy to join forces to strike the enemy of Islam harder”.

The admission comes at a time when Shebab is under pressure militarily but remains able to launch guerilla and terror attacks, seemingly at will, against civilian targets in Somalia and Kenya.

This month Shebab killed 148 people, mostly students, during an armed assault on a university in Garissa, northeastern Kenya, while suicide bombers and gunmen have attacked hotels and a restaurant in Mogadishu and a United Nations minibus in the northern Somali town of Garowe.

Garissa echoed the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, with just four gunmen and multiple accounts of the singling out of non-Muslims for murder, a tactic also used in Shebab attacks on a bus and quarry in Mandera, Kenya, late last year.

But Garissa was both Shebab’s most deadly and most brutal attack yet. The gunmen herded scores of young non-Muslim men and women into a university hall of residence. They were made to lie side-by-side on the courtyard floor and executed.

It was an assault worthy in its thirst for blood of IS, which has distinguished itself through mass executions, many of which are recorded and distributed online.

‘Corridor to Afghanistan’

Some see Shebab’s vacillations as a sign of weakness.

“Shebab is desperate. They have lost ground in Somalia, they may be considering joining the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria so that they get funds and moral support,” said Mohamed Ibrahim, a Somali security official.

But others suggest Shebab is still considered a valuable partner in jihad.

“There’s a debate going on between the core leaders whether to switch to IS, whether to stay with Al-Qaeda,” Somalia’s prime minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told AFP.

“Both ISIS and Al-Qaeda are appealing to Shebab to join them,” he said.

Sharmarke said that recent territorial gains in Yemen by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the strongest of Al-Qaeda’s franchises, might embolden and strengthen Shebab.

“It’s really crucial now because this can spill over from the Yemen conflict and easily come to Somalia,” he said. “The Gulf of Aden can become a corridor to Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Sources in southern Somalia, where Shebab fighters and commanders are now concentrated, confirmed that meetings have taken place to discuss the IS/AQ issue.

“We have heard about a meeting by Shebab senior leaders,” said Hassan Nure, an elder in Lower Shabelle region. “They haven’t agreed anything so far, some of them are still very reluctant because they want to maintain relations with Al-Qaeda.”

“The dispute in Shebab over whether to remain loyal to Al-Qaeda or align instead with IS is very real,” says Tres Thomas, a Washington-based Somali expert and manager of the respected Somalia Newsroom blog.

Financial benefits

Analysts say Shebab leader Ahmed Diriye, also known as Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah, is an Al-Qaeda loyalist, while the powerful secret police chief, Mahad Karate, is the most senior proponent of a shift to IS.

A shift to IS might bring financial benefits. “If Shebab were to align with IS it would mean an increase in money and resources that AQ cannot provide at the moment,” said a Western security source.

It might also provide a political boost and a propaganda coup.

“In some ways you inherit the strength of the group to whom you pledge allegiance,” said Roland Marchal, a terrorism expert and senior research fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris.

But for Marchal, the long and strong links between Shebab and AQAP would make switching allegiance a financial and political wrench, as well as a tricky decision.

“The Shebab leadership remains closely linked to AQAP and it’s hard to believe that they would switch to IS just like that.”

And the extent of internal Shebab support for a move is not known.

“It is unclear how big and influential the pro-IS faction is and whether it would be able to shift broader opinion in Shebab, outside of a number of foreign fighters who are also behind an IS alliance,” said Thomas.

In any case, a simple shift of allegiance may do little to increase Shebab’s appeal to potential recruits.

“While Shebab would like to see jihadists, particularly those of Somali descent, come to Somalia instead of Syria and Iraq, an alliance with IS would not change the fact that Shebab’s dwindling territorial control and urban attacks against civilians are still a major disincentive for recruits.”

Al-Shabab militants have abducted and killed a traditional chief in northern Kenya, a local elder says.

Chief Muktar Otieno was seized early on Thursday morning on the road to Mandera town, close to the border between Kenya and Somalia.

Assistant chief Abdinoor Dakane told the BBC that Mr Otieno was tied to a tree and shot dead by the militants, after locals failed to pay a ransom.

Al-Shabab has not yet commented on the attack.

The abduction happened 10 km (five miles) from the place where al-Shabab gunmen killed 28 people travelling on a bus in Mandera county last November.

According to the assistant chief, who witnessed Mr Otieno’s abduction, a group of local elders managed to track down the assailants to a town on the Kenyan-Somali border.

The group pleaded with the militants to release the chief, but when they failed to pay a ransom of 4m Kenyan shillings ($42,000; £25,000), Mr Otieno was shot dead in front of the clan elders, he told the BBC Somali service.

There has been no official comment yet from the Kenyan authorities.

The killing comes at a time of heightened tension over security in Kenya, after Islamist al-Shabab fighters killed 148 people, mainly students, during an attack on a university in Garissa earlier this month.

Al-Shabab has carried out a number of attacks in Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan troops were sent to Somalia to help fight the militant group there.