Gunmen sack four Maiduguri schools
Now Boko Haram is destroying schools in Northern Nigeria. COIN experts, what does this point to?
Quote:
Gunmen yesterday detonated a powerful explosive at a primary school in Maiduguri, causing a fire that razed classrooms and the headmaster’s office.
The dawn attack on Gomari Costain Primary School was the fourth such raid suspected to be launched by Boko Haram over the past week, forcing four primary schools in the city to shut down.
The three other primary schools earlier burnt and shut down were those in Kulagumna, Budum and Abbaganaram.
At least 5,000 school children have been forced to stay at home because of the incidents, according to estimates by teachers in the affected schools.
Each of the four attacks was staged at night when the schools were closed, and so no pupil or teacher was killed.
In yesterday’s attack at Gomari, resident Sani Salisu said he heard a “deafening and frightening sound” around 5.45am, shortly after the morning Muslim prayers.
“There is dusk-to-dawn curfew in Maiduguri and therefore must of us did not go to the mosque for the morning prayers. The sound of the blast was followed by gunshots. It was in the morning that we realized that the blast was at the primary school,” Salisu said.
The New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that some teachers of the school said a group of persons, mainly teenagers, drove away the security guard before setting the school ablaze.
One of the teachers, who lives near the school premises, said, “We heard a loud noise in the school at night and we thought it was a minor thing but when we reported for duty in the morning we discovered that fire had burnt the school. When we asked the security guard on duty he told us what happened.”
Another resident who did not want his name in print said he saw the dead body of an unidentified man around 7am yesterday near the blast scene.
“The copse was lying on ground about 200 metres away from the scene of the blast. I also saw another man with gunshot injuries being taken away,” he said.
Spokesman for the Borno State police command Samuel Tizhe confirmed that there was an attack at a primary school in the early hours of yesterday.
“We are, however, investigating circumstances that prompted the attacks on primary schools. Most of the schools affected by the assault were renovated recently,” he said.
Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is prohibited’, has targeted mainly security formations since they launched their campaign of violence nearly two years ago.
In the attack on Kulagumna Primary School 10 days ago, two blocks of classrooms and the headmaster’s office were destroyed.
At Abbaganaram school, 20 classes, five offices and some stores where destroyed, while at Budum, four classrooms and a store filled with books and instructional materials were destroyed.
The new trend of attacks on primary schools has forced many parents to withdraw their children and wards from schools for fear of their safety, teacher Fanta Kaka Modu told Daily Trust.
“For now, at least 5,000 pupils in the four primary schools that have been burnt down must remain at home,” she said.
But officials of the State Universal Primary Education Board (SUBEB) are yet to give details of the impact of the attacks.
No one claimed responsibility for yesterday’s strike, but Boko Haram said they executed the earlier attack on the three primary schools.
In a teleconference with journalists in Maiduguri on Sunday, Boko Haram spokesman Abul Qaqa said the sect attacked the three schools because security men had been raiding Islamic schools in Maiduguri recently.
“We attacked the schools because security operatives are going to Islamiyya schools and picking teachers. We are attacking the public schools at night because we don’t want to kill innocent pupils. Unless (Islamic schools) teachers are allowed to be, we would be compelled to continue attacking schools,” Qaqa said.
http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?o...ories&Itemid=8
US Supreme Court tackles Shell on human rights abuses
Taking a detour to the Niger Delta.
FYI - there is a case before the US Supreme Court about Shell's complicity in the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Now there is significant evidence to back the claim that Shell gave tacit support to the Abacha administration to kill Saro-Wiwa.
Quote:
WASHINGTON – (AFP) – The US Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit accusing Royal Dutch Shell of human rights abuses, a case that could make corporations liable for acts of torture or genocide overseas.
The plaintiffs — relatives of seven Nigerians killed by the country’s former military regime — sued the Anglo-Dutch energy giant and other firms for apparently enlisting the government to suppress resistance to oil exploration in the Niger Delta in the 1990s.
The case will test the potential liability of corporations — including multinationals with a US presence — under the Alien Tort Statute, a US law dating back to 1789 which scholars say was meant to assure foreign governments that the United States would help prevent breaches of international law.
“The international human rights norms that are at the basis of this case for the plaintiffs — crimes against humanity, torture, prolonged arbitrary detention, extrajudicial executions — all of those human rights norms are defined by actions,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Paul Hoffman told the court Tuesday.
“They’re not defined by whether the perpetrator is a human being or a corporation or another kind of entity,” he said.
Kathleen Sullivan, representing Shell, countered that all major international treaties refer to “individual liability” rather than corporate responsibility.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/02/u...rights-abuses/
That unfortunate event occurred at the same time that John Major and Bill Clinton were making the right-sounding noises about "tyranny in Nigeria". The details of the case against Shell have had an effect of deepening the already deep mistrust of the British in Southern Nigeria.
I doubt that Shell would have done what it did without cover from the Brits and Americans.
As we say in my native language; lies are best told in the English language.
Interestingly, a British / Dutch firm is being tried in a US court and the ruling of the Supreme Court will also have an effect on the perception of the US in Nigeria. Looking at the composition of the court, I strongly suspect that Roberts and his fellow conservatives will rule in favour of Shell.
Let us remember the series of events the led to the Niger Delta insurrection. One needs to recall the formation of an environmental rights group by Saro-Wiwa, the judicial murder of Saro-Wiwa, the massive oil explosion that almost leveled the town of Jesse in 1999 and electoral politics and thuggery in the delta.
In retrospect, what might have seemed to be a wise decision by Shell and the Abacha administration ended up being a disaster. As recently as 1993, the problems of Niger Delta militancy could have been nipped in the bud, but no one in the Nigerian government or the Oil and Gas Industry was far-sighted enough to see that.
** After all we've been through with Shell, ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil - all "the Chinese are monsters talk" doesn't faze us. :wry: It is difficult to believe that even the worst Chinese firm would behave as badly as Shell did in the Niger Delta.
This is what the Niger Delta looks like after fifty years of oil exploration by Western oil majors.
http://cdn.coastalcare.org/wp-conten...-delta-oil.jpg
Before you tell me it is all due to pipeline vandalism. Let me remind you that I spent some time at Shell and I know that the standards observed by Shell in Nigeria are nowhere near the standards observed by Shell elsewhere.
Shell and Western Oil majors are a deeply emotional topic for most Southern Nigerians. It is true they made a lot of money, but the permanently damaged the reputation of the West in the process.
Our government has been complicit, but since Nigeria has been ruled by Northerners for 38 out of its 51 years of independence, this also contributes to the hatred the South has for the North.
So sad.
General: 3 Africa terror groups may collaborate
Quote:
WASHINGTON - The top U.S. commander for Africa says he is increasingly concerned about the likelihood that terrorist groups in Somalia, North Africa and Nigeria want to coordinate their training, funding and terror activities.
Gen. Carter Ham told Congress Wednesday that terror leaders from al-Shabab, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram in Nigeria want to more closely synchronize their efforts. He says the three groups are the top three threats in that region, and their collaboration would present a real challenge to the U.S.
He also says that announcement earlier this month of al-Qaida's formal alliance with al-Shabab suggests that the Somalia-based insurgency has been weakened and is looking for greater international support. The two groups have been working together for several years.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article...APW/1202290820
The thing that interests me the most is the question of funding. Boko Haram (if it is aligned to the rest of these groups) has by far the best access to funding. Think about it, only a few weeks ago a serving state governor gave the family of a slain Boko Haram member's in-law 100 million naira compensation (almost a million dollars).
Protection money given to BH must be in the hundreds of millions (several million dollar range). You factor in money made from back robberies and Nigeria's monumental corruption and you have a potentially very rich set of terrorists.
Transferring the money to Al-Shahab shouldn't be too difficult - a lot of stuff goes under the radar in Dubai.
Who do you guys think?