Jonathan makes surprise visit to insurgency-hit northeast Nigeria

MAIDUGURI- President Goodluck Jonathan made a surprise visit to insurgency-plagued northeast Nigeria on Thursday, a rebuff to critics who say he has ignored the plight of victims of Boko Haram Islamist militants.

"What you're doing is not easy," he told officers and soldiers at an army barracks in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.
"We thank you as a nation. Terrorism is a global phenomenon. We're working day and night, trying to curtail this madness."

Jonathan is running for re-election in a Feb. 14 vote in which security is a major issue. His main rival, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, is seen as tough on security.
It was the president's first visit to Borno, the area worst affected by the advance of rebels seeking to carve an Islamic state in Nigeria, since he declared a state of emergency in the northeast in May 2013.
Jonathan has been criticised for not doing enough -- and often not saying enough -- about relentless Boko Haram attacks that have killed thousands of civilians, kidnapped hundreds and pose the greatest security challenge to Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy.

His administration was seen as slow to react when the insurgents abducted some 200 schoolgirls last April.
The group's fighters seized the military base and town of Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad, on Jan. 3. Baga was the headquarters of a multinational force with troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The militants have killed scores and razed dozens of homes there, with the military putting the death toll at 150, while some local officials have put it as high as 2,000.
Nigerian security forces repelled an attack by Boko Haram on the northeastern town of Biu on Wednesday, killing several insurgents.
Soldiers have complained of a severe lack of equipment and arms in the face of a determined foe.
"We will assist you to succeed in your efforts. We will give you what is due to you," Jonathan said. "In terms of equipment, we are better off now than when we started".


REUTERS

In Nigeria, New Boko Haram Suicide Bomber Tactic: 'It's a Little Girl'

A girl perhaps no more than 10 years old detonated powerful explosives concealed under her veil at a crowded northern Nigeria market on Saturday, killing as many as 20 people and wounding many more. The blast inflicted devastating damage on shoppers at the Monday Market in Maiduguri, the shopping hub in a city that is at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency.

The explosion, witnessed by dozens of people, represented a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber. The terrorist group has increasingly employed women as suicide bombers, even as it has stepped up its abductions of girls across northeast Nigeria, including the kidnapping of more than 200 in the town of Chibok in April.

Late last year, two women hit the Monday Market in suicide attacks, killing dozens, and in one week last summer four women carried out bombings in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano. But the use of a child to kill - witnesses, police officials, a top hospital official in Maiduguri and local vigilantes all agreed that the bomber was very young - may be unprecedented in the insurgency.

“It’s a little girl,” said the hospital official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of his position. “The body is beyond recognition, but from the face you can see it’s a young person. A young pretty girl.”

A vigilante group has taken responsibility for much of what little security exists in Maiduguri, and on Saturday morning, before the blast, several members of the group had screened the girl with metal detectors as she entered the market, said a spokesman, Abubakar Faruq. The girl resisted, the vigilantes noticed a bulge around her waist and the bomb went off, Faruq said.

A police spokesman said 20 people were killed and 18 others critically wounded. Several witnesses said it appeared that the girl might not have been aware of her deadly burden. Bakura Bashir, a shopper who witnessed the explosion, said: “This girl may not necessarily know she was conveying a timed bomb. The girl was torn into two halves, and half of her body was thrown across buildings by the devastating blast.”

A top federal police official in the capital, Abuja, who once worked in Maiduguri, said Saturday that the terrorist group appeared to have embarked on a new path. “It’s something quite new, and it’s disturbing, using these young, young girls wearing hijabs,” the official said, referring to the Muslim veil. “Now, one has to be suspicious of any lady wearing a hijab - whether it’s a young lady, or an old lady,” said the police official, who asked not to be quoted by name because of concerns about his position. Boko Haram has carried out a spate of attacks recently in the northeast, including a devastating one in Baga, a fishing village north of Maiduguri, that killed dozens last week; an assault on the nearby city of Damaturu on Friday evening that set off a gunbattle lasting more than four hours, but that was ultimately repelled by security forces; and a bombing in Potiskum on Saturday that killed two police officers.

The New York Times News Service

Ex-President Obasanjo on peace talks with Boko Haram?

ABUJA, - Reports filtering the media claimed that former Nigerian President is on the verge of concluding talks with members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is leading the peace moves, visited the family of the slain leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, in Maiduguri for a closed-door session.

Obasanjo, who arrived in Maiduguri at about 11.40am, was received by Borno State Deputy Governor Zanna Umar Mustapha.

Although the former President claimed that he was on a private visit, it was learnt that the visit was to initiate the talks, which the government plans to have with the Boko Haram (Western education is sin) members.

A source, who pleaded not to be named because of the "sensitivity" of the matter, said: "Obasanjo met Mohammed Yusuf’s family at Railway Quarters, the demolished headquarters of Boko Haram.

"The ex-President stayed with them for about one and a half hours before departing for the airport."

Obasanjo was said to have flown into Maiduguri from Jos where he had a joint peace meeting with the Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI), the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Plateau leaders.

The source said Obasanjo pleaded with Yusuf’s family to prevail on Boko Haram members to sheathe their sword and stop the spate of bombings nationwide.

The source quoted Obasanjo as saying: "This is a personal initiative. I urge you to forgive and forget the past.

"I plead with you to give me the chance to mediate between the family and the government."

The brother-in-law of the slain Boko Haram leader, Babakura Fuggu, whose father was also executed in 2009, reportedly said: "Since 2009, this is the first time any high-profile figure has commiserated with the family.

"We are happy with this visit. About 30-40 per cent of our members are scattered in neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroun."

The source added that Obasanjo may brief President Goodluck Jonathan on his mission on or before this weekend.

A top government source, who pleaded for anonymity, said: "The government is ready for talks with Boko Haram, like it did in the Niger Delta.

"The ex-President has decided to avail the government of his experience in peace-keeping operations. He believes dialogue could save the nation from bomb explosions.

"You should expect more follow-up talks with the Boko Haram sect. After all, after returning from the battle front, we go back to the peace table."

Source- Ascology News

Two girls killed in fresh Nigeria blast: army

Two girls was killed and three customs officers seriously wounded in a fresh blast on Monday in troubled northern city of Maiduguri, an army general said.

"Three customs officers were seriously injured in the attack while two child vendors -- both of them girls -- were killed in the blast," the commander of the city's joint task force, general Jack Okechukwu Nwobo, told.

Residents and witnesses put the death toll at about a dozen, however.

"I was about 100 metres (yards) from the customs bridge roundabout when the blast happened. It was a crowded area. I saw two vans conveying the dead. From my estimation, not less than 10 people were killed in the blast," a resident near the scene, Sheu Abdulkadir, told AFP.

A local journalist said he saw several dead bodies on the ground after the blast.

"I escaped death by the whiskers. I had just negotiated the roundabout when the blast happened. I saw many lifeless bodies on the ground. I counted at least 12," said the journalist, who declined to be named.

The exact nature of the blast was not immediately known.

Security agents had cordoned off the site of the blast.