Meet the Ruthless New Islamist Group Terrorizing Nigeria
By John Campbell
Ansaru's murder of seven hostages over the weekend shows why it could become
the most powerful jihadist group in the region.
Through its murder of seven European and Middle Eastern hostages over the
weekend in northern Nigeria, Ansaru has trumped Boko Haram through the
propaganda of horror, at least for the time being. Ansaru also probably
holds the French family of seven kidnapped in Cameroon last month, with the
potential of more horror to come. Those kidnappers have made no public
ransom demands; instead they are demanding that the Abuja government release
Islamist prisoners, a demand that will be all but impossible for Nigerian
president Goodluck Jonathan's government to meet. Ansaru has become a direct
threat to Westerners working in northern Nigeria in a way Boko Haram in the
past was not. There is not much Western-funded economic activity left in
northern Nigeria, but what there is will likely diminish. Foreign companies
working on infrastructure projects are likely to pull back. The same is true
of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on development and other
projects.
The Abuja government has labeled the general insurgency in northern Nigeria
as "Boko Haram" -- not just the followers of the movement's founder,
Mohammed Yusuf, whom Nigerian police killed in 2009. Its base has been in
the northeastern city of Maiduguri, on the edge of the Sahara. Its
leadership is associated with the Kanuri ethnic group. It is now led by
Abubakar Shekau. He is a shadowy figure who communicates mostly through
videos and whose location is unknown. Violence associated with his part of
the insurgency has been almost entirely directed against agencies of the
Abuja government, especially the police and the military, and Muslims who
are seen as having sold out to the Jonathan administration. Over the past
year, attacks on Christians have also increased, though it is usually
unclear what group has actually carried them out.
The Shekau-led part of the insurgency has especially targeted members of the
traditional Islamic establishment, with nearly-successful attempts to murder
the Shehu of Borno (the primate of Kanuri traditional rulers) and the Emir
of Kano. They successfully assassinated the brother of the Shehu, and an
attack on the octenagerian emir killed his bodyguards and apparently wounded
him and two of his sons. That part of the insurgency has showed little or no
interest in Western targets, and Shekau has specifically denounced
kidnapping. Instead, the successors to Mohammed Yusuf appeared to be at war
with the Nigerian state and with the fellow Muslims who participate in it.
Its victims cross the traditional ethnic divides; the Shehu is a Kanuri, the
Emir is a Fulani, and speaks Hausa. The international dimension of the jihad
has been essentially irrelevant to their Nigeria focus.
Ansaru is different. In January 2012, in the aftermath of an especially
bloody action In Kano attributed to Boko Haram that left many Muslims dead,
a distinctive group emerged from the insurgency called Ansaru. Its proper
name is the Arabic for Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black
Africa. Its leader, Abu Ussamata al-Ansary, is even more shadowy than
Abubakar Shekau. Its likely base is Kano, by far the largest city in
northern Nigeria and a major West African Islamic center.
It is likely that its ethnic makeup is predominately Fulani. It is opposed
to spilling the blood of innocent Muslims and uses tactics associated with
al-Qaeda, including kidnappings and beheadings. The most important
distinction is that its orientation appears to be international, rather than
domestic. That makes it likely that it is in contact with other jihadist
groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The relationship between
Ansaru and Shekau's followers, and other factions of Boko Haram is unclear,
though it is likely to be highly fluid. Nor is it clear whether Ansaru's
supposed Fulani character and Shekau's Kanuri ethnicity plays a significant
role.
Ansaru predates the French intervention in Mali and the subsequent
deployment of a West African force organized by the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS). Nevertheless, that event and the close ties
between Britain, France and the United States to the government in Abuja
probably contributes to its anti-Western stance. All three western states
are assisting the ECOWAS force, and the largest contingent is the
contribution from Abuja. The United States is establishing a drone base in
Niamey as part of that effort. From a radical Islamist perspective, Abuja,
Paris, and London are joined in a war with Islam.
It should be anticipated that Ansaru kidnappings of foreigners will
continue, and the group is likely to try to strengthen whatever ties already
exist with other radical Islamists in Mali and elsewhere in the Maghreb. It
may come to supersede Shekau's followers as the predominate radical Islamist
group operating in the north. Alternatively, the two may cooperate, as seems
already to have been the case, on killings and bombings credited to "Boko
Haram." Ansaru's new salience represents another, serious challenge to
Nigeria's stability and a deadly threat to those Western interests it can
reach in northern Nigeria.
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