Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Meet the Ruthless New al-Qaeda Group Terrorizing Nigeria

 

Meet the Ruthless New Islamist Group Terrorizing Nigeria

By John Campbell

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/meet-the-ruthless-new-islamist-group-terrorizing-nigeria/273921/

 

 

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.

 

==========================================

(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this

message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to

these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed

within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with

"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.

The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The

Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain

permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials

if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,

teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria

for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies

as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four

criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is

determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not

substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use

copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

 

THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS

PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment