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Boko Haram got al Qaeda bomb training: Niger’s foreign minister

Members of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have received explosives training at al Qaeda camps in the Sahel region of northern Africa, Niger’s foreign … Continue reading Boko Haram got al Qaeda bomb training: Niger’s foreign minister


Boko Haram got al Qaeda bomb training: Niger’s foreign minister

Members of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have received explosives training at al Qaeda camps in the Sahel region of northern Africa, Niger’s foreign minister said on Tuesday (January 24).

Boko Haram got al Qaeda bomb training: Niger's foreign minister

The group, which has killed more than 200 people this year in increasingly sophisticated attacks that include bombings, may have also received training from Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents, Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum said.

“There is no doubt that there is clear evidence to suggest connections between Boko Haram and AQIM (al Qaeda in the Maghreb) and that consists mainly of training given to elements of Boko Haram. One group has been received in AQIM bases here in the Sahel and another group got training, based on information we’ve gotten, with the Shabaabs in Somalia,” Bazoum said at a regional security summit in Mauritania’s capital.

Security analysts have said Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful” in the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria and parts of Niger and Benin Republics, is unlikely to expand its focus beyond Nigeria, and has only limited ties to other insurgent groups.

But Bazoum said the evidence of training links between al Qaeda’s North African wing and Boko Haram required a unified regional security approach to combat the threat.

“It seems very important that we act together with Nigera and that we act in unison sharing information and also acting on it, why not since Niger has a very long border with Nigeria and they have put in place similar measures in this area,” he said.

Nigeria was represented at the summit alongside Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Algeria — parts of Africa where al Qaeda cells are known to operate. Nine western hostages are believed to be held by al Qaeda in the Sahara.

Also speaking at the summit was Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, Mali foreign affairs minister who said Mali’s army is working on surrounding the area in the Sahel where the terrorists are known to operate.

“The re-enforcement of the presence of the Malian army in this area which has also closed in on the terrorist groups offering us the opportunity, should the case arise, to have a rapid response against the terrorist groups if the situation presents itself,” he said.

Al Qaeda in the Maghreb originated in the 1990s to fight Algeria’s secular government. It changed its name in 2007 to incorporate al Qaeda indicating a broad alliance with the international terrorist organisation. Since then the group has carried out a string of bomb attacks, kidnaps and murders of Westerners in the Sahel region.

Boko Haram is loosely modeled on Afghanistan’s Taliban. It has claimed responsibility for bombing churches, police stations, military facilities, banks and beer parlours in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria.

The sect focuses its attacks mostly on the police, military and government but has also increased attacks on Christian institutions. It says it is fighting enemies who have wronged its members through violence, arrests, economic neglect and corruption.