Amidst some confusing signals about a peace overture to the Nigerian
government, wanted leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram appears to be pursuing
his Jihad relentlessly.
His latest move was to express
solidarity with global Islamist fighters, saying the US and Britain
“should witness that we are with our mujahideen brothers,” in a video
posted Thursday, SITE monitoring group said.According to SITE,
a US-based organisation, Abubakar Shekau gave the speech in Arabic in a
39-minute video posted to jihadist forums. It was not clear when it was
recorded.
“The world should witness, and America, Britain,
Nigeria and other crusaders, meaning America and Britain, should
witness, and the Jews of Israel who are killing the Muslims in Palestine
should witness… that we are with our mujahideen brothers in the cause
of Allah everywhere,” a translation by SITE said.
Boko Haram has
been widely seen as a domestically focused extremist group, targeting
symbols of Nigerian authority as well as churches, among other targets
in its insurgency that has killed hundreds in Africa’s most populous
nation.
But the video makes particular reference to global events,
with Shekau saluting fighters in the Maghreb region of northern Africa,
“the Islamic state in Mali,” Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Pakistan, Yemen and “our brothers and sheikhs in usurped Palestine.”
“O
Britain, America, Israel and Nigeria: Don’t think that jihad stops with
the death of imams,” Shekau says, according to SITE. “Because imams are
individuals. Jihad started now, jihad started now, O enemies of Allah.”
Violence
linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency has left some 3,000 people dead in
northern and central Nigeria since 2009, including killings by the
security forces.
The group has claimed to be fighting for the
creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria, whose 160 million population is
roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately
Christian south.
However, its demands have repeatedly shifted and
it is believed to include different factions with varying aims, in
addition to criminal gangs and imitators who carry out violence under
the guise of the group.
Shekau and two other Nigerian extremists
have been labeled “global terrorists” by the US government. Shekau and
18 other Boko haram leaders have been declared wanted by the Nigerian
army authorities, with rewards of between N50m and N10m offered for
information that could lead to their capture.
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