Hours after Nigeria’s ambassador to the US claimed Nigeria was opposed to the recent Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of Boko Haram, as “Nigeria is safe and capable of curtailing the group,” a Boko Haram raid killed 26 civilians and razed 40 houses in Borno state. In Abuja, a Boko Haram member was sentenced to life […]
Shabaab has retaken the town of Kudhaa without meeting any resistance. A Shabaab commander confirmed local reports that Kenyan forces and the Raskamboni militia withdrew before their arrival. The reversal comes hours after the UN approved additional troops for Somalia and an AU official acknowledged that progress made against Shabaab was starting to recede.
Two Americans kidnapped in the Gulf of Guinea have been freed and taken ashore in Nigeria. The pair were abducted from an American-flagged oil industry vessel off the Nigerian coast in October.
Ethiopian troops will join Kenyan and Ugandan troops in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The Somali government welcomed the move and stressed the need for collaboration between the two neighboring countries.
Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers captured the town of Mahaday from Shabaab in the first military offensive in nine months. The town was taken with minimal resistance and was one of the last urban areas in central Somalia still under Shabaab control.
The Nigerian military raided a Boko Haram camp in Borno state. The army claims it killed 150 militants, with only 16 losses, but reports allege that approximately 100 soldiers were killed in the attack. Elsewhere in Borno, militants believed to be Boko Haram have begun dressing in military uniforms and killing civilians at roadside checkpoints […]
British citizen Jermaine Grant, alleged to have links to Somalia’s Shaabab, has been acquitted of charges related to robbery and raiding a police station. He will still face a separate trial in Mombasa regarding the possession of chemicals, batteries, and switches, which were allegedly for making explosives.
The Nigerian army killed 10 Boko Haram militants and recovered rifles and ammunition used by the group. Elsewhere in the country, two Nigerian policemen were killed after Boko Haram attacked their station with RPGs.
Reports indicate that Shabaab has killed American jihadist and one-time member Omar Hammami, along with a British fighter. Hammami, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mansour al Amriki, fell out with Shabaab leadership over the group’s ideological direction.
Five Boko Haram militants and 13 members of a civilian vigilante group were killed in northern Nigeria on Sunday. The clash occurred the day after at least 50 suspected Boko Haram members were reportedly killed in an encounter with the Nigerian military.
Shabaab militants attacked a government convoy carrying President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in southern Somalia. The attack was unsuccessful, and the president continued his tour in an attempt to placate southern clans frustrated with his government.
An Abuja court approved the extradition to the US of Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi, an alleged member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Shiite leader Abdullahi Mustapha Berende has been charged with aiding an Iranian militant cell. Berende, who had reportedly confessed to receiving training in Iran, has been held without trial since December, even […]
Somali officials said that Shabaab insurgents in southern Somalia have engaged in multiple clashes with government troops and allied African Union forces. No casualty figures have been released, but Shabaab now controls the town of Qurac-Jome in the Bakool region.
At least 24 people have been killed in two separate attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in Borno state. The attacks took place 200 km apart, in Damasak on the border with Niger, and in Bama near the border with Cameroon.
Authorities warn Shabaab may be planning attacks in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to commemorate the assassination of a radical Muslim cleric. Sheik Aboud Rogo was killed on Aug. 27, 2012 when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car.
Boko Haram insurgents dressed in Nigerian military uniforms opened fire on civilians near the border with Cameroon, killing four. The attack is believed to be a reprisal for civilian support of the “Civilian JTF,” a government-backed vigilante group formed to fight Boko Haram in northern communities.
Kenyan troops have killed several Shabaab militants among a group of about 20 near the border town of Hulugho; the remaining militants fled. A few days earlier, Shabaab forces raided a regional administration police camp in Garissa, killing four people and burning down the camp.
Shabaab militants have begun looting Doctors Without Borders (MSF) facilities in southern Somalia. The medical aid organization announced that it is pulling out of the country after 22 years, after rampant abductions and attacks on its staff members. Its withdrawal comes in the midst of Somalia’s struggle to contain a polio outbreak.
Boko Haram leader Abubaker Shekau is believed to have died in Cameroon, according to the Nigerian military. A senior officer said Shekau was gravely wounded in a military raid on June 30, and that a video of Shekau released on Aug. 13 was “dramatized by an imposter to hoodwink the sect members to continue with […]
Authorities claimed that Momodu Bama, Boko Haram’s operations officer under Abubaker Shekau, has been killed in Borno. Bama, who is also known as Abu Saad, was killed along with his father, Abatcha Flatari, when the military attempted to arrest them. The Interior Ministry said that the army is making progress against Boko Haram; on Aug. […]
The Nigerian military claimed to have captured over 1,000 members of Boko Haram since the government declared emergency rule three months ago in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe. The al Qaeda-linked group still has an estimated 6,000 active fighters, who have moved into other states to continue the insurgency.
A heavily armed member of a MUJAO cell near the Nigerian border was arrested by Nigerien authorities in Madaoua. The French-run Somair uranium mine has fully resumed production after it was bombed in a MUJAO attack last month.
A confusing recent series of claims and counterclaims by members of the group and the government do not obscure the group’s ongoing campaign of Islamist terrorism.
Forces from the autonomous southern Somali state of Jubaland claimed victory against Shabaab after an overnight battle that left 20 Islamists and two civilians dead. Shabaab claimed responsibility for the Aug. 4 attack on African Union bases in nearby Baidoa.