Terrorist group ‘planning foreign kidnaps in NE Nigeria’
N’DJAMENA: Boko Haram militants killed nine Chadian soldiers in an attack on a military camp on Friday in the north of the Central African country close to the Nigerian border, an army spokesman said on Saturday.
“On our side, there are nine dead and 28 wounded,” Col. Azem Bermandoua told Reuters, adding that 28 militants were killed. The army said that Boko Haram carried out the attack.
Meanwhile, Britain and the US on Friday said Boko Haram was preparing to kidnap foreigners in remote northeast Nigeria, which is in the grip of a food crisis caused by the conflict.
The Foreign Office in London said it had received reports the militants were “actively planning” to seize foreign workers in the Bama local government area of Borno state.
Both said in travel advice that the affected area was “along the BankiKumshe axis,” which is near the border with Cameroon.
The US Embassy in Abuja said in a message to its nationals that the report was “credible.”
Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of women and children, including more than 200 schoolgirls from the Borno town of Chibok in 2014, which brought the conflict to world attention.
At least 20,000 people have been killed since 2009. But abductions of foreigners have been rare.
There was a spate of kidnappings of foreign workers in the wider north from 2011 to 2013, claimed by a Boko Haram splinter group, Ansaru, which was more ideologically aligned to Al-Qaeda.
Ansaru leader Khalid Al-Barnawi has been charged with the abduction and murder of foreign workers, among them an Italian, a Briton, a German, Greek, Lebanese and Syrians. Most were engineers or construction workers.
International aid workers now account for the majority of foreign nationals in northeast Nigeria. Most are based in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the Lake Chad region require urgent food aid as a result of the conflict, which has made more than 2.6 million people homeless and ravaged farmland. AFP visited Banki with other international media two weeks ago.
Humanitarian agencies operating in the town include the World Food Programme (WFP), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other UN bodies.
Banki was liberated from Boko Haram in September 2015 and is currently home to some 32,000 displaced people in a sprawling, overcrowded camp.
The surrounding area still suffers from frequent Boko Haram attacks on military convoys, as well as suicide bombings.
Fighters loyal to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who were pushed out of their camps in the Sambisa Forest area last December, are believed to be responsible.
The kidnap warning and the threat to humanitarian operations underlines the fragility of security in northeast Nigeria, despite claims from the government and military that Boko Haram is a spent force.
Separately, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday made his first public appearance in weeks, reemerging amid mounting concerns about his health.
The 74-year-old, who spent nearly two months earlier this year receiving treatment in London for an undisclosed illness, was at Friday prayers at a mosque in the presidential villa in Abuja.
Video posted on Twitter by presidential aide Bashir Ahmad showed Buhari dressed in white, shaking hands with fellow worshippers and waving after the service.
The former military ruler has missed the last three weekly meetings of his Cabinet, Friday prayers last week and his grandson’s wedding at the weekend.
He had been due to meet his counterpart from neighboring Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, for talks on Friday but the meeting was canceled, Buhari’s office said in a statement on Thursday evening.