THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW TERROR GROUP IN NIGERIA- ANSARU

                                          

 Introduction

The mere mention of Nigeria anywhere in the world increasingly stirs mixed notion of crime, violence, state-failure, and recently, terrorism. Indeed, these attributions, particularly, terrorist attacks, serve as a seam that perpetually threatens to split the fabric of the country’s peace, stability, and prosperity. Since 2009, the deadly Islamic militant group Boko Haram has instilled enough fear and insecurity across Nigeria and claimed responsibility for a series of deadly-coordinated attacks on strategic governmental agencies such as the police stations, prisons, UN office in Abuja, religious worship-centers, and innocent individuals. But the end to terror is not in sight in Nigeria, as an emerging Islamic militant sect called Ansaru; an alleged faction of Boko haram, unleashes fresh series of hostage taking on foreign nationals both within and beyond Nigeria, particularly at a time the Nigerian government is contemplating dialogue and negotiation with insurgents.

 Ansaru: Tactics, Origin, and Connection

 In November 2012, after the kidnap and killing of a Briton and an Italian during a failed rescue attempt in Kano, Nigeria, the British government placed Ansaru (whose full name is Jama’atu Ansarul Musilima Fi Biladis Sudan and translates as “Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa”) on its official “terrorist group” (Reuters, February 18, 2013).  Apart from the orchestrated bombings of churches, mosques, assassination and suicide attacks on police stations and prisons that Boko Haram is well-known for, Ansaru, a group of Islamist radicals in Northern Nigeria has resolved to hostage taking of foreign nationals in the northern part of the country.  This group is believed to be a splinter group of Boko-Haram which has killed hundreds of innocent people in previous months in its attempt to carve out an Islamic state in a country that is roughly split equally between Christians and Muslims (Guardian Newspaper, February 23, 2013). Ansaru is allegedly linked to al-Qaeda’s North African wing AQIM and other Islamist groups elsewhere in the region. Ansaru has claimed responsibility on February 18, 2013 for the abduction of seven foreigners (including a Briton, an Italian, a Greek, and four Lebanese) that worked for Setraco construction in Bauchi state Nigeria.  Also, on February 19, 2013, the French President Francois Hollande, said, “Islamist militants from neighboring Nigeria abducted a French family of seven including four children in northern Cameroon” (Reuters Tuesday, Feb 19, 2013). Although very little is known about the origin of this group, the events that occurred in the aftermath of Boko Haram’s attack on Kano state – a predominantly Muslim state in Northern Nigeria in 2012, perhaps led to Ansaru’s supposed breakaway from Boko Haram. The attack claimed almost 200 lives of innocent lives and was publicly condemned by Ansaru (Stratfor, February 21, 2013).

Ansaru: Interests and expressed goals

Although, kidnapping of foreigners for ransom has been a rampant trend in Nigeria’s southern oil region for a decade, abductions by radical Islamic sect in Northern Nigeria is just a recent trend within the last two years (Stratfor, February 21, 2013). After Ansaru’s first claimed attack on Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) detention facility in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, in November 2012, Khalid Al-Ansari, Boko Haram’s commander in Nigeria’s northeastern states, declared that Ansaru would target foreigners. The point of distinction is that Ansaru’s agenda and tactic differ significantly from Boko Haram’s that utilizes militancy to achieve political goals in Nigeria. Ansaru’s operations target Western interests in Africa, particularly, the kidnaps of French and foreign nationals, and this does just not only influence Nigeria’s domestic politics.

Ansaru has alleged that “the recent kidnapping of seven French nationals at Sabongari town in Northern Nigeria, (about seven kilometers from the northern village of Dabanga, close to the Nigerian border) was based on the transgression and atrocities done against the religion of Allah by European countries in Afghanistan and Mali” (Reuters, February 18, 2013).  Ansaru’s abduction of foreigners is likely to complement al Qaeda’s interest in Northern Nigeria and the group’s emergence could quickly negate the gains made by French military forces against militants in Mali.  

Works Cited

Boko Haram Threatens to execute Kidnapped French Family

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrjBbjGk8kI

Ijediogor, Godwin. (2013, February 23). Boko Haram: The Dialogue Dilemma. Guardian.

Retrieved from http://ngrguardiannews.com

Madu, Chukwu. (2013, February 18) Reuters. 2013. Islamist group claims kidnap of foreigners in Nigeria.     Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/assets

Stratfor. 2013. US, The Rise of a New Nigerian Militant Group http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/rise-new-nigerian-militant-group>The Rise of a new Nigerian Militant Group</a>