Lawmaker, Pastor, Police Inspector Gunned Down in Wave of Boko Haram Hits. Police in Nigeria reported on November 18th the assassination of Ibrahim Abba Garko, a legislator in the Kano State assembly, who was gunned down in a motorcycle drive-by shooting in the city of Kano. He died on the spot, and two companions were wounded. He was a member of the country’s ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (P.D.P.). The following day, a 70-year-old Christian pastor was shot and killed in front of his family by suspected Boko Haram members in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State in the northeast. The minister, the Rev. Ilaisha (other reports say Elisha) Kabura, was on his way to conduct a service for a Church of Christ in Nations congregation. He had received Boko Haram death threats before. The same day, a police inspector, Babangida Danbabo, was shot and killed on his way home from prayers at a mosque in Bauchi, in Bauchi State.
Rioting between Christians, Muslims in Nigerian Middle Belt Kills 4. Four people were killed in street warfare between Christians and Muslims in east-central Nigeria on November 18th after a Muslim in the town of Ibi, in Taraba State, refused to submit to a checkpoint set up by a Christian vigilante group. The checkpoint was one of many set up in the town as a way of keeping Muslims from approaching churches, in the wake of a barrage of church bombings by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in recent months. Both churches and mosques were burned down in the rioting that ensued, and the military was sent into the town to keep order. Taraba State is in the east of the region known as the Middle Belt, where Muslims and Christians live side by side. Also, in the central Middle Belt state of Nasarawa, seven people, including a seven-year-old boy were killed on November 21st in rioting between the Koro and Eggon ethnic groups in the town of Agyaragu. At least 10 people were injured and 15 houses burned down.
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| Rioting in Ibi |
Military Operation in Northeast Nigeria Kills Boko Haram Commander, Others. A joint military and police operation in Nigeria, including the anti-terrorist Joint Task Force (J.T.F.), state security forces, and even the air force, launched a major offensive on November 21st against the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, resulting in the death of a Boko Haram commander, Ibn Saleh Ibrahim. Several other Boko Haram fighters were also killed, according to the military. The following day in Maiduguri, Boko Haram members killed three children—ages 5, 7, and 12—in their mother’s presence, amid a total of five similar murders that day. The children’s father was Aduju Zubairu, a member of Nigeria’s federal State Security Service (S.S.S.).
Reportedly Escaped Boko Haram Prisoner Turns Out to Be in Hospital. In Nigeria, media reported this week that the country’s inspector general of police, Mohammed Abubakar, had informed President Goodluck Jonathan that the media reports of the escape from police custody of the Boko Haram commander Sani Mohammed (a.k.a. Mohammed Sani) on November 8th (as reported earlier in this blog) were a false story and that in fact the suspect was sick and in a hospital. He had been arrested in January 2012 along with another suspect, Bakir Sokoto.
Bakassians Disrupt Nigerian-Cameroonian Border Survey Team, Protesting Cession. Demonstrators from the Bakassi Peninsula disrupted the activities of a surveying team marking the newly negotiated boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon on November 21st and 22nd, over what they call a betrayal by the Nigerian government, which last month intentionally let pass a last opportunity to contest an International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) ruling ceding Bakassi to Cameroon. The Joint Technical Team was made up of United Nations, Nigerian, and Cameroonian officials. The demonstrators carried placards and prevented the team from reaching the site. After the disruptions, the U.N. temporarily suspended the surveying project. See a recent article in this blog detailing the Bakassi dispute.
[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with my forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas. The book, which contains dozens of maps and over 500 flags, is now in the layout phase and should be on shelves, and available on Amazon, by early fall 2014. I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news. Meanwhile, please “like” the book (even though you haven’t read it yet) on Facebook.]
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