Two Nigerian affiliates of the al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb — Boko Haram and the Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis-
Sudan — are planning major reprisals to protest Nigeria’s participation in
the Mali war.
Nigeria has deployed forces in northern Mali to
flush out the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups who have taken control of the vast
desert territory.
Barely 48 hours after the Mali mission, terror
operations increased in the northern part of the country with not less four
attacks in three days leading to the death of about 30 people.
While claiming responsibility for the attack on
Mali-bound soldiers in Kogi State and the kidnap of a French citizen, Francis
Colump, in Katsina State, the sect said its actions were based on France and
Nigeria’s major role in the attack on Islamists in northern Mali.
Security agents said that the
sects, particularly JAMBS, planned to protest Nigeria’s participation in
the Mali war, in the form of bomb attacks and kidnap of expatriates. It was
learnt that while JAMBS would concentrate on foreign targets, Boko Haram
would focus on local targets.
A top intelligence officer, who pleaded anonymity
because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said, “The survival of
JAMBS and Boko Haram depends on the survival of the Islamists in Mali. If
the terrorists in Mali are wiped out, that is the end of the ones in Nigeria and
that is why Nigeria is at the fore-front of the Mali war.
“We have reports that the violent sects here have
been instructed to increase their terror acts and it is not surprising. That is
why they have become very restive in the North. We are at the border to
intercept whatever arms they are planning to bring in. We also have
plain-clothes security men in the North monitoring activities. We are ready for
them.”
