KANO: Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video Tuesday pledging to continue attacks days after Nigeria’s military repeated that the militant group had been defeated.
The factional leader said in a video message that a recent offensive to clear out Boko Haram’s stronghold of Sambisa forest in Borno State had failed and vowed to keep fighting against Nigeria and western education.
“The person that believes in nationalism is the one we are at war with, the person who believes in disseminating western education, which is replete with unbelief, is the one we fight,” Shekau said in the 11-minute video.
Nigeria has repeatedly claimed it has beaten Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said the group was “technically defeated” in December 2015.
Boko Haram’s capacity has been weakened since 2014 when it controlled swathes of territory in northeast Nigeria but it still poses a threat.
Last Sunday, Boko Haram fighters stormed a village in northeast Nigeria, killing two people, while six people were killed in an attack in northern Cameroon.
At least 20,000 people have been killed in nearly nine years of violence and more than 2.6 million made homeless, triggering a humanitarian crisis across the Lake Chad region.
Boko Haram leader releases video days after Nigeria claims defeat
Boko Haram leader releases video days after Nigeria claims defeat
Built on ancient design, Indian Navy’s first stitched ship sails to Oman
- INSV Kaundinya is a 21-meter wooden ship modeled on painting from Ajanta Caves
- It was constructed by artisans from Kerala and inducted into Indian Navy last year
NEW DELHI: Built using a fifth-century stitched-ship technique, the Indian Navy’s Kaundinya vessel is approaching Oman, navigating the historic Arabian Sea route once traveled by ancient seafarers.
The 21-meter ship is a type of wooden boat, in which planks are stitched together using cords or ropes, a technique popular in ancient India for constructing ocean-going vessels.
The vessel set sail on its first transoceanic voyage from Porbandar in Gujarat on Dec. 29 and is expected to reach Muscat in mid-January.
“The exact date obviously depends on how weather conditions pan out. It has been a great experience thus far and the crew remains in high spirits,” Sanjeev Sanyal, an Indian economist who initiated the Kaundinya project and is part of the expedition, told Arab News.
“This is a very ancient route going back to the Bronze Age, and very active from ancient to modern times. We are trying to re-create the voyage on INSV Kaundinya, a ‘stitched’ ship using designs as they would have existed in the fifth century A.D. — a hull from stitched planks, steering oars, square sails, and so on.”
The ship was built by artisans from Kerala based on a painting found in the Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Maharashtra state, where rock-cut monuments feature exquisite murals dating from the second century B.C. to the fifth century.
Funded by the Indian Ministry of Culture in 2023, the vessel was completed in February last year and inducted into the Indian Navy in May.
The Indian Navy collaborated with the Department of Ocean Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras to conduct model testing of the vessel’s hydrodynamic performance. The navy also tested the wooden mast system, which was built entirely without modern materials.
On its journey to Muscat, the ship is manned by an 18-member crew, which, besides Sanyal, consists of four officers, 12 sailors, and a medic.
“The voyage gives a good glimpse of how ancient mariners crossed the Indian Ocean — the changing winds and currents, the limitations of ancient technology,” Sanyal said.
“The square sail, for example, allows the ship to sail only up to a limited angle to the wind compared to a modern sailing boat. It also does not have a deep keel, so it rolls a lot. “Nonetheless, in good winds, it can do up to five knots — a very respectable speed. One reads about these voyages in ancient texts and (they are also) depicted in paintings and sculpture, but this provides a real experience.”
