MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Boko Haram militants killed dozens of people in a nighttime assault on a village in northeastern Nigeria that is home to residents who had recently returned from a camp for internally displaced persons, authorities said.
The attack on Darul Jamal in the Bama local government area took place late Friday and killed at least 60 people, a resident of the village, Mohammed Babagana, told The Associated Press.
Borno state Gov. Babagana Zulum, who visited the attacked community late Saturday evening, confirmed to reporters that over 60 died in the attack.
“We sympathize with the people and have pleaded with them not to abandon their homes as we have made arrangements to improve the security and provide food and other lifesaving items that they have lost,” Zulum said.
The chairman of Bama’s local government, Modu Gujja, said over a dozen houses were burnt and more than 100 people were forced to flee.
Taiwo Adebayo, a researcher specializing in Boko Haram at the Institute for Security Studies, spoke to residents of Darual Jamal and said the killings on Friday night were carried out by a faction of Boko Haram known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad.
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis, took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. The conflict has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbors, including Niger, and resulted in the death of around 35,000 civilians and the displacement of more than 2 million others, according to the United Nations.
Boko Haram split into two factions after the death of the group’s longtime leader, Abubakar Shekau, in 2021.
One faction is backed by the Daesh group and is known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. It has become notorious for targeting military positions.
The other faction, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, or JAS, has increasingly resorted to attacking civilians and perceived collaborators and thrives on robberies and abductions for ransom.
“When JAS attacks and kills a lot of people like they did last night in Bama, it’s usually that they suspect the victims of spying for the rival ISWAP or the military,” Adebayo told the AP.
The Bama local government area was the target of several Boko Haram attacks a decade ago, forcing many residents to flee. Following military operations in the area in recent years, authorities had resettled displaced people in several communities, most recently the village of Darul Jamal in July.
Kaana Ali, a Darul Jamal resident, said he decided to leave the community for good after he confirmed the deaths of close family friends in the attack on Friday. “But the governor is still begging us to stay back as more protection would be provided to secure our community,” he said.
Boko Haram militants kill 60 in an attack in Nigeria’s northeast
https://arab.news/py56j
Boko Haram militants kill 60 in an attack in Nigeria’s northeast
- Boko Haram militants have killed dozens in a nighttime attack on a village in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State
- The area had been a target of Boko Haram attacks a decade ago, causing many residents to flee
Modi starts Mideast-Africa tour as India-Oman free-trade pact nears completion
- Oman’s Shoura Council approved the trade deal’s draft last week
- Modi begins trip in Amman, heading to Addis Ababa and Muscat
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi left New Delhi on Monday for a tour covering Jordan, Oman and Ethiopia, as his government looks to strengthen partnerships with West Asia and Africa and finalize a free-trade deal with Muscat.
Modi’s four-day trip will start in Amman, at the invitation of King Abdullah.
“I am sure this visit will boost bilateral linkages between our nations,” Modi said on social media upon his arrival in Jordan, where he was received by Prime Minister Jafar Hassan.
On Tuesday, he is scheduled to arrive in Addis Ababa for his first state visit to Ethiopia. A day later, he will be in Muscat, where the Shoura Council last week approved the draft Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with India.
“If it is signed during this visit, it will significantly deepen the economic ties between India and Oman. And it will open up a new chapter in the history of India-Oman trade and commercial relationship,” Ministry of External Affairs Secretary Arun Chatterjee told reporters ahead of Modi’s departure.
He said Modi would be accompanied by a high-level delegation for his second visit to Oman, after his last trip in February 2018. It also follows the visit of Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq to India in December 2023.
Free-trade negotiations between India and Oman began in November 2023, with the first round in New Delhi and the second in Muscat.
When the talks concluded in March 2024, Oman sought revisions on market-access terms and the final signature was postponed.
Announcements of the deal’s possible finalization have been made in the past few months by India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and the Omani ambassador to New Delhi, Issa Saleh Al-Shibani.
It would be its second with a GCC country after a 2022 trade deal with the UAE, as India has been trying to reach a similar agreement with the whole bloc.
“The framework is expected to be the same as the UAE’s, that is, a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. This is significant given that the progress on India-GCC FTA has been slow and non-consequential so far,” said Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
While Oman is one of Delhi’s smaller GCC trading partners — trailing behind the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with bilateral trade about $10 billion — it remains strategically important, particularly in energy and logistics.
“The FTA is likely to give a boost to India-Oman economic and trade relations, especially of goods and services. (It is) important given India has worked to enhance its trade and economic relations with the Gulf countries that are (among) the most dynamic and fast-expanding global economies,” Quamar told Arab News.
“It is also important because there is immense potential for Indian businesses and industries to partner with their Gulf and Omani partners in contributing to the diversification and economic growth plans.”
