KANO (AFP) – The suspected leader of Nigerian Islamist group Boko
Haram criticised US President Barack Obama in an online video on
Saturday over Washington’s decision to label him a “global terrorist”.
It was unclear when the video was made, but it marked the first time
Abubakar Shekau publicly addressed the terrorist designation slapped on
him by the United States in June.
The clip, more than 38 minutes long, could not be independently
verified as authentic, but it was similar to previous videos of Shekau.
“You said I’m a global terrorist, then you are a terrorist in the
next world,” Shekau said in the Hausa language in the video posted on
YouTube while speaking of Obama.
Earlier in the video, Shekau says, “I call on you (Nigerian President
Goodluck) Jonathan, you should abandon this ungodly power, you should
repent and forsake Christianity, including Obama, who said I have
business interests in the United States.”
Speaking in a sarcastic tone, an AK-47 leaning against the wall next
to him, he also says, “I know the United States exists, but I don’t know
which part of the world it is located in, whether in the west or the
north, the south or the east.
“I don’t know where it is, not to talk of freezing my assets there.”
His comments were a reference to the terrorist designation given to
him and two other Nigerians which allows US authorities to seize their
assets in the United States.
In June, the US State Department announced the designations for
Shekau as well as Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi. Kambar and
Barnawi were said to be linked to Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb, Al-Qaeda’s north African branch.
Boko Haram has carried out scores of attacks in Nigeria that have
left hundreds dead as part of an increasingly deadly insurgency.
Members of the group are believed to have received training from
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in northern Mali, and Western countries
have been watching closely for signs of further cooperation.
Some US lawmakers have been pushing Obama’s administration to label
Boko Haram as a whole a terrorist organisation, but American diplomats
have stressed that the group remains domestically focused.
They also say deep poverty and a lack of infrastructure in Nigeria’s
north must be addressed as part of the solution to the violence.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sin” in the Hausa
language spoken in northern Nigeria, is believed to include a number of
factions with differing aims. Shekau is thought to lead the main radical
Islamist branch.
After a 2009 uprising that led to nearly a week of fighting, ending
with a military assault which left some 800 people dead, the group went
dormant for more than a year.
It re-emerged in 2010 with a series of assassinations. Bomb blasts, including suicide attacks, have since become frequent.
Its attacks have been focused in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and a
number of have occurred in the religiously and ethnically divided centre
of Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer.
The West African nation’s 160 million population is roughly divided
between a mostly Muslim north and a predominately Christian south.
Little is known about Shekau, though he has appeared in previous
YouTube clips a number of times to denounce the Nigerian government and
Western influence as well as threaten further attacks.
He was seen as the second-in-command of Boko Haram at the time of the 2009 uprising.
The leader at the time, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured by soldiers and
handed over to police. He was later killed when police claimed he was
trying to escape, though rights groups have called it a summary
execution.
Many have said dialogue is key to ending the unrest in Nigeria.
Shekau made vague comments regarding talks in Saturday’s video, at one
point seeming to suggest they were possible, but appearing to rule it
out later.
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