John Campbell: Kidnapping comes to Northern Nigeria

by John Campbell

Boko Haram

Recent Ansaru activities may indicate that the wider Boko Haram movement is evolving from a movement focused on specifically Nigerian issues, to one with a transnational character.

Over the weekend, a radical Islamist group called Ansaru carried out a sophisticated kidnapping operation in Bauchi, northern Nigeria. The seven victims, all expats, were working for Setraco, a Lebanese owned construction and civil engineering company (none were American citizens). The kidnapping, which also resulted in the death of a security guard, appears to have been coordinated with an attack on the local police station. Ansaru, which may have links to Boko Haram, claimed responsibility in a statement emailed to state media.

There is media speculation that Ansaru carried out the kidnapping for ransoms that would fund its operations in Nigeria, and perhaps elsewhere in the Sahel. Kidnapping for ransom is common in southern Nigeria and in parts of the Sahel, but it is rare in northern Nigeria, if not unknown. Elsewhere in the Sahel, European governments and private companies pay large ransoms that account for a significant part of the income of groups operating in the region.

Ansaru has claimed responsibility for other, recent terrorist attacks, while Boko Haram has been silent.

Ansaru may be an “off-shoot” of Boko Haram, but its relationship to the broader movement is unclear. Unlike Boko Haram, which has been focused on domestic Nigerian issues, Ansaru appears to have a more international scope. It may have run training camps in Algeria, and its statement justifying the recent kidnappings referred to “the transgressions and atrocities done to the religion of Allah…by the European countries in many places such as Afghanistan and Mali.” It also denounced the French government’s ban on veils in schools.

Ansaru’s official name “Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan,” is translated as the “Vanguard for the Aid of Muslims in Black Africa.” Khalid al Barnawi may be a leader. The U.S. government previously designated him as a “Global Terrorist.” There is little open-source biographic information on al Barnawi. He is described as a Nigerian in his mid-thirties who comes from Maiduguri. Some press reports that he is allied with Abubakar Shekau, often identified as the Maiduguri head of Boko Haram.

Recent Ansaru activities may indicate that the wider Boko Haram movement is evolving from a movement focused on specifically Nigerian issues, to one with a transnational character. If so, links with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb could become more important than in the past.

Boko Haram has not specifically attacked non-Nigerian targets (with the possible exception of the UN headquarters in Abuja, though that might have been a target because of its close ties with the hated Abuja government). The Ansaru kidnapping may be an indication that that the character of Islamism in northern Nigeria is changing. However, there are few expatriates in northern Nigeria; there are many more potential targets in the south, where Boko Haram has not carried out operations.

In addition to their work in Bauchi, Setraco is the lead contractor in the construction of a new road from Port Harcourt to Lagos, an important development project that is part of Abuja’s efforts to pacify the oil-rich Niger Delta. It remains to be seen if the northern kidnapping will impact other Setraco operations hundreds of miles away.

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John Campbell is a Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies and former US Ambassador to Nigeria.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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