... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
members went on trial in Chad on Wednesday over their alleged roles in twin attacks that killed 38 people in the capital N'Djamena in June.
It was the first Chadian trial involving the Nigeria-based Islamist group, which has in the past months stepped up attacks and suicide kabooms in Nigeria and the neighboring countries of Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
, Chad and Niger.
They are accused of criminal conspiracy, killings, willful destruction with explosives, fraud, illegal possessions of arms and ammunition, as well as using psychotropic substances, city prosecutor general Bruno Mahouli said.
The closed-door hearing is expected to last eight days.
The accused include Nigerian national Mahamat Mustapha, also known as Bana Fanaye, who according to Chadian authorities was the criminal mastermind behind the June 15 suicide kabooms that struck a school and a police building in N'Djamena, killing 38 people and injuring over 100.
Shortly after Fanaye's arrest in late June, Chad's top prosecutor Alghassim Kassim said the suspect was the "ringleader of a network smuggling weapons and munitions between Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad".
Fanaye was also responsible for procuring weapons and "recruiting and managing Boko Haram members", Kassim added.
The June attacks in the Chadian capital were followed by another suicide kaboom
at a market in July that killed 15 people.Chad -- which is part of a regional fightback against Boko Haram -- has beefed up security in response to the bloodshed. The 8,700-strong force is not yet up and running.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, the little lost dog had finished eating the rat terrier...
two suspected Boko Haram members blew themselves up on Lake Chad while being pursued by the Chadian army, a military source told AFP on Wednesday.
There were no other casualties in Tuesday's incident on the island of Kaiga-Ngouboua on the lake which is ringed by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
In Nigeria, a Lagos court late last year convicted in secret three suspects on charges linked to Boko Haram and sentenced them to 25 years in jail.