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| Africa: West | |
| ’Taliban’ of Nigeria: Who Are They? | |
| 2004-01-07 | |
| Excerpt from long article: In addition to numerous national problems of fuel scarcity, poverty, banditry, unemployment and ecological dangers, the people of the north-eastern region and indeed the entire nation were last week stunned by the eruption of a new form of civil insurrection by a group of youths who style themselves the ’Taliban.’ Contrary to early reports that it was a "Maitatsine" group, the Taliban, otherwise known as the Hijrah movement composed of young graduates and post-graduates most of whom were from highly placed and influential families with an understanding of the Islamic religion that completely denounces sin, corruption and immorality. Middle class/rich kids with time on their hands.
Good devout muslims can’t live with anyone who isn’t, they have to have their own state. In the Kanamma bush area, the Hijrah group members, along with their wives and children according to sources, established a ’base’ where they engaged in religious studies among themselves, unperturbed by the people who pass by them every now and then between Kanamma and Geidam towns. Went off and set up a commune, complete with mosque and a rifle range for advanced religious study. Although people did comment on their unusual presence in the area, nothing dramatic happened until one week ago when the group suddenly surfaced in Kanamma town and attacked the police station there. Weekly Trust gathered that in addition to attacking the police station and killing one policeman, the Hijrah members carted away a list of arms and ammunitions after reportedly setting the police station and other public places on fire. From Kanamma, the group marched to Geidam, headquarters of Geidam local government area where they also overran the police station, chased out the policemen and took away guns and other weapons. Standard practice for beginning revolutionaries, steal your weapons from the opposing force. It was at this stage that the Hijrah group members distributed leaflets stating the principal theses they sought to uphold. Among the issues they raised were their plan to ’carve out’ the areas around Kanamma, Yunusari and Toshiya out of Nigeria and to bring them under the control of an Islamic state, to place the areas under the leadership of Mullah Omar, presumably the fugitive former leader of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, to kill any ’unbeliever in uniform’ (presumably policemen and soldiers) and to call on the Muslims in the country to rise up for Jihad (Holy War) to defend Islam and establish justice. It does sound like a page from the Taliban handbook. Of course, pretty much every islamic seperatist group tries the same thing. Interesting about Mullah Omar, I’d say it would be spritual leadership unless he’s thinking about relocating. Weekly Trust reliably learnt that prior to the sudden attack on Kanamma, the group had been approached in the bush by a committee said to be set up by the Yobe State government and made up of a number of religious scholars to persuade them to leave the area when public comments regarding their presence began to grow high. Sources said that the members had initially agreed to disperse but then made an about-turn and attacked Kanamma. This has become one of the mysteries that shroud the activities of the ’Taliban’ group. A number of people who spoke to our correspondent said that they believed there must be factors that could have made the members of the group to turn suddenly violent considering the fact that for the months that they spent in the bush, they never engaged the police or, for that matter, the local people in any sort of confrontation. No mystery to me, once the government became interested in them, they felt they had to act before their real plans were exposed and security forces arrived. Think Jonestown and Waco. Another reason for them having to steal guns, they had to move before they had time to import any. That may turn out to be a good thing. | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 The KH-4s lifting over the horizon. You're in a time warp, Ship! THe last KH-4 was launched (and later burned up in the atmosphere) sometime in the 1970's... |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-1-7 8:50:15 PM |
| #2 the "real" Omar would have ridden off into the sunset on his bike, vowing to return. Would the wind have been blowing at a nice Hollywood 12 MPH? I can see the gradient screens now... Orange fading to blue... The KH-4s lifting over the horizon... it's beautiful man. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-7 5:45:42 PM |
| #1 Update: Jan 7: Nigerian troops and border guards from neighbouring Niger have killed or captured more than 50 Islamic radicals who launched a Taliban-style revolt, officials said yesterday. A spokesman for the Yobe State government said 47 rebels had been detained since Friday and five killed, along with three women and two children caught up in a raid on their border hideout. Seven of those arrested were picked up by gendarmes from Niger Republic acting as guards on its porous frontier with Nigeria's remote and arid northern savannah, junior spokesman, Alkali Jajere, said on telephone. The Muhajirun group, which openly claims inspiration from Afghanistan's hardline Taliban movement, was thought to count around 200 members, mainly middle-class graduates from the Maiduguri. The group has launched a series of attacks in the last three weeks on police stations in Yobe State and along Nigeria's northern border with Niger, killing at least two officers. Many of the radicals are thought to have melted away into the population, but their leader, nicknamed "Mullah Omar" after the Afghan Taliban's fugitive figurehead, has been arrested, Jajere said. Just a poser, the "real" Omar would have ridden off into the sunset on his bike, vowing to return. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-1-7 2:05:19 PM |