LEADER of the Boko Haram insurgents, Abubakar Shekau, in new videos posted online on Monday, vowed that the group would defeat a regional force, comprising of Nigerian, Chadian, Cameroonian and Nigerien troops, confronting the Islamists in the North-East.Boko Haram on Sunday posted three video clips on YouTube.
“Your alliance will not achieve anything. Amass all your weapons and face us. We welcome you,” Shekau said in a 28-minute speech in one of the videos.
Troops from Nigeria have been backed by soldiers from Chad, Cameroon and Niger in recent weeks because of increased concerns about Boko Haram’s threat to regional security.
In the second of the latest videos, images of the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, are shown along with archive footage and a voiceover recalling a battle between British colonial soldiers and fighters from the Sokoto Caliphate in Northern Nigeria.
He said, “We never rose up to fight Africa. We rose up to fight the world.
“We are going to fight the world on the principle that whoever doesn’t obey Allah and the Prophet to either obey or die or become a slave.”
The third video featured the “temporary” invasion of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe State, on December 1, 2014.
In the video, hundreds of insurgents in a convoy of Sports Utility Vehicles and motorcycles were seen led by an armoured personnel carrier driven through the Gujba Road.
The insurgents later emerged in front of the Yobe State Government House along Maiduguri Road where an exchange of gunshots between them and soldiers ensued before the insurgents gained access into the premises.
An unidentified spokesman, surrounded by hooded fighters later appeared in a bush where he showcased over 50 vehicles and ammunition, which he said were the “spoils of war” they got from Damaturu.
He also debunked claims by the Nigerian Armed Forces that the December 1 attack by the group on Damaturu was repelled.
“We had a field day in Damaturu, ate and dined, took what we wanted and thereafter drove out of the town at our own volition, with all the vehicles, ammunition and other things we wanted to take along,” he said.
On Sunday, Boko Haram militants waged twin attacks in the town of Diffa in southeast Niger, opening a new front in its offensive after repeated attacks in Cameroon’s far northern region.
On Saturday, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin agreed to muster 8,700 troops, police and civilians to fight the group.
But Shekau dismissed the size of the force, which had previously been set at about 7,500.
“You send 7,000 troops? Why don’t you send 70 million? This is small. Only 7,000? By Allah, it is small. We can seize them one-by-one. We can seize them one-by-one,” he said in Arabic.
He also directly threatened Chad’s President Idriss Deby, whose forces had attacked Boko Haram in the northeast Nigerian towns of Gamboru and Malam Fatori in recent days.
Shekau’s challenge came after the United States said on Friday that Boko Haram could face a stronger test against more capable regional forces.
The US estimated that Boko Haram had a core of between 4,000 and 6,000 fighters but well-equipped after raiding Nigerian Army facilities.
Meanwhile, suspected Boko Haram fighters launched attacks on three communities in northern Cameroon, abducting more than 30 people, including those aboard a packed bus, residents said Monday.
The assaults by the terror group came as other militants invaded a town in the neighbouring country of Niger for the third time in recent days, underscoring the growing regional havoc being wrecked by Boko Haram.
In northern Cameroon, the fighters seized a bus with 20 people aboard late Sunday in Koza and then drove it back toward the Nigerian border, some 18 kilometres away, a resident, Bouba Kaina, told The Associated Press.
