Terrorists behead 10 captives in Borno

ELEVEN hostages were killed by Islamic State terrorists in Borno State on Christmas Day. Ten of the victims  said to be Christians were beheaded, it was reported on Friday.

The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) claimed it killed the captives to avenge the killing of ISIS leaders Abu bakr al-Baghdadi and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir in Iraq and Syria.

A video released on Wednesday showed 13 hostages, 10 believed to be Christian and three Muslim. ISWAP claimed they spared the lives of two of the Muslims.

The militant group posted the footage on its online Telegram news channel on Thursday, the day after Christmas, with Arabic captions but no audio.

No details were given about the victims, who were all male, but IS said they were “captured in the past weeks” in Borno State.

The 56-second video was produced by the IS “news agency” Amaq.

The footage was filmed in an unidentified outdoor area.

One captive in the middle is shot dead while the other 10 are pushed to the ground and beheaded.

The deaths came after an earlier video saw the hostages plead with the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to negotiate their release.

In a statement, ISWAP said: “We killed them as a revenge for the killings of our leaders, including Abu bakr al-Baghdadi and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir in Iraq and Syria.”

United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, offered his condolences with his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, saying in a statement: “The Secretary General is deeply concerned about reports that civilians have been executed and others abducted by an armed group in northern Borno State, northeastern Nigeria.

“He expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and reiterates the solidarity of the United Nations with the people and government of Nigeria.”

President Muhammadu Buhari, in his reaction, appealed to Nigerians not to let terrorists divide the country along religious lines.

Expressing shock on Thursday’s killings, he noted that the terrorists had given Islam a bad name.

A statement issued in Abuja on Friday by the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, quoted him as saying: “I am profoundly saddened and shocked by the death of innocent hostages at the hands of remorseless, godless, callous gangs of mass murderers that have given Islam a bad name through their atrocities.

“We should, under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims because these barbaric killers don’t represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world.

“As president, the collective security of all Nigerians is my major preoccupation and the death of an innocent Christian or Muslim distresses me.”

The president said the terrorists had no clearly defined agenda except the pursuit of evil through indiscriminate murder of innocent people, contrary to the teachings of Islam, which prohibits massacre.

“No true Muslim would be shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while killing innocent people, an evil frequently condemned by the Holy Qur’an.

“These agents of darkness are enemies of our common humanity and they don’t spare any victim, whether they are Muslims or Christians and, therefore, we shouldn’t let them divide us and turn us against one another.

“The goal of these psychopaths is to cause confusion and spread distrust between Muslims and Christians, despite the fact that they are not representing the interest of Muslims or Islam.

“While I condemn this evil, I wish to reassure Nigerians that this administration will not lower its guards in the war against terrorism and we will continue to intensify our efforts towards strengthening international cooperation and collaboration to break the backbone of these evil doers,” the president added.

Buhari called on all Nigerians to be united against terrorists and avoid “unhelpful conspiracy theories” that serve the interest of Boko Haram terrorists and ISWAP.

Boko Haram and its IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province faction have recently stepped up attacks on military and civilian targets in Nigeria.

The terrorists killed seven people on Christmas Eve in a raid on a Christian village near Chibok in Borno State.

Dozens of fighters driving trucks and motorcycles stormed into Kwarangulum late Tuesday, shooting fleeing residents and burning homes after looting food supplies.

“They killed seven people and abducted a teenage girl in the attack. They took away food stuff and burnt many houses before leaving,” a local vigilante, David Bitrus, told a foreign news medium, adding that a church was also burnt.

The jihadists were believed to have attacked from Boko Haram’s nearby Sambisa forest enclave, said Chibok community leader, Ayuba Alamson, who confirmed the toll.

In April, Boko Haram raided Kwarangulum, 10 miles from Chibok, stealing food and burning the entire village.

Residents had managed to flee before the arrival of the jihadists following a tip-off from people who saw the gunmen heading towards the village.

Chibok is the scene of the mass kidnap of 276 schoolgirls in 2014 by Boko Haram which sparked global outrage and drew international attention to the group’s notoriety.

Fifty-seven of the girls escaped shortly after the kidnap. Another 107 have been either rescued or released after negotiations while 112 remain in captivity.

Troops have been stationed in Chibok since the kidnap but deadly Boko Haram raids continue in the area.

The decade-long conflict has killed 36,000 people and displaced around two million from their homes in the North-East, according to the United Nations.

The violence has spread to nearby Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the jihadist groups.

One faction of Boko Haram broke away in 2016 and now fights under the banner of ISWAP.

Earlier this month, the group said it killed four aid workers it had abducted in the North-East.

Last year, ISWAP killed two midwives it had previously taken hostage.

It is also active in neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali.