ABUJA: Nigeria’s military said yesterday it had arrested 49 Boko Haram militants across a northeastern state where insurgents are abandoning their camps and fleeing north towards Niger.
Yobe is one of three states placed under emergency rule during a three-week-old military offensive aimed at crushing Boko Haram, which has waged a deadly insurgency since 2009.
“A total of 49 suspected Boko Haram terrorists were apprehended in various locations in Yobe state,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
“All the camps of the terrorists in the area had been dislodged as some of the insurgents fled towards Niger,” it added.
Nigeria has claimed major successes in the offensive launched May 15, but the details have been impossible to verify with mobile phone networks cut across the northeast and access to conflict zones restricted. The military has said some 200 insurgents have been arrested and dozens killed.
However in a video obtained by AFP last week, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed the military assault was failing and soldiers were retreating. The United States on Monday posted a $7 million (5.3 million euros) bounty on Shekau after declaring him a global terrorist last year. The Boko Haram conflict is estimated to have cost 3,600 lives, including killings by the security forces.
20-year jail term for Boko Haram support
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared Boko Haram and splinter group Ansaru to be terrorist organizations, meaning anyone who supports them could face a 20-year-jail sentence.
The designation also means militants no longer must be prosecuted for specific crimes such as murder.
Jonathan’s government had previously seemed reluctant to apply the label for fear of inflaming the situation but diplomats had raised concerns that Nigerian criminal laws were not suited to deal with the conflict.
His office made the announcement yesterday as the Nigerian military said it had detained 49 Boko Haram members during an offensive in the northeast, bringing the total captured to more than 150 in three weeks.
The president declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states last month and sent troops to try to break the four-year-old insurgency that has killed thousands.
Under Nigeria’s 2011 Terrorism Prevention Act, anyone who incites a terrorist act over the Internet or through any other media, or gives weapons or any assistance to a terrorist group is liable for a minimum 20-year prison sentence.
“Any persons associated with the two groups can now be legally prosecuted and sentenced to penalties specified in the Act,” presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said in a statement.
Before Boko Haram and Ansaru received the terrorist label, members could only be prosecuted for specific crimes like murder or fire arms possession, a situation that meant hundreds of Boko Haram detainees considered too dangerous to release were being held without charge often for years at a time.
It was not clear how this would affect an amnesty being offered to members who turn themselves in. In a move meant to appease moderate supporters, Nigeria this week released all women and children being held for links to the group.
Ansaru, a smaller outfit that grew out of Boko Haram and is thought to have direct links to Al-Qaeda’s North African wing, has been blamed for a number of kidnappings of Westerners in Nigeria, most of whom they killed in captivity. Britain last year declared it a terrorist grouip.
The military offensive in the semi-desert along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger is Jonathan’s boldest effort yet to crush the insurgency. Security sources say soldiers from Niger and Cameroon are also involved.
