30,000 Flee Boko Haram Violence in Nigeria

Islamic insanity gets another boost with a new enthusiasm from Boko Haram

By Clyde Hughes

Children orphaned by Boko Haram last July line up at the Special Orphans Learning Center.

Violence by the terrorist group has forced 30,000 to flee their homes in northeastern Nigeria

this past weekend. Photo by STR/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- Some 30,000 Nigerians fled the city of Rann over the weekend into Cameroon after militant group Boko Haram ramped up violence, according to a United Nations agency Tuesday.

UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, said that it launched a regional refugee response plan after Boko Haram's insurgency forced people to flee the Lake Chad Basin region. The displacement has flooded already crowded refugee camps around towns in the Borno State of northeastern Nigeria.

The agency said that Boko Haram has been targeting young girls, older women and workers in surging militant attacks against civilians that have already uprooted more than 250,000 from their homes. UNHCR has asked for $135 million to help people displaced by the insurgency.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said at a news briefing in Geneva that the violence has clogged humanitarian operations and forced aid workers to pull out from some locations. He added that the damage to infrastructure along with livelihoods has been widespread, CNN reported.

Militant violence led to 15 deaths in four villages around Maiduguri in Borno State in November as insurgents reclaimed Baga, a village on the outskirts of Maiduguri. Hundreds there had fled their homes to escape Boko Haram's violence.

Boko Haram's video execution last October of aid worker Hauwa Leman, 24, a nurse with the International Committee of the Red Cross, sparked International outrage.

Boko Haram, whose name translates in the local Hausa dialect as "Western education is forbidden," is affiliated with the Islamic State and has been called the "Nigerian Taliban" because of its religious similarities who to the group that once ran Afghanistan.

And that will run Afghanistan again by this spring after the Americans pull-out.

Its militants mainly fight in the northern states of Nigeria, specifically Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna.

Nearly 80 Children Kidnapped in Cameroon’s English-Speaking Separatist Region

Always the children paying the price for man's madness

Anti-government protesters in Bamenda © Reuters

Dozens of people, most of them children, have been kidnapped from a school in the city of Bamenda in Cameroon’s northwestern Anglophone region, which is struggling with a separatist insurgency.

Armed men kidnapped 78 students from a Presbyterian school in the Nkwen village, Northwest Region Governor Deben Tchoffo said.

A video uploaded to social media showed the kidnapped children and the alleged kidnappers, calling themselves “Amba boys” in reference to the breakaway Ambazonia state that the separatists have been trying to create. The footage could not be immediately verified, but parents have reportedly been reacting to images of their children on social media, according to AP.

Earlier, a military source told Reuters that the school principal has been kidnapped along with the students.

“In total, 81 people were kidnapped including the principal. They were taken to the bush,” the source said.

The separatists, who are protesting against President Paul Biya’s French-speaking government, have imposed strict curfews, shuttered schools, and killed government soldiers and policemen in guerilla raids.

The conflict between the insurgents and government security forces intensified last year after a government crackdown on peaceful protesters. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people, with many fleeing Bamenda for the calmer Francophone regions.

In July, a video showing government soldiers shooting women and children sparked outrage and accusations that the Cameroon government – a close ally of the US in Africa – was carrying out arbitrary executions of anyone believed to be supporting the Boko Haram terrorist group.

In an October presidential election, opposition candidate Maurice Kamto declared victory against Biya, who has ruled since 1982, but Biya’s ruling party dismissed claims of defeat and accused Kamto of breaking the law. Reuters reported that the opposing candidate did not provide evidence to back up claims that he won.

A government spokesperson said it was keeping track of developments surrounding the kidnapping, but provided no other details.

Cameroon is about 70% Christian and about 18% Muslim with a number of people practicing traditional religions. Cameroon has Nigeria on one side, Central African Republic and Congo on the other side, all of which are war-torn countries.

Muslim Militants Go Door to Door Killing Christians

The attacks come as Boko Haram kills eight at a church and a boat captain starts trial for throwing Christian refugees overboard.

Illustrative picture of Boko Haram victims. (Photo: © Reuters)

Central African Republic

Three horrific incidents in three different countries highlight the global persecution of Christians by Muslim supremacists.

A mob of Muslim militants descended on Ndomete village in the Central African Republic (CAR) and went door-to-door killing Christians. The U.N. confirmed the casualty figures.

The militiamen, believed to belong to the Muslim militia group Seleka, killed 26 people and is thought to have deliberately targeted civilians. Seleka deposed then president Francois Bozize in 2013 and installed the Muslim Michel Djotodia instead.

Faced with mounting sectarian violence, Djotodia resigned in January 2014.

Although the Seleka group was officially disbanded, the group did not put down its weapons. Ex-Seleka fighters and Christian so-called “anti-Balaka” militias have been fighting since, displacing some 25 percent of CAR’s population.

“If the government is not going to beef up the security, then we are going to defend ourselves,” a local Christian leader told Morningstar News. “We shall not keep quiet as our brothers are dying.”

Nigeria 

In Nigeria Boko Haram militants attacked Christians in Kwamjilari village after a church service on Sunday. Gunmen reportedly killed 8 people who congregated outside the church in north-eastern Borno State.

Villagers reported Boko Haram stationed gunmen on the road leading away from the church so they could shoot those trying to flee.

Spain

In Spain an immigrant from Cameroon went on trial for the murder of six other immigrants whom he is accused of throwing overboard while crossing the Mediterranean in his boat. The boat captain, identified as Alain N. reportedly blamed the rough seas which were rocking the boat on the prayers led by a Catholic pastor on board and consequently threw them overboard. Another man who helped him throw them overboard later died.

The pair, both from Cameroon, reportedly beat the Nigerian pastor with pieces of wood before throwing him overboard. They then searched the other passengers for amulets or other identifying signs of Christianity and similarly beat and hurled overboard five other people.

Alain N. “was aware that the victims could not possibly survive and that they would die, either by drowning, from the cold, or from the physical injuries they had suffered,” according to statements made by the prosecution. “He was aware of the low temperature, the rough seas and the great distance from the coast and the absence of any nearby boats which could rescue them.”

Boko Haram Leader Shekau Replaced, Whereabouts Unknown

Only time will tell what this means for the poor people of northeast Nigeria

Islamic State announces new Boko Haram leader

Abu Musab al-Barnawi was described as the

Islamic State's new 'governor' in West Africa.

By Ed Adamczyk 

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, pictured, was replaced by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the Islamic State announced with no mention of Shekau's whereabouts. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group in Nigeria affiliated with the Islamic State, has a new leader, IS announced.

Abu Musab al-Barwani, formerly Boko Haram's spokesman, was identified in the weekly IS magazine Naba as its West African "governor." The magazine did not mention the whereabouts of the previous Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.

In a seven-year campaign to install a Muslim caliphate in Nigeria, over 20,000 people have been killed and millions have fled the country. The continued fighting provoked a humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations and other agencies delivering food and medicine and warning of calamity if more aid is not delivered. A concerted campaign in the past 18 months, by Nigerian forces and coalition troops from neighboring countries, has severely weakened Boko Haram and taken back much of the territory it previously conquered; the insurgent group's response has been to take its fight to neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Little is known about Barnawi, who appeared in a 2015 Boko Haram video with a soft-spoken demeanor and his face blurred. The fate of his predecessor, Shekau, is equally mysterious. Known for his blustery, braggart manner, he has been declared killed by Nigerian forces several times, only to reappear in Boko Haram propaganda videos. He was most recently heard in an August 2015 announcement, saying that he remains alive. But he has not been seen since Boko Haram announced its alignment with IS in 2015.

The War on Christianity Flares Up at Sheffield University, UK

UK university expels Christian postgrad student over Facebook anti-gay marriage post - media

Is this the first act of discrimination for citing scripture?

© Mike Segar / Reuters

A social worker postgraduate has been expelled from Sheffield University for citing a biblical verse against homosexuality on his private Facebook profile while backing Kim Davis, a US clerk, who refused to issue marriage certificates for same-sex couples.

Felix Ngole, a 38-year-old father of four, was forced to abruptly finish his studies as a second year Masters student after the university’s ‘fitness to practice’ committee ruled that by calling gay marriage an ‘abomination’ on his FB he “transgressed boundaries which are not deemed appropriate for someone entering the Social Work profession," the Telegraph reports. Ngole, a devoted Christian, was citing Leviticus while propping his argument on the gay marriage issue.

The designated Bible verse says: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

The university’s disciplinary board began reviewing the case two months after the post appeared on his page, following a complaint from a fellow student. Ngole, who had already completed two university degrees and used to work as a teacher, was accused of “bringing the profession into disrepute” by voicing his personal opinion on the sensitive subject. 

The probe by the Fitness to Practice Committee said that although the student was entitled to express his views on gay marriage, his remarks “may have caused offence to some individuals.” Based on this judgment, Ngole was found unfit to pursue the chosen career path and was "no longer recognized as a University student.”

So, freedom of speech is sacrificed on the altar of 'may cause offence'. This would be a very quiet world if no-one was allowed to offend anyone else. Or is it that the remark 'may have caused offence' to a gay person? 

I would suspect that if the roles were reversed and a gay person made a disparaging remark about Christians, the Fitness to Practice Committee would not find it the least bit offensive. Christians are fair targets; gays are not. Even though Christians are persecuted and martyred all over the world (more than 10,000 of them in Nigeria alone), it is gays who need protection!!!??

Ngole intends to appeal the decision on the basis of discrimination.

“I wonder whether the university would have taken any action if a Muslim student who believes in Sharia law, with its teaching about women and homosexuality, had made moderate comments on his Facebook page. I don't think so," said Ngole, stressing that he was being discriminated against for expressing Christian beliefs, as cited by Premier ChristianRadio.

Or if a Muslim was sanctioned for reciting the Quran or Hadith, would that spark a reaction from the Committee (read: Thought Police)? If it did, there would certainly be a counter-reaction from the Muslim community, and not a very pleasant one.

Ngole who came to England from Cameroon in 2003 as a refugee, also questioned the right of educational institutions to monitor students` personal activity and rule that a particular student is fit or unfit for a profession based on his/her social media postings.

"If each university is making its own, arbitrary decisions, who is monitoring these decisions and how can students ensure that, across all universities, there is good, fair and equal assessment of such issues?” Ngole asked, warning of dangers that lie in banning persons from becoming professionals in social work and other fields in connection with their personal statements.

Universities, in his opinion, should follow a completely different path and, instead of censoring peoples’ beliefs, encourage an exchange of opinion.

“If they are 'censored' from even sharing their ideas or beliefs as part of a discussion on Facebook then how can that happen?” says Ngole, who plans to file a legal motion referring to the breach of his right of expression if his appeal to the university panel fails.

"I am not against people who are in same-sex relationships: that is their choice. But I am a Christian and if asked for my views I should be free to express that,” he said, as cited by the Guardian. He intends to challenge the panel’s argument that he would be unable to work with gay people, as they may stumble on to the controversy surrounding his name on the internet.

"I have worked with people in same-sex relationships in the past and there has been no issue whatsoever,” he claimed.

Andrea Williams from the Christian Legal Centre said the university’s conduct violates Ngole’s fundamental rights.  

"The university has failed to protect his freedom of speech under Article 10 and his freedom of religion under Article 9,” she said, referring to the Human Rights Act.

A spokesperson from the University of Sheffield told RT: “The University of Sheffield is concerned that stories in the media about a student undertaking a MA in Social Work are factually incorrect. The individual concerned is currently appealing the decision of a Fitness to Practise Committee, relating to professional registration and the standards of the relevant professional body.

“These standards are nationally determined by the Health and Care Professions Council. As the case is subject to appeal, the University of Sheffield will not comment on this case at this time.”

A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield denounced the accusations of religious bias against the student, saying that media reports were “incorrect.”

It's not an intentional 'religious' bias, but it is religious bias. Those on the committee are most likely to be atheists who don't believe the Bible was inspired by God, nor do they even believe in the God they will have to stand before in judgment. Most atheists believe that the 2.4 billion Christians around the world are all idiots. They, unfortunately, have completely missed the very point of our existence.

Teen Girl Sent by Boko Haram Rips Off Suicide Vest, Refuses to Bomb Refugee Camp

Girl was among thousands held captive for months by extremist group, local government official says

The Associated Press 

Rescue workers transport a victim of a Boko Haram suicide bomb attack at a refugee camp in Nigeria earlier this week.
One teenage girl sent by the extremist group to attack the camp ripped off her suicide vest and ran away.
(Jossy Ola/Associated Press)

Strapped with a booby-trapped vest and sent by the extremist Boko Haram group to kill as many people as possible, a young teenage girl tore off the explosives and fled as soon as she was out of sight of her handlers.

Her two companions, however, completed their grisly mission earlier this week and walked into a crowd of hundreds at Dikwa refugee camp in northeast Nigeria and blew themselves up, killing 58 people.

Later found by local self-defence forces, the girl's tearful account is one of the first indications that at least some of the child bombers used by Boko Haram are aware that they are about to die and kill others.

"She said she was scared because she knew she would kill people. But she was also frightened of going against the instructions of the men who brought her to the camp," said Modu Awami, a self-defence fighter who helped question the girl.

She was among thousands held captive for months by the extremists, according to Algoni Lawan, a spokesman for the Ngala local government area that has many residents at the camp and who is privy to information about her interrogation by security forces.

"She confessed to our security operatives that she was worried if she went ahead and carried out the attack that she might kill her own father, who she knew was in the camp," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The girl tried to persuade her companions to abandon the mission, he said, "but she said she could not convince the two others to change their minds."

Her story was corroborated when she led soldiers to the unexploded vest, Awami said Thursday, speaking by phone from the refugee camp, which holds 50,000 people who have fled Boko Haram's Islamic uprising.

Captives turned into weapons

The girl is in custody and has given officials information about other planned bombings that has helped them increase security at the camp, said Satomi Ahmed, chairman of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.

The United States on Thursday strongly condemned the bombings. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. remains committed to assisting those afflicted by the conflict and supports efforts to provide greater protection for civilians and the regional fight against terrorism.

Boko Haram's six-year-old Islamic insurgency has killed 20,000 people, made 2.5 million homeless and spread across Nigeria's borders.

The extremists have kidnapped thousands of people and the increasing number of suicide bombings by girls and children have raised fears they are turning some captives into weapons. An army bomb disposal expert has told the AP that some suicide bombs are detonated remotely, so the carriers may not have control over when the bomb goes off.

The latest atrocity blamed on Boko Haram extremists was committed against people who had been driven from their homes by the insurgents and had spent a year across the border in Cameroon.

Some 12,000 of them had only returned to Nigeria in January when soldiers declared the area safe. The scene of the killings is 50 kilometres from the border with Cameroon and 85 kilometres northeast of Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast and birthplace of Boko Haram.

Such attacks make it difficult for the government to persuade people to return home. The extremists have also razed homes and businesses, destroyed wells and boreholes and stolen livestock and seed grains that farmers need to start their life again.

China Joins Angola and Cameroon in Pushing Back Islamization

From Shoebat.com

I am not Shoebat's biggest fan by any means but what he writes here is quite accurate and well worth reading.

Before a Muslim community gets into Jihad mode, the first thing they do is call on all Muslims to repent from alcohol, pork and tobacco. It is this spark which begins the process rolling, as small groups of Muslims begin to push that agenda on Muslim communities by using peer-pressure. When this happens, it is a sign that trouble is ahead. Pretty soon they begin to demand a change in laws in order to force the host to acquiesce to their demands.

This problem exists in any society where Islam is allowed. So when giving Muslims “freedom of religion,” the ball gets rolling and soon Islam’s ethics begins to conflict with the host nation.

Religion of Peace
What the west needs to learn, and they will, slowly, is that Islam is the antithesis to western ethics: the more you have repentant Muslims, the more they are prone to violence while in the Judeo-Christian ethics, it is usually that the repentant gives peace and also finds peace. The reason for such a reverse between the two ethics is simple to understand. Firstly, Islam focuses on the outward forms of holiness: Hijabs, beards, no drinking, no pork and no smoking. Secondly, Islam’s concept of ‘peace’ has nothing to do with western understanding of the term. Peace in Islam is the Muslim definition for ‘justice’ and is foreign in all aspects,  be it the concept of peace, the definition of peace and the practice of peace. In Islam, peace can only exist when Sharia reigns supreme.

Stopping Islamization
China joins Angola and Cameroon in serious attempts to stop the Islamization of their country. Politically correct western countries will not begin to push back until it is too late.

So in order to fight the spread of Islam, the best approach is almost like the war on drugs where a society brings down the enabler, that is the ‘drug pusher’ (Imams, mosques) and also the substance (Quran and Muslim materials).

So in China, unlike the west, they get it. The Chinese authorities launched a series of “strike hard” campaigns to weaken the hold of the drug of Islam in China’s western region. So they have ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurant owners in its troubled Xinjiang region to sell alcohol and cigarettes, and even promote them in “eye-catching displays,” as Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. Alcohol and tobacco, while it is a problem, to the Chinese is the lesser of the two evils. So now establishments that failed to comply were swiftly dealt with and were threatened with closure and their owners with prosecution.

Government employees and children are also barred from attending mosques, lest they consume the drug and are even prohibited from observing the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. And in many places, women have been barred from wearing Hijabs and the men are discouraged from growing long beards.

China understands that spreading Islam starts by peer pressure and public scorn towards anyone who smokes or drinks alcohol. For example, in the village of Aktash in southern Xinjiang, Communist Party official Adil Sulayman, said  that many local shopkeepers had stopped selling alcohol and cigarettes from 2012 “because they fear public scorn,” while many locals had decided to abstain from drinking and smoking.

So while some might think that China is imposing on freedoms, it becomes a tough balance, westerners  need to ask themselves as to why they impose on Christians to bake cakes for gays with an agenda. So while we complain about China, where are the massive complaints about forcing Christian shops to acquiesce to the LGBT?

In reality, it is the Islamists who are imposing their Sharia driven agenda on the public and the Chinese government is thwarting their attempts. For example, in one unrelated incident in neighboring Qinghai province on Friday, an angry crowd of Muslims smashed windows of a supposedly halal store in Xining city, after pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van, according to the local government and photographs on social media.

Sulayman said authorities in Xinjiang viewed ethnic Muslim Uighurs/Uyghurs who did not smoke as adhering to “a form of religious extremism” and this is true to a certain extent. They issued the order to counter growing religious sentiment that was “affecting stability,” he said.

The notice ordered all restaurants and supermarkets in Aktash to sell five different brands of alcohol and cigarettes and display them prominently. “Anybody who neglects this notice and fails to act will see their shops sealed off, their businesses suspended, and legal action pursued against them,” the notice said.

According to Radio Free Asia, Hotan prefecture, where Aktash is located, had become “a hotbed of violent stabbing and shooting incidents between ethnic Uighurs and Chinese security forces.”

Cameroon Shuts Down Mosques

Cameroon has shut down all mosques and Islamic centres in response to a wave of suicide attacks in the country's north

Cameroon joins Angola in responding to Muslim terrorism by shutting down mosques

World Bulletin / News Desk
Cameroonian authorities have ordered all mosques and Islamic centers be shut in northern parts of the west African country, after an increase in suicide attacks.

"They should have better solutions to their problems. Why is that governor chasing the wrong horse?" asked 70-year-old Aladji Haman from the Maroua central mosque was quoted by Los Angeles Times, citing an AP report.

Announcing the decision on Sunday, northern Cameroon temporarily closed its mosques and Islamic schools.

In addition to the closures, young beggars were also ordered to vacate the streets as all recent suicide bombers were children. 

Gov. Midjiyawa Bakari said the new rules came in  response to two incidents in the past week, referring to two suicide attacks by two girls which resulted in killing 31 and wounding tens of people.

Though no group claimed responsibility for the attacks, finders were pointed as militant group Boko Haram.

According to the CIA Factbook, Muslims constitute about 20 percent of Cameroon’s total population of 20.5 million.

Most of them live in northern Cameroon and hail from major tribes such as the Fulani and the Peuhl.

Men Dressed in Burqas Kill Nearly 30 in Chad and Cameroon

“Suicide attacks killed at least 12 in northern Cameroon: source,”
Reuters, July 12, 2015

YAOUNDE, Chad (Reuters) – At least a dozen civilians and a Chadian soldier were killed in two suicide attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in the northern Cameroon town of Fotokol late on Sunday, a senior Cameroonian military officer said.

The first explosion went off inside a bar near a Cameroon special forces (BIR) camp just after sundown as many were breaking the Ramadan fast, the officer said, asking not to be named….

L’Oeil du Sahel, a newspaper in northern Cameroon, said the two attackers wore burqas.

Islamist group Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency six years ago to carve out an emirate in northeast Nigeria, has also stepped up attacks in neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger in recent months.

The group is suspected of launching a similar attack in Chad’s capital, about 60 km (37 miles) east of Fotokol, on Saturday. A man dressed in a woman’s burqa blew himself up in the main market killing 15 people.

Chadian police on Sunday warned that anyone found wearing the Muslim full-face veil would be arrested.

“The best acts that bring you closer to God are jihad, so hurry to it and make sure to carry out the invasion this holy month and be exposed to martyrdom in it,” so said Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani as Ramadan began several weeks ago.