29TH July 2014 Nigeria SITREP (Boko Haram and General)

Kano

26th July: Two bomb attacks utilizing IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) hit kano. The first blast was carried out by a teenage female suicide bomber at a university temporary facility. Only the suicide bomber was killed.

The second attack was also by a suicide bomber at a Church in Sabon Gari District, killing 6 people including the bomber. Among the casualties were a soldier, two men, a lady and a child.

27th July: A woman detonates explosives strapped to her body in Hotoro District of Kano metropolis, ……………..women who had lined up to buy kerosene, killing four and injuring dozens..

Another female bomber blew herself up at the entrance of an International Trade Fair Complex in Kano metropolis, killing several policemen and more than a dozen others badly injured.

NOTE: No one has claimed responsibility for these attacks. Kano state, in Northwest Nigeria is far outside the traditional Boko Haram area of operations, but it hosts a significant presence of Ahlis-Sunnah of Sheikh Bukar Al-Barnawi. The state Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso is also an opposition party chieftain and amongst the fiercest critics of the President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Adamawa

26th July: Ansorul-Muslimiin and Harakatul-Muhajirin fighters stormed Garkida town of Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Official report indicates that 2 soldiers and 4 other people were killed. However, sources in the Military intelligence confirmed that the death toll was 2 dozen soldier and policemen.

Cameroon

26th July: Ansorul-Muslimiin and Harakatul-Muhajiriin elite forces stormed the Northern Cameroonian town of Kolofata and kidnapped the wife of the Cameroonian Vice Prime Minister and the Lamido of Kolafata, a local Fulani/Fulfude tribal chief and local religious leader, Seini Boukar Lamine.

I believe that the two kidnapped persons would have been taken across the border into Nigeria’s side of the Adamawa mountains where Ansorul-Muslimiin and Harakatul-Muhajiriin both maintain extensive infrastructure.

While the US has made offer to help, Nigeria and Cameroon made it clear that US drones (Surveillance or otherwise) are not welcome in their airspaces. However, Joint Ariel Reconnaissance flights are already up and running as part of the two countries security cooperation, while British, French and American recon planes would join the aerial part of the search for the kidnapped victims.

29th July (Added): BBC Hausa Service reports that Cameroonian soldiers had in a six-hour operation rescued the wife of Amadou Ali, Cameroon’s Vice PM , who was kidnapped days earlier. sixteen people are reported to have died during the operation.

Yobe

28th July: More than a hundred fighters from Jamaa’atu Ahlis-Sunnah of Abubakar Shekau attack Katarko Village in Yobe State of Northeast Nigeria, killing about eight persons and destroying the sole bridge linking the area around the village with the rest of Nigeria. The attack took place around 7:30pm. Soldiers at a military outpost in the village fled into the bush after engaging the insurgents for a while, due to what they described as the insurgents “overwhelming superior firepower, which they were not equipped to deal with at all”. As usual the Airforce was nowhere to be found.

EBOLA OUTBREAK

The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health and the Lagos State Ministry of Health have confirmed that Patrick Sawyer the Liberian who confirmed to have died in Lagos of Ebola (the first reported case) came in the direct contact with 59 people from his arrival at the airport in Lagos. Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris revealed this at a press conference on 28th July 2014.

The persons include 44 contacts at the hospital he was taken to, 38 of whom were health workers and 6 laboratory staff, 15 contacts at the airport including 3 ECOWAS officials, 2 nursing staff at the airport, 5 airport handlers and the Nigerian Ambassador to Liberia.

The State government in Lagos have also begun taking proactive measures to prepare Lagos for more Ebola cases arriving in Nigeria via the state which is Nigeria’s first port of entry for most visitors. These measures include creating an Isolation Ward at the Yaba Infectious Diseases Centre in Yaba, Lagos, with plans to quickly expand the isolation wards to three. An Incident Command Centre to coordinate the state’s Rapid Response Team on Ebola has also been established.

Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for Liberia’s Finance Ministry in his 40s, collapsed on arrival at the Murtala Muhammad Airport in Lagos on July 20th and was put in isolation at the First Consultants Hospital (which has since been shut down and the staff under quarantine) in Obalende, Lagos. He died on Friday.

P.S

To Nora, while I have done and I usually do serious thinking on the underlying dynamics of what is going on, which The Saker knows, however I must decline to share my thoughts on them. One, I am trying to cram several lifetimes into one and this is a very extensive subject that I am not sure I can handle via commenting on The Saker’s blog . Two, my role here is to provide straight forward reportage and a little piece of situational analysis, uncoloured by politics. I consciously avoid mixing my views into what I write as I wish to avoid propaganda/biased reporting. It is left to the reader to choose their own politics free of any manipulation by me.

To From India, I have it on good authority that the three Lebanese-Nigerians arrested in Abuja last year have all been released, while those arrested in Kano are still supposedly in the custody of the Directorate/Department Of State Security.

To those who say nor insinuate that my SITREPS are paid for by the Saudi government, I can only say that fools abound everywhere mostly under Anonymous online handles.

To everyone, I, like The Saker, Mindfriedo, and Juan to the best of my knowledge, volunteer (our) time, resources and energy to do this for free. I appreciate the tremendous volume of interest in my SITREPs and I thank you all.

My purpose is to keep all of you informed of the true state of things here no matter how bitter that truth is to me personally, and I pray I do a good job with that I mind. 

I have lost dearest friends and my wife has lost a cousin to this Boko Haram War that neither us nor our lost loved ones asked for, all of them killed by either the government or the insurgents. However, I will not In Shaa Allah because of my emotional hurt slant my SITREPs to reflect anything other than the truth. Thank you all and God Help mankind through this dark era. Amin