Boko Haram is a threat to all of West Africa. Jihad of cannibals. How Boko Haram terrorists are terrorizing Africa

The scandal surrounding the death of four American special forces in Africa has raised too many uncomfortable questions about US covert operations on the Dark Continent and about the support that Americans provide to the most brutal and frostbitten terrorist group, Boko Haram*.

American special forces were the last to leave the village of Tongo Tongo, when the dazzling morning sun had already appeared over the distant hills of the endless African savannah. Suddenly, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Johnson, who was driving a white Toyota Land Cruiser, hit the brakes.

Jeremy, what's wrong?! - the voice of Staff Sergeant Black, who was sitting behind the wheel of a jeep following behind, came over the radio. - Why did you get up?

There's something here...

Jeremy opened the door and stood on the running board of the car, peering into the thickets of bushes, shrouded in either dust or dawn fog. The branches moved, and the staff sergeant saw dozens of armed men silently gliding towards the village. Crap! It could only be the damned Islamists, who apparently decided to attack the sleeping village.

Ambush! - barked the staff sergeant. - Fire!

Raising his machine gun, he fired a long burst through the bushes - it was necessary to warn both the rest of the convoy and the self-defense forces in the village. Then he ducked back into the cabin and pressed the gas pedal to the floor, throwing the car at the militants - now the most important thing is to divert the militants’ fire onto himself, at least for five minutes, to give the convoy the opportunity to regroup and attack the partisans. Then they will simply shoot these monkeys, like in a shooting gallery!

Staff Sergeant Johnson did not have time to finish his thought: a hurricane of lead fell on the windshield, and an unbearable fire pierced his arm and leg. Dripping with blood, Johnson got out of the jeep and looked back at the convoy - where are you, quickly?

But the horizon was clear - no one was in a hurry to help him.

Country of slaves, country of masters

The first thing to know about Nigeria is that the country is the world's 8th largest producer of crude oil. Oil provides 95% of the state's foreign exchange income, while Nigeria remains one of the poorest countries in the world: according to official statistics, more than 70% of the country's 150 million residents live below the poverty line.

The Portuguese, who opened their first trading post at the mouth of the Niger River (or rather, the river is called Gir, but the expression Ni Gir in the local Hausa language means “country on the Gir River”), called this land Costa dos Escravos - “Slave Coast”. Because it was slaves captured in endless internecine wars between hundreds of tribes that belong to three ethnic groups - the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo peoples - that were the most popular commodity that local princes were ready to supply to Europeans in any quantity.

So, when today's African Americans reproach whites for the slave trade, they somehow forget that this business would never have been able to reach such proportions if not for the active participation of African kings who were ready to capture and sell their neighbors and fellow tribesmen. And the tribes’ hunt for each other, in fact, laid a real time bomb under the entire Dark Continent: they still haven’t forgotten who hunted whom.

golden age" - after the British discovered huge mineral reserves in the Niger Valley, Nigeria became one of the most economically developed colonies of the British Empire.

But wealth, as often happens, turned the heads of local princes who dreamed of ruling without any orders from London. As a result, Nigeria, after a series of uprisings, became the first African country to achieve independence - this happened back in 1954.

True, as soon as the African kings felt the taste of freedom, both countries immediately plunged into the abyss of endless military coups and civil wars between tribes that remembered old grievances from the time of the slave trade. A Tuareg uprising swept across Niger, and in Nigeria, the Igbo tribes rebelled almost simultaneously. Next, the Hausa tribes, living not only in Nigeria and Niger, but also in Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic, declared their independence. Interfaith conflicts have also begun - according to the latest census, only half of the country's residents profess Islam. Over 40% are Christians, and every tenth Nigerian follows local ancestor cults.

Of course, the endless war put an end to Nigeria's economic prospects. Today, there are essentially two Nigerias. One country is the six largest million-plus cities, including the former capital Lagos and the new capital Abuja. It is this Nigeria that is called the “economic locomotive” of Africa with excellent development prospects. The other Nigeria is a poor and embittered Muslim province, dreaming of the return of the jihad of Sheikh Osman dan Fodio, who for Africa is the reincarnation of Ivan the Terrible.

It was in such Nigeria - in the poor village of Girgir, in the state of Yobe, in January 1970, in the family of a local healer and interpreter of the Koran, that Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of the most brutal jihadist group on the entire continent, Boko Haram, was born.

The magic word starting with the letter "X"

As befits a folk hero, until the age of 32, Mohammed Yusuf did not show himself to be anything special. From an early age, his father sent him to study Islam in a madrasah, then he began to study theology at the University of Medina in Saudi Arabia, where he met the preacher Shukri Mustafa, who became famous in Egypt as the founder of the first Wahhabi group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2002, Mohammed Yusuf returned back to Nigeria, where he settled in the town of Maiduguri, in the northeastern province of Borno, which was already considered a “country of Muslims.”

In Maiduguri, he opens his own madrasah - essentially a recruitment center. He also opened a training base for "jihad warriors" called "Afghanistan". It is at this base that the “Society of Adherents to the Dissemination of the Teachings of the Prophet and Jihad” gathers - this is the official name of the Boko Haram group.

This nickname was invented by the residents of Maiduguri themselves, for whom the official name of the “Society” sounded either too pretentious or too long. "Boko Haram" is formed from two words: the Arabic "haram", that is, "sin", and the word "boko", which in the Hausa language means approximately the same as the Russian word "show-off". But in this African case, the word “boko” was used to refer to city slickers from wealthy families who received higher education either in the West or at universities according to Western standards. According to the teachings of Mohammed Yusuf, it is precisely this Western secular education that is the greatest sin that a person can commit in his life.

In 2009, a British BBC correspondent asked the Boko Haram leader why he had such a negative attitude towards secular education.

Because current Western education tells blasphemous things that contradict our beliefs in Islam, responded Mohammed Yusuf.

Boko Haram" took place in the spring of 2006, when gubernatorial elections began in the province. And Mohammed Yusuf gave an angry sermon on local television, declaring that devout Muslims should and do have only one boss - the caliph, so all Muslims who dare to take part in elections according to the Western model, a hand or head should be cut off, and unfaithful Christians should be stoned.

Already in the evening, a crowd of excited jihadists marched through the city, causing pogroms at voting stations. Along the way, the crowd destroyed 12 Christian churches, demanding that the beaten clergy take an oath of allegiance to the non-existent caliph.

In response, the governor ordered the preacher's arrest for inciting violence, but the arrest and prison time only strengthened Yusuf's image as a "people's hero."

After leaving prison two years later, Yusuf, together with members of Boko Haram, first settled in the city of Kanama, in Yobe State, then, under pressure from the authorities, was forced to move to Bauchi State, on the very border with Niger.

And in July 2009, Mohammed Yusuf and the militants again entered the bloody field. Then a whole wave of unrest swept across the Muslim world, caused by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in one of the Danish newspapers. An angry demonstration also took place in the town of Bauchi, whose participants demanded that all Anglican churches and police stations be burned.

But Governor Isa Yuguda ordered the demonstration to be dispersed.

The next day, a group of Boko Haram activists attacked the police station, releasing the detainees. Many of the attackers were armed with machine guns, and the firefight killed 32 people on both sides. When the police fled in fear from the set on fire, this gave the signal for pogroms throughout the city.

First of all, the Islamists destroyed and burned all the Christian churches in the city. They put priests and parishioners on ruts, forcing them, under threat of death, to ask Muslims for forgiveness on video camera for the caricatures. They beat Pastor George Orjich to death right at the altar after the priest refused to spit on the crucifix and convert to Islam. During the pogroms, more than 50 people were killed and several dozen were injured.

In response, the governor brought the army into the state. Boko Haram headquarters in Bauchi were stormed. Mohammed Yusuf was arrested and taken to prison, where he died under unclear circumstances - as police said, he was shot by guards while trying to escape. But hundreds of Boko Haram sympathizers were sure: Yusuf was simply shot without trial.

Shekau

After Yusuf's death, leadership of the group passed to Abubakar Shekau, a former student from a madrassa in Maiduguri, who was responsible for training militants in the Afghanistan camp, as well as for supplying the group with weapons.

No one knows anything specific about this person. Moreover, the date of his birth is unknown - somewhere between 1975 and 1980, no one knows the place of his birth. At the same time, paradoxically, Abubakar Shekau is a typical “boko”: he has a good command of several languages, including Arabic, English and French, and is versed in computer technology. Where a village boy from the most remote “hole” of Nigeria, who had never left the country, could receive such an education is a mystery.

Boko Haram" award in the amount of 7 million US dollars, declared him killed three times, but Shekau was invariably "resurrected." Experts have only one explanation for such luck: Shekau is under the control of foreign intelligence services, which warn their "agent" about the upcoming operations.

One way or another, it was under Abubakar Shekau that a provincial group of Islamic fanatics quickly turned into a threat on a national scale. From somewhere they found sponsors, the latest weapons, tons of explosives, and trained instructors. Under Shekau's leadership, in just a few years, Boko Haram managed to capture an area larger than Holland and Belgium combined.

Terror in black

On January 18, 2010, after Friday prayers, a crowd of excited Muslims came to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Fatima in the heart of the city of Jos. And she demanded that the priest hand over to them Christians from a neighboring village, who allegedly killed two small children in one Muslim family, they say, reliable witnesses showed that the killers hid in this particular temple.

What killers?! - the priest was surprised. - Nobody's here...

And then he fell to the floor from a blow from a machete.

The sight of blood seemed to intoxicate the crowd, and they began to destroy the temple in search of the hidden killers.

As it later turned out, all the bloody events in Jos were the result of a provocation on the part of the Boko Haram group, which declared jihad against Christians throughout the former Sokoto Caliphate. Jihadists in disguise killed children and then called on believers in mosques to take revenge on Christians.

Soon, a video message from Abubakar Shekau appeared on the Internet, calling for the destruction of all Christian churches in the country, as well as all secular schools and higher education institutions, all embassies of Western countries and offices of international organizations. In addition, Shekau called for supermarkets to be burned. And for the first time in the history of the country, Boko Haram declared jihad against Muslims themselves if they dare to criticize jihad.

The pogrom in Jos lasted three days. Armed with machetes and axes, crowds of jihadists rushed around the city in search of infidels. Sometimes they found ancient old people whom the families who fled in panic could not take with them. The rioters dragged the unfortunate old men into the street amid the laughter of the crowd and beat them to death with hammers.

The violence then spilled into suburban villages. For example, the village of Zot was burned and wiped off the face of the earth, and in the village of Kuru-Karame more than half of the inhabitants were killed - over 100 people. The jihadists dumped the bodies of those executed into drinking water wells, forbidding them to be buried.

Christmas Terror

On August 26, 2011, an explosion rocked the heart of the country's capital when a suicide bomber in a car bomb broke through two security barriers and crashed into the doors of the UN headquarters in Abuja. As a result of the terrorist attack, a wing of the building was destroyed, two dozen people were killed, and about a hundred more were injured.

The next high-profile terrorist attack was timed to coincide with the Catholic holiday of Christmas on December 25, 2011 - then, right during the Christmas service, bombs were detonated in the churches of four cities - Madalla, Jos, Gadak and Damaturu. The victims of the terrorists numbered in the hundreds.

Boko Haram militants carried out an even more massive terrorist attack two weeks later, timed to coincide with the feast of St. Sebastian - this is one of the most beloved holidays among African Catholics. It all started when a suicide bomber blew up a police station in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city. Almost immediately after this, suicide bombers blew up three more police stations, then the state security headquarters, a telephone exchange, a passport service - in total, more than 20 explosions occurred in the city that day.

After this, the terrorist attacks continued in succession.

"Jihad" of cannibals

In 2013, Boko Haram's activities spread beyond Nigeria - for example, in neighboring Cameroon, jihadists attacked a group of French tourists who were in the Vaza National Park. As stated by Abubakar Shekau, the French were taken hostage in protest against French interference in the affairs of sovereign African states.

A French family of seven, including four children, spent three months hostage. Ultimately, the French government was forced to pay the kidnappers a ransom of three million dollars for the family.

Hostage-takings have become more frequent. The most famous was the abduction in April 2014 of 276 schoolgirls, that is, all students of a boarding school from the town of Chibok. The terrorists arrived at the school at night when everyone was asleep.

One of the witnesses later said: “When armed men in camouflage burst into the hostel at one in the morning, everyone at first thought they were soldiers because they had army uniforms. They ordered us not to run away, and then ordered us to get into the trucks they drove to the gates of the hostel."

After this, the terrorists and the hostages fled in an unknown direction.

A few days later, the jihadists published a video in which they showed the girls for the first time - they were dressed in Islamic style, with hijabs on their heads. Abubakar Shekau declared the schoolgirls to be his personal “slaves”, whom he intends to give to his best warriors.

The operation to free the schoolgirls continues to this day, although some of them have already returned home, recounting such horrors that even the atrocities of ISIS pale in comparison. Thus, the militants turned into slaves not only captured hostages, but also all women who were not lucky enough to end up on the territory of the caliphate. All slaves are forced to undergo “female circumcision.” Moreover, many women after this barbaric operation died from blood poisoning, because medicine is haram! The terrorists sorted the men into “correct Muslims” and “infidels.” The latter were enslaved.

Moreover, as the Nigerian police are sure, the members of Boko Haram themselves are not Muslims at all. Not long ago, they stormed one of the group’s training camps, under which the police discovered an extensive system of underground bunkers and tunnels dug by slaves. Usually, when retreating, terrorists blew up their underground communications, but this time the assault was so swift that the jihadists fled in panic, forgetting to destroy the evidence. In the dungeon, the police found a whole warehouse of dismembered corpses; on the shelves there were jars filled with blood and preserved skulls. All this suggested that Boko Haram militants were actually practicing traditional African cults with ritual cannibalism.

Under the banner of ISIS

In the spring of 2015, Abubakar Shekau took an oath of allegiance to the terrorist group ISIS and Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi personally. Shekau became the "wali" - viceroy of the caliph - of the new state "West African Province of the Islamic State".

However, they soon parted ways with ISIS.

Perhaps Shekau himself regarded his oath as a technical point that allowed the group to expand its supply channels with money and weapons, but Caliph Al-Baghdadi himself reacted completely differently to his new province. And in August 2016, a new “wali” arrived in Nigeria - a certain Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who turned out to be... the eldest son of Muhammad Yusuf who had escaped execution.

Enmity broke out between the two “wali” from the very first minutes - which is not surprising, because Abu Musab considered Shekau to be the culprit in the death of his family. They say that Shekau handed over the founder of Boko Haram to the special services in order to become the leader of the group himself. As a result, the group split into two parts, which declared jihad against each other.

The "dual power" continued until December 2016, when the Boko Haram headquarters in Maiduguri was raided by the Nigerian Secret Service. Al-Barnawi was captured and, according to rumors, is now in one of the secret CIA prisons.

Shekau once again united the terrorists and declared a new jihad - this time against foreign corporations. And the first to come under attack were Chinese companies, which are now actively investing in Africa. First, the terrorists attacked a camp of Chinese workers engaged in the construction of road infrastructure in neighboring Cameroon - just 20 kilometers from the Sambisa forest, which became a real base for the terrorists. As a result of the attack, one Chinese citizen was killed, and ten more workers were kidnapped.

Chinese factor

New Year's Eve 1983 in Lagos, the then capital of Nigeria, turned out to be hot: the air literally shook with the roar of firecrackers and deafening explosions of fireworks. Only on the morning of January 1 did foreign diplomats realize that these were not firecrackers at all, but a real shooting - under the guise of a New Year's party in Nigeria, a military coup took place again, and Colonel Muhammadu Buhari, a brilliant graduate of the British Officers' College in Wellington - the "black Pinochet" - came to power "and a supporter of the harshest methods. As Nigerian newspapers wrote, he began his campaign to restore order by arresting journalists and activists, and by forcing officials who were late for work to jump around the office like frogs, under threat of execution.

Buhari might have been able to restore order in the country, but he offended the interests of the International Monetary Fund and influential Western oil companies, which he actually kicked out of the country. Soon Nigeria found itself in complete isolation - all Western powers broke off diplomatic relations with it.

In fact, the only country that did not turn its back on Buhari was China. And Buhari has not forgotten this.

In 1985, a new military coup took place in the country. Buhari was arrested and imprisoned for three years - after another military coup, he was released, and General Sani Abacha, who came to power, invited him to head the Oil Trust Fund - that is, the entire “oil industry” of the country, which he led until 2000. Then Buhari returned to the political life of the country, was a member of parliament, and in 2015 he was elected the new president of Nigeria.

It was thanks to Buhari that China became Nigeria’s main trading partner, displacing the United States and Great Britain from these positions at the beginning of the 2000s. Of course, the lion's share of Chinese investment - more than 80% - was invested in the development of oil fields, which were given to state-owned oil companies of the PRC. But the Chinese are also investing in other sectors of the country’s economy, providing interest-free loans for infrastructure development.

Nigeria, in fact, became the first foreign colony of the PRC, a stronghold from which the Chinese comrades began to slowly but surely crush Africa under themselves.

New "Kerensky" in Africa

As soon as the PRC and the Government of Nigeria signed an agreement on strategic partnership, a “spring aggravation” began in Africa, when the provincial Islamist group Boko Haram - one of dozens of its own - turned into a real army, equipped not with rusty Kalashnikovs, but with the most modern Western weapons.

Actually, the fact that Americans support the Boko Haram Islamists is not a big secret to anyone in Africa - the previous President of Nigeria, Jonathan Goodluck, was the first to officially declare this back in 2015, who launched a large-scale military operation against terrorists, Deep Punch II, involving armies of four states - Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. As a result, over two years of fighting, the military managed to recapture most of the captured settlements from Boko Haram, driving the terrorists under the cover of the Sambisa forest, not far from Lake Chad.

Moreover, as the Chief of the Joint Forces Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, said, they almost captured the Boko Haram leader himself, but the elusive Abubakar Shekau escaped again, dressed in a woman’s dress and hijab.

He even shaved his beard! - the general was indignant. “But we can’t stop every woman to check their faces under their hijabs and what they have under their dresses!”

The general's anger is understandable. When last time they almost captured the leaders of the group, the COAS headquarters received information from agents that Shekau ordered his accomplices to collect more women's clothing from the captured villages in order to slip out of the encirclement under the guise of freed slaves.

Then General Buratai ordered all women to be searched - especially those who move in large groups - everyone knows that Shekau even goes to the toilet only when accompanied by bodyguards.

But as soon as the soldiers started checking the women, an international scandal broke out: all the newspapers wrote that the soldiers of the Nigerian army, called upon to save residents from terrorists, were actually raping local women.

It was at Tongo-Tongo

It was under the guise of concern for human rights that the United States and its allies refused to join the anti-terrorism operation of African countries. Instead, the Americans and French announced the start of their own operation against Islamists operating in Niger.

And soon American weapons were spotted among Boko Haram militants.

Details of the militants' supply were accidentally revealed during an unsuccessful operation that resulted in the death of four Green Berets from the 3 SFG (Special Forces Group) - this is the name of one of the oldest American special operations units stationed at the base at Fort Bragg.

It is interesting that at first the Americans denied everything at all - even the very fact of the presence of Green Berets in the country. Then the terrorists published a video on the Internet, assembled from recordings from surveillance cameras mounted on the helmets of special forces soldiers - they removed these cameras from the bodies of dead soldiers. As a result, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dunford, was forced to admit the death of US soldiers, clarifying that a group of Green Berets was ambushed during reconnaissance. However, the facts published by the jihadists indicate the opposite.

On October 3, 2017, a convoy of eight Toyota jeeps set off for the village of Tongo Tongo to deliver a shipment of weapons and ammunition to the local self-defense forces - as it turns out, the Green Berets have been training similar units in Niger for five years to fight Boko Haram and their allies. And so a detachment of eight Americans (according to Dunford, there were 12 Americans) and two dozen local special forces arrived in the village in the evening and, having delivered the cargo, quietly spent the night until the morning. At dawn, the convoy set off back, and for some unknown reason, two vehicles strayed from the convoy and stopped not far from the village. There, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Johnson noticed a detachment of fifty jihadists calmly heading to the village for their share of American “humanitarian aid.”

But, apparently, the staff sergeant was not aware of the shadow business of his superiors. Deciding to play Rimbaud, he fired at the Africans and was killed by return fire.

Staff Sergeants Brian Black, Dustin Wright and David Johnson, who were traveling behind, also came under attack. In an effort to create a smoke screen, they scattered gas grenades, but this did not save them.

The first to sag was Brian Black, followed by Dustin Wright, and only the pitch-black African-American Johnson hid for some time in a shroud from the partisans, who apparently took him for one of their own. But then they killed Sergeant Johnson too.

It is interesting that the rest of the convoy did nothing to save their comrades, although a version later appeared that the Americans and Nigerians simply did not have time to get their bearings in time.

The very next day, according to the Americans, investigative actions and clean-up operations began in Tongo-Tongo. The village headman and the commander of the “self-defense forces”, who - no need to go to the shaman here - act in concert with the partisans, were taken by the Americans to the local “Guantanamo”. As a result, all the circumstances of the tragedy, which could drop the authority of the vaunted American “Green Berets,” were reliably classified, and only thanks to the publication of recordings from surveillance cameras of the dead soldiers did the world learn about the secret war raging in the African savannah.

And this war will continue - while the “great game” of superpowers for world domination is going on, in which terrorists are assigned only the role of a means to disguise selfish interests.

* Organizations are banned in Russia by decision of the Supreme Court.

Militants of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram attacked a group of geologists carrying out oil exploration in the northeastern part of Nigeria, killing at least 50 people.

Boko Haram is a militant terrorist group of radical Islamists operating in the northeastern and northern states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The group also has cells in the regions of Niger, Cameroon and Chad bordering Nigeria.

Title, ideology

The full name of the group from the beginning of its existence is “Society of Adherents to the Dissemination of the Teachings of the Prophet and Jihad” (Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad). On April 26, 2015, shortly after taking the oath to the terrorist group "Islamic State" (banned in the Russian Federation), the leaders of the sect announced their renaming to the "West African Province of the Islamic State" (Wilayah ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fi Gharbi Ifriqia; also in Russian-speaking sources there is the option “Islamic State in West Africa”).

"Boko Haram" is a popular name that can be translated from the Hausa language as "Western education is a sin." The leaders of Boko Haram themselves often speak out against this name, considering it too vulgar an interpretation of the goals of their struggle. However, it does convey the main message of the sect's ideology. According to its members, teaching Darwin's evolutionary theory, the water cycle, the big bang theory and other fundamentals of modern science is contrary to orthodox Islam, is a sin and should be prohibited.

In addition to banning Western education, the group also opposes Western-style democracy and the principle of separation of powers, the secular nature of the state, as well as the wearing of Western clothing and the use of other elements of modern Western culture.

The ideal of the political structure of society, from the point of view of Boko Haram, is a state built on the basis of strict adherence to Sharia law, in which legislative, executive and judicial power is exercised locally by Sharia courts, formed from authoritative and enlightened interpreters of Islam.

History of appearance

The founding date of Boko Haram is considered to be 2002 and is associated with the activities of the radical Islamic preacher Abu Yusuf Mohammed Yusuf. Being a charismatic religious leader, Yusuf rallied young supporters of radical Islam around himself and began to call for the proclamation of a Sharia state in Nigeria, as well as a ban on Western education and an intensified fight against corruption. Originating in the state of Borno, the movement soon spread to the neighboring states of Yobe and Adamawa, and after them to the entire north of Nigeria.

In July 2009, clashes between Islamists and police in the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, and the cities of Bauchi, Kano and some others, escalated into a real armed confrontation, in which over 800 people, mostly Boko Haram supporters, became victims. Islamist leaders, including Mohammed Yusuf, were arrested. A few days after his arrest, Yusuf was killed, according to the official police version - while trying to escape. In addition to him, several other authoritative members of the sect were killed in the same way.

After Yusuf's death, leadership of the group passed to Abubakar Shekau, a supporter of radical methods of struggle, including terrorism. The year after the suppression of the Islamist uprising and the killing of the leaders by militants was spent underground and in exile in neighboring Chad and Niger. In 2010, Boko Haram reasserted itself with a series of high-profile terrorist attacks and attacks on political opponents and civilians.

Constant targets of Boko Haram terrorist attacks are secular schools and other educational institutions, Christian churches, missions of Western countries and international organizations, as well as ordinary places where people gather (markets, supermarkets, bus stations). In addition to students, Christians and law enforcement officers, Nigerian politicians and Muslim spiritual leaders who criticize radical Islamists are also targets of such attacks. The group’s militants regularly resort to hostage-taking with the aim of their subsequent release for ransom or sale into slavery and forced marriage.

In June 2013, the Nigerian government designated Boko Haram a terrorist organization and banned its activities. Subsequently, its example was followed by the governments of Great Britain (July 2013), the USA (November 2013), Canada (December 2013), etc. On May 22, 2014, Boko Haram was recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council.

Connections with the terrorist world, financing

The source of funding for the organization is robberies, including banks, receiving ransom for hostages, as well as private contributions from businessmen in the northern region who use the group for their own struggle for power. It is assumed that the group can be financed by international terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda (banned in the Russian Federation), and supported by some political forces in Nigeria.

Boko Haram also maintains contacts with other international terrorist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (banned in the Russian Federation), Al-Shabab, Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation), etc. Many of them The fighters were trained in camps in Afghanistan and took part in combat operations in Somalia and Mali.

On March 7, 2015, Boko Haram militants released a video in which they pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, pledging to “listen and obey in times of hardship and prosperity,” and therefore soon announced their official renaming. However, in August 2016, militant leader Abubakar Shekau challenged the Islamic State's decision to replace him with the wali (chief) of West Africa, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who had long served as Boko Haram's "spokesman."

The attempt to change the leadership of the group was preceded by Shekau’s long absence from the videos it distributed, which gave rise to further rumors about his possible neutralization. However, on August 4, the leader of Boko Haram made himself known again, speaking in another video refuting his removal and confirming his intention to lead the fight for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in West Africa. Shekau also criticized the actions of the IS leadership, warning that the group he leads will not accept another leader appointed by an external decision. In the same video, he called her by her former name, used before affiliation with ISIS, without at the same time declaring an official split.

Occupation of the northeastern Nigerian states and the internationalization of the civil war

Since the beginning of 2014, Boko Haram has intensified its terrorist activities. As a result of a series of military operations, militants managed to capture a number of areas in the Nigerian states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. In the territories under their control, militants carried out massacres of civilians, including women and children. Children are also often used by terrorists as suicide bombers when organizing terrorist attacks in cities outside the occupation zone. The militants' activities also spread to neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

A state of emergency has been in effect in three Nigerian states since May 14, 2013. Despite the efforts of the Nigerian security forces and their coalition partners, by January 2015 most of Borno State had come under Islamist control, and the presidential elections scheduled for February 2015 were in jeopardy.

International efforts to combat Boko Haram

The intensification of Boko Haram's terrorist activities has forced the governments of the countries of the Lake Chad basin, as well as the entire international community, to join forces in the fight against the group.

At the initiative of French President Francois Hollande, on May 17, 2014, a “mini-summit” was held in Paris with the participation of the heads of five states in the region - Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, as well as representatives of the United States, Great Britain and the European Union. The meeting participants agreed on a unified plan of action against the Islamists, including intelligence coordination, information exchange, central control of deployed assets, border surveillance, military presence in the vicinity of Lake Chad, as well as the possibility of intervention at the slightest event of danger.

On July 23, in the capital of Niger, Niamey, a meeting was held between the ministers of defense, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and Chad, following which a decision was made to create an interstate military unit for the joint fight against Boko Haram. Each country party to the treaty pledged to provide 700 soldiers. Benin later joined the coalition.

On January 16, 2015, in response to a call from the authorities of Cameroon, which was attacked by militants, a military operation began against the Islamists of the Chadian army. To assist the Cameroonian army, 400 units of military transport equipment were transferred to the territory of this country from N'Djamena. Having pushed the Islamists out of Cameroon, Chadian army units continued military operations in Nigeria together with the armed forces of coalition partners.

By April, coalition troops managed to achieve success in the fight against the group and liberate most of the territories in northeastern Nigeria from militants. On July 27, 2015, representatives of the Nigerian army announced that Borno State had completely come under their control, but until the end of 2016, the militants held part of the Sambisa forest region (the last Boko Haram base in Sambisa was liquidated only on December 23 ). At the same time, the militants continue to resist in guerrilla warfare mode, systematically organizing sabotage and terrorist attacks both in Nigeria and Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

On March 6, 2015, the African Union approved the formation of a regional force to combat Boko Haram militants. It was decided to staff the contingent of the Joint Multinational Operational Forces with 10 thousand military personnel from Benin, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. The headquarters is located in the capital of Chad - N'Djamena. On July 30, Nigerian General Elijah Abbach, who had previously led military operations of the Nigerian army against rebel groups in the Niger Delta region, was appointed commander of the contingent on July 30. In September 2015, the formation of the contingent was completed. Its total strength was 10,500 people (8,500 military personnel, as well as 2,000 police, gendarmerie and civilians).

On October 14, 2015, in response to increasing terrorist attacks in Northern Cameroon, US authorities authorized the dispatch of a detachment of 300 military personnel to Cameroon to assist the Cameroonian army in repelling Islamist aggression. The main task of American soldiers in Cameroon was declared to be conducting reconnaissance operations.

On August 23, 2016, the Nigerian armed forces announced that during the next military operation against Boko Haram, its leader Abubakar Shekau was mortally wounded, but this information was not subsequently confirmed.

The humanitarian crisis and the process of reconstruction of war-torn areas

As a result of Boko Haram's terror in Nigeria since 2009, more than 20 thousand people have died, and about 2.3 million more have become displaced persons and refugees. On June 11, following a meeting of the presidents of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, as well as the Minister of Defense of Cameroon, it was decided to establish an urgent program for the development of territories affected by Boko Haram militants. The program budget is $66 million.

On January 12, 2017, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O'Brien estimated the number of hungry people in the region suffering from Boko Haram terror at 7.1 million, noting that it has at least doubled over the past year. O'Brien also said that 10.7 million people in four African countries are in need of humanitarian assistance, and the number of internally displaced people is 2.4 million, of which 1.5 million are children. According to him, about $1.5 billion will be required for humanitarian operations in the Lake Chad basin in 2017 - twice as much as last year.

On May 30, 2017, representatives of the Nigerian army announced that 1,400 people suspected of links to Boko Haram are currently being held in temporary detention centers. Some of them were captured as a result of military operations. Once the investigation is completed, individuals who have not committed serious crimes may be released and included in the government's social integration program for former sect members.

Struggle for leadership and rumors of a possible split

The rivalry for leadership of the group between Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who was openly supported by the Islamic State, gave rise to rumors about a possible split of Boko Haram into two factions. In particular, al-Barnawi called on the militants to abandon attacks on fellow Muslims and concentrate on the fight against military personnel involved in the counter-terrorism operation, Christians and citizens of Western countries.

In turn, on January 12, 2017, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Taye-Brooke Zerihoun confirmed at a meeting of the UN Security Council that since October 2016, extremists have indeed become more likely to attack military targets and security forces. At the same time, extremists did not abandon their traditional tactics of terror against civilians, carrying out a double terrorist attack on December 9 at a city market in Madagali, a small city in the north of Adamawa State (two explosions killed 57 people).

Boko Haram is an Islamist terrorist group operating in the north and northeast of Nigeria. The organization was founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002. He built a religious complex, a mosque and a school where the recruitment of future militants took place.

The name of the gang can be translated from Arabic as “Western education is a sin”; it consists of two words “boko” (translated from Arabic as “false”, radical Islamists use this word to denote Western education) and haram (“sin”).

In 2015, the militants swore allegiance to the Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation - note by AiF.ru) and took a new name for themselves: “West African Province of the Islamic State.”

Ideology

Supporters of the group consider Western culture, including education and science, to be a sin. According to terrorists, women in particular should under no circumstances study or wear skirts. Also, Boko Haram supporters do not recognize voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers, and scientific truths (for example, the water cycle in nature, Darwinism, the sphericity of the Earth), which, in their opinion, contradict Islam.

The Nigerian government, from the point of view of Boko Haram, is “corrupted” by Western ideas and consists of “non-believers,” and the country’s leaders are Muslims only formally. In this regard, the current government, as the group's leaders say, should be overthrown, and Sharia law should be introduced in the country.

According to this organization's understanding of Sharia, sinners must face the most severe punishment both in this life and in the hereafter. Therefore, unrighteous Nigerians, from the point of view of Boko Haram, must be punished through physical violence.

Ethnic composition

The bulk of Boko Haram militants are representatives of the Kanuri people. There are over 3 million of them in Nigeria. Most of them are Muslims. In addition, among the militants there are representatives of other African tribes: Fulani and Chaos.

Bandit activities

year 2009 - Mohammed Yusuf attempted a rebellion aimed at creating an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. After this, on July 29, 2009, the police stormed the group's base in Maiduguri. Mohammed Yusuf was arrested by the police and later died under unclear circumstances;

2010 - about 50 gang supporters attacked a prison in the city of Bauchi, where extremists arrested during the rebellion were kept. 721 of the 759 prisoners held in the prison were released;

2011 - organization of explosions in the city of Damaturu. The target of the attack is police, military and residents of Christian areas. A total of 150 people died;

2012 - attack on Christian communities located in Adamawa state, resulting in the death of at least 29 people;

2012 - Suicide bombers blew up three churches in Kaduna state; according to the Red Cross, over 50 people died;

2013 - due to the activities of Boko Haram, the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency in the country;

2014 - the group kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls from a high school in the village of Chibok (Borno State). Attack on an educational institution leader of the organization, Abubakar Shekau, explained that “girls should leave school and get married”;

2014 - a double terrorist attack was committed in the city of Jos (Plateau State), as a result of which more than 160 civilians were killed and more than 55 were injured;

2014 - terrorists captured the city of Buni Yadi and announced the creation of a caliphate on the territory under its control;

2015 - 16 cities and villages in northern Nigeria in the state of Borno were burned, including the 10,000-person city of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad, and several cities were captured.

Government position

The Nigerian government's attempt at dialogue with the Boko Haram group has not yet been successful. The authorities are conducting full-fledged military operations against the militants using aviation and artillery.

Sharia (translated from Arabic as “path”, “way of action”) is a set of legal, canonical-traditional, moral, ethical and religious norms of Islam, covering a significant part of the life of a Muslim, one of the forms of religious law.

I think many people have heard about this terrorist organization in the news, but not many know how it specifically operates and what it wants.

Boko Haram emerged in 2002 in Northern Nigeria. Its founder is considered to be the Islamic preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who denied the achievements of Western science and culture (in one of the local languages ​​Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful”). According to this preacher, the idea that the Earth is spherical and water circulates, moving from one state to another, contradicts Islam.

Yusuf believed that all of Nigeria’s troubles were connected with the false values ​​that the British colonialists imposed on its people.

On July 26, 2009, Yusuf launched an uprising aimed at creating a Sharia state. Three days later, the police captured the Boko Haram base, along with its leader, who died the next day under unclear circumstances in a police station.

Well, it would seem that’s all?! However, no. Abubakar Shekau took the place of leader - he made people talk about Boko Haram all over the world. Real terror began - not only Christians, but also overly liberal Muslim preachers became victims of Boko Haram.

Here it is necessary to explain that countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic and Congo (Brazoville) are very closely connected with each other, both economically and culturally. Citizens of these countries freely cross each other's borders. Any event that happens in one of these countries automatically affects the situation in its neighbors, and according to the Cameroonians, Boko Haram is a real scourge of the entire region.

How does Boko Haram operate? I think many people remember the film “The Professional” with Belmondo in the title role. There is an episode where an armed army column enters an African village. Negroes jump out of the round houses and run wherever they look. Something like this, throwing all their property, people run away from Boka Haaram, because when the militants enter the village, they kill everyone, without asking who is a Christian and who is a Muslim.

But if someone asks for mercy, they give him a machine gun, from which he shoots his fellow countrymen. Next, the recruit is sent to storm another village. Thus, any member of the group is tied to it by blood.

According to my interlocutors, the Nigerian government did not take any action for a long time, preferring, as it were, not to notice Boka Haram (all Africans like to accuse their leaders of inaction). People in Nigeria have already taken up their grandfather's spears and bows, and in some cases they themselves fought back the terrorists, but their capabilities in this, of course, were limited.

Moreover, even regular Nigerian troops capitulated to the terrorists. There was a case when an entire military unit retreated in full force, or rather fled to the territory of Cameroon, where it soon laid down its arms and surrendered to Cameroonian troops.

As the atrocities escalated into war, the Nigerian government finally approached the militants directly and asked, what do you want? Abubakar Shekau rejected the negotiations without honoring the president with any response. The question is, why? The answer means he receives strong and powerful support.

At the moment, his organization is armed with the most modern French and American weapons. The backbone of Boka Haram are notorious thugs who have undergone good training.

They say that Northern Nigeria is literally depopulated. People are fleeing to neighboring Cameroon, whose authorities have set up refugee camps. If earlier people freely went to visit each other, now, if a relative comes from neighboring Nigeria, it is necessary to report this to the police, who will send the brother, mother or sister to a special camp, where the person will be checked for involvement in Boka Haram.

In some cases, such measures make it possible to identify militant intelligence officers or simply terrorists who want to break with Boka Haram. However, by and large, this does not bring results, and it causes terrible inconveniences, such as curfews. Local residents cannot get to their hometown after 8 pm and are forced to spend the night in the fields. At the same time, tourism, on which many people lived, has completely stopped in the North of Cameroon.

The President of Chad expressed a general idea - to create a joint army and start fighting on the territory of Nigeria.

Create a joint army?! Do Africans even have one?

Vysotsky was right: How can a schoolboy fight with selected punks?

So the regular military units are retreating before the terrorists. Airplanes are already being used. On December 31, 2014, Cameroonian aviation bombed terrorists who invaded its territory. She bombed and reported, but most likely it did not give results.

Subsequently, our driver Bichair told us how on February 19, 2014, terrorists captured his friends - a French family. This case became the center of world news, which is why the family was released after 2 days (for money).

But Nigerian girls are much less fortunate. In April 2014, about 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped directly from college in the town of Chibok. Further, in another city, the extremists kidnapped about 150 more girls (subsequently 57 managed to escape, but they still did not understand where they were).

Why were college girls kidnapped? Extremists believe that women can only receive education in the mosque. In any case, after this the world finally came to terms with the Boka Haram problem.

In May 2014, the UN Security Council listed Boka Haaram as a terrorist organization.

What about the captured girls? A wave of protests began in Nigeria and around the world. People demanded the release of the children, even Michelle Obama spoke in favor of the speedy release of the schoolgirls.

What about the world community? How did the Empire of Good respond to the challenge of terrorists? She proposed establishing a military base in Nigeria to fight Boka Haram.

Stop! This is what Africans fear most of all - and here we can draw a devastatingly clear conclusion why terrorists have the most modern American and French weapons, and why they do not negotiate.

In former French Africa, everything is not very simple. All these countries are closely connected with France, which previously used them as colonies. Residents of central Africa are politically unusually active, in any case, world politics and especially French foreign policy, like football, are a favorite topic of conversation.

And if the French show their news in this region, prioritizing good and evil, then the Africans go from the opposite - bad for France, which means good for us, they apply similar assessments in the situation with Russia. Africa is the eternal opposition of Europe, but there are reasons for this.

There was such a case under Sarkozy in Chad. The military of this country blocked a plane ready for takeoff. There were a large number of local children on board, whom the French husband and wife were trying to take to France. The kidnappers were arrested. Four days later, Sarkozy flew to Chad, asking to hand over his compatriots to him, publicly promising to condemn them in France. The Africans gave up the attackers, but Sarkozy did not keep his word. The Africans continued to be indignant, but the husband and wife were convicted only under the next president.

Africans are confident that the West is testing its medicines on them, and their children are being kidnapped for their organs.

So the question arises: will Africans want to host a French or American military base to fight unknown terrorists? Naturally not.

The situation is clearly reaching a dead end. There is no clear front line either in Cameroon or Chad, but fighting is ongoing. Boka Haram makes forays wherever it wants, and at the same time the North of Nigeria is its patrimony.

As of May 2014, more than 10 thousand people had died at the hands of this terrorist organization.
Recently, Boka Haram has also been using female suicide bombers. In the first ten days of January in Nigeria, a kamikaze girl entered her class and detonated an explosive device - 20 classmates died along with her.

Now, when we have already returned to Moscow, a message has arrived from Bishair - Boka Haram is already operating 30 km away. from his house. The people are in terrible panic. People are giving up everything, trying to move to safer areas within Cameroon itself.
Thus, another area is being organized in the world where it is possible to fight.

Let us hope for the best!

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International human rights organizationHumanRightsWatch has released a new report on crimes committed in Nigeria by militants of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. The document comes as reports of new attacks have killed or kidnapped dozens of people despite a truce between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government days ago. The militants still hold hundreds of hostages, mostly girls and young women, who are subjected to horrific violence.

Since 2009, up to 10 thousand people have died in Nigeria as a result of Boko Haram's actions, according to various sources. In the north and northeast of the country, Islamist detachments have attacked several populated areas in recent days, where the majority Christian population lives. Eyewitnesses say the militants always act in the same way: killing resisting men and kidnapping women. For example, residents of the city of Wagga said that Islamists looked into every house, and wherever they found girls and women, they left money, about 9-10 dollars in US currency, and kola nuts, as required by Sharia law, in their interpretation, ransom. The bandits especially hate Christians, who make up 90 percent of all their victims, as well as all women who dare to receive at least a minimal education.

On October 17, the Nigerian government announced a truce with Boko Haram and the extremists' willingness to release the 219 schoolgirls who remained in their captivity after the sensational mass abduction in the village of Chibok last April. This step is certainly related to the intentions of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to run for a new term. However, the ability of the authorities and the army to cope with Islamists by any means, military or diplomatic, raises huge doubts among Nigerians and throughout the world. Here's what President Jonathan's spokesman said Mike Omery:

“We confirm that multiple contacts have taken place between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram representatives. These meetings are of key importance given the instability in the north and northeast of the country and the urgent need to rescue all those captured by terrorists, especially the students of the Chibok Government Girls School. At the meetings, the militants demonstrated their desire to achieve peace and their readiness to reach agreement on many important issues. In addition, they assured us that all the schoolgirls and other people who were captured by them were alive and well. The terrorists also announced the start of a truce as a gesture of goodwill. Taking into account the situation, the government of the country also declares, in turn, that it will observe this truce.

However, new attacks, testimonies of women who managed to escape from the militants, and data HumanRightsWatch prove that there is no need to talk about any intention to achieve peace through diplomatic methods and goodwill of the Islamists. Human rights activists were able to interview approximately 30 former captives who were kidnapped between April 2013 and April 2014, ranging in age from 10 to 65, as well as 16 witnesses to the crimes, and their stories formed the basis of a report entitled “Those Horrible Weeks.” in their camp. Boko Haram violence against women and girls in northeastern Nigeria."

All those abducted were held in eight different Boko Haram field camps. The militants of the group use captives as sex slaves and servants for the dirtiest work; with threats of death and torture, they force them to convert to Islam and participate in hostilities - to carry cargo and ammunition, and even to lure soldiers and just ordinary peasant men into ambushes. The numerous testimonies of women about sophisticated torture and rape are impossible to read calmly, although, in principle, they are all similar to one another:

- My name is Sanatu. When they came to our village, we were alone, only women, the men went to work. They were approaching from two sides, in two groups, in trucks and jeeps. Some girls saw them in advance and tried to warn the others. But we still couldn’t do anything, and there was nowhere to run. We hid somewhere, but they quickly found almost everyone. My friend and I were able to climb into the store toilet. When the militants came inside, we tried to climb out the window, but they heard us. My friend and I were severely beaten, tied up and put in the back like cattle.

He said he would stab me and held the knife to my throat. Then he raped me every night and beat me. I was in a lot of pain, I was covered in blood all the time.

When we were brought to their camp, they demanded that I convert to Islam. They beat us, choked us, mocked us and threatened to kill us. I thought this was about to happen... We were dressed in identical green hijabs, given new Muslim names and forced to learn Arabic. I had to obey, after which I was forcibly married to one of the militants, much older than me. I said I didn't want to, but no one listened. I tried to hide from the one who was called my husband, but he still forced me to have sex. He said he would stab me and held the knife to my throat. Then he raped me every night and beat me. I was in a lot of pain, I was covered in blood all the time. Finally, I became pregnant, and they suddenly released me, with the condition that I return to my village and preach Islam. I have terrible dreams every night, I cry continuously and I don’t know what to do next.

Another 15-year-old witness, for example, said that when she told a militant commander that she and her friends were too young to get married, he pointed to his own five-year-old daughter and replied: “Even if she got married a year ago and only waiting for maturity to become a full-fledged wife, how can you claim that you are still too young?”

The Human Rights Watch report also emphasizes that the victims of these abductions, torture and rape, even after returning from captivity to their home villages, continue to suffer and are subjected to severe ostracism. In the conservative north of Nigeria, regardless of the religion of her fellow tribesmen, a woman who has survived sexual violence is in any case considered an outcast criminal and is therefore afraid to talk about what happened.

The official name of this radical Islamist group, based in the capital of the poor north-eastern Nigerian state of Borno, Maiduguri, is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati wal-Jihad, which translates from Arabic as "People dedicated to the spread of the teachings of the Prophet and jihad." However, it is widely known throughout the world by its local name, Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language. Islam, according to fundamentalist militants, makes participation in any social, political or educational activity in any way associated with the West “haram,” that is, “forbidden,” for Muslims. This includes prohibitions on voting in elections, receiving secular education, and wearing Western-style clothing.

Boko Haram was founded in Maiduguri by Islamic preacher Mohammed Yusuf in 2002. Initially, Yusuf expressed an interest in education and built a mosque and madrassa in which poor Muslim families could educate their children. Overthrowing the government by force was not his goal, although he called for disobedience to authorities and blamed all the problems of his country on Western values ​​​​supposedly imposed on Nigeria by former British colonialists. The situation escalated in 2009, when members of the group refused to obey the law requiring the use of a helmet when riding a motorcycle. This led to violent clashes between Boko Haram supporters and police, in which more than 800 people were killed, including hundreds of Boko Haram supporters. The police seized the group's headquarters, and Yusuf was sent to prison, where he died.

Then the deputy of the late Yusuf, Abubakar Shekau, took over the leadership of radical Nigerian Islamists. Boko Haram went underground and split into several groups, which also spread to neighboring states, Niger and Cameroon. One of Boko Haram's most desperate attacks was the attack on the UN headquarters in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in 2011. More than 20 people became its victims. Today, Boko Haram attacks security forces, its fellow Christian citizens, Muslim leaders accused of collaborating with the government, and, of course, all foreigners, especially whites, he says Sola Tayo, expert:

– Since 2009, the group has changed its activities. They began to resort to increasingly desperate violence. They are becoming more and more daring, their weapons more and more modern, and their activities more and more outrageous.

According to US and UN experts who consider Boko Haram a terrorist organization, the group may be linked to al-Qaeda - through al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operating in northwest Africa and the extremist group al-Shabab. in Somalia, continues Sola Tayo:

“They have connections and exchange information. However, whether Boko Haram is an active part of al-Qaeda is a moot point, since the war against it currently does not extend beyond the borders of a certain region of Nigeria.

According to a US Congress report dating back to 2011, the Boko Haram group and its connections are beginning to pose a direct threat to the United States." At the same time, the Boko Haram leaders themselves deny ties with any foreign terrorist groups.

Some time ago, Boko Haram militants kidnapped several French tourists, members of the same family, in the north of Cameroon, whose fate is still unknown.