MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – An audio concept from a guy pinpointing himself as the chief of Nigeria’s Boko Haram claimed on Tuesday that the Islamist group was liable for the kidnapping of extra than 300 college students from an all-boys university in the northwestern state of Katsina.
Boko Haram, whose identify signifies “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language, has waged an insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria since 2009 but has not formerly claimed any attacks about to the northwest.
The gentleman purporting to be the group’s chief, Abubakar Shekau, made available no evidence for the declare. Reuters was not able to verify the audio and Nigerian authorities did not instantly comment.
In a region where legal gangs typically rob and kidnap civilians for ransom, gunmen took the boys from the Governing administration Science college in Kankara city on Friday. Katsina point out authorities say some managed to escape but around 320 ended up however lacking.
“We are at the rear of what transpired in Katsina,” claimed the guy in the audio, which reached Reuters through a Whatsapp message.
“What occurred in Katsina was carried out to market Islam and discourage un-Islamic procedures as Western schooling is not the style of schooling permitted by Allah and his holy prophet.”
No movie footage was unveiled of the missing boys.
Spokesmen for the presidency, police and army did not immediately reply to messages and phone calls looking for remark.
Analysts have warned that West Africa’s porous borders imply other Islamist groups running in the wider Sahel location could type alliances with jihadists in northeast Nigeria.
Boko Haram carried out the 2014 kidnap of more than 200 women from a university in the northeastern town of Chibok. Considering that then, about 50 percent of those people girls have been uncovered or freed, dozens have been paraded in propaganda movies, and an unidentified range are considered to have died.
A lot more than 30,000 individuals have been killed considering the fact that Boko Haram began its insurgency, which aims to generate an Islamic state.
(Reporting by Maiduguri newsroom Creating by Alexis Akwagyiram Modifying by Andrew Cawthorne)
Copyright 2020 Thomson Reuters.
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