Abuja - Nigerian security forces captured a man suspected to be one of the alleged Boko Haram terrorists who carried out the attack on a Catholic church in Madalla, on the farthest outskirts of the capital city of Abuja. The attack was one of the deadliest ever launched against the Catholic community living in the country.
The Islamist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombings which left 44 people dead . The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) reported the arrest of Habibu Bama, who was captured in Damaturu, the capital city of the north-eastern federal state of Yobe, where 40-50 people were killed during the week in clashes between government troops and terrorists.
In the federal state of Kaduna, 500 kilometers west of Damaturu, Nigerian security forces brought the situation back under control after days of interreligious fighings which followed the attacks on three Catholic churches Sunday last.
The attacks' death toll is 106 victims. According to Nigerian authorities, order has been restored to the area and the curfew will be cut down to 19 hours as of Friday, to allow citizens to buy water and food from 11 a.m to 16 p.m. The United States announced that Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram leader and two other militants, Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi are now on the list of global terrorists.
Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi are believed to be al-Qaeda liaison officers in Islamic Maghreb. Some experts on terrorism in Africa told Agi that such a decision is "a compromise," since the U.S. Congress had been building up pressure on President Obama to get him to include Boko Haram in the list of international terrorist groups.
The choice of caution, the experts explained, is due to the fact that making the organization part of the list may add to its prestige in the eye of other terrorist groups and of Nigerian Moslim masses. As a result, if Boko Haram were to be officialy on the list, the experts concluded, there could be a sudden worsening of the relations between the more extreme fringe of Boko Haram and its more moderate part, which could be willing to engage in a dialogue with the central government.
The experts believe that Boko Haram lacks a homogeneous structure and vision, being divided into at least three sub-groups, that have different strategies and different financial backers. Hence the U.S.
decision not to designate the whole of Boko Haram as an international terrorist group.
According to the latest data released by the Nigerian authorities, Boko Haram has been carrying out attacks since 2009 causing the death of 1,600 victims - 1,200 people were killed as of 20 Jan. 2012 - whose figure Agi supplemented with the number of victims local media reported in the past 5 months (AGI) . .
