Nigeria cautiously welcomes ceasefire
2013-01-29 21:03
-
Boko Haram
A book of articles about the violent jihadist terrorist organization based in the northeast of...
Now R810.00
buy now
Maiduguri - Security forces in Nigeria's volatile
northeast welcomed on Tuesday a ceasefire declaration by a commander of the
Islamist sect Boko Haram, but said they would not lower their guard.
Sheik Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, a man local security
sources say is a Boko Haram commander, called on sect members to halt attacks
that have left many hundreds dead since it launched an uprising to carve out an
Islamic state in Nigeria in 2009.
But it was not immediately clear if Abdulazeez was
speaking on behalf of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau who has neither
publicly backed, nor denounced the commander who also called for dialogue in
November last year.
In a statement to journalists in Maiduguri, the sect's
headquarters, Abdulazeez urged security forces to reciprocate.
"Conflicts are resolved through dialogue, hence the
declaration of ceasefire by the sect's leader is a welcome development,"
Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesperson for joint military and police
forces (JTF) in Borno state, said by phone.
"Be that as it may, the JFT will remain in a staging
position to continue maintaining law and order... in its area of operational
responsibility," he said.
The doubts over the authority of Abdulazeez raise
questions about possible rifts within the secretive militant movement.
He may represent only one faction within Boko Haram,
which is seen as the main security threat to Africa's leading energy producer.
Hours before he spoke, gunmen in Borno state killed eight
people in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, but which could also
have been one of several criminal gangs profiting from the growing lawlessness
in Nigeria's northeast.
The timing of the alleged ceasefire has been seen as
curious given Nigeria's involvement in military efforts to dislodge Islamists
in Mali, with whom Boko Haram are known to have forged links.
Security agencies had been braced for a backlash.
A spokesperson for Borno state governor Kashim Shettima
also welcomed the ceasefire.
"The governor has regularly advocated that, unless
we want to engage in an endless war, the best way out of the crisis is
dialogue," his spokesperson Isa Umar Gusau said.
President Goodluck Jonathan has alluded to links between
Boko Haram and Saharan Islamists as a reason for joining efforts by allied
French and West African forces fighting them in Mali.
But critics say Nigeria's insurgency is largely a home-grown
problem that can only be resolved with a political settlement.
