Dasuki Sambo-Boko Haram Will Be Dismantled in 6 Weeks

Nigeria on Monday vowed to defeat Boko Haram within six weeks as its leader Abubakar Shekau threatened: ‘‘a new regional fighting force will not achieve anything” even if the rebels launched fresh cross-border attacks.

National Security Advisor Sambo Dasuki, who over the weekend secured a delay to Nigeria’s presidential elections, said “all known Boko Haram camps will be taken out” by the time of the rescheduled vote.Boko Haram will not be there, they will be dismantled, in an interview when asked what gains could be made against the Islamists terrorist group before the new elections date of March 28.

Dasuki Sambo in a statement said: that even if the goal was not totally achieved “the situation then would surely be conducive enough for elections”, with no need for a further postponement of the election.Although Greater regional co-operation made it more likely that the rebels, whose aim of fighting is to create a hard-line Islamic state have claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2009, would however be defeated, he said.

However, Boko Haram last week opened up a new frontier in Niger after sustained attacks in Cameroon’s far northern region, which led to the deployment of Chadian troops alongside Cameroon forces to help combat the heat.

The Islamist group has widened its offensive in recent weeks in the far north-east of Nigeria around Lake Chad where the borders of all four countries converge.

                                                    

The Islamist terrorist group earlier released three new videos on YouTube, one of which records a 28-minute speech from its leader Abubakar Shekau in an undisclosed location flanked by eight masked fighters. In the tape, he dismissed the threat from regional forces, stating: “Your alliance will not achieve anything. Amass all your weapons and face us. We welcome you.”

However, Nigeria has maintained that the involvement of troops from Chad and Cameroon is going to be part of an existing agreement to fight the Islamists terrorist group between countries in the Lake Chad region.On Saturday, Nigeria and its neighbours Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin came to a closed agreement to muster 8,700 troops, police and civilians inclusive for a wider, African Union-backed force against Boko Haram.

Meanwhile Mahamadou Karidjo Niger’s Defence Minister said: he hoped parliamentary approval would deliver “the final blow” to Boko Haram, adding that troops were “chomping at the bit to go”.

The size of the new force had previously been set at about 7,500 but the leader of the terrorist group Abubakar Shekau, whom the United States have estimated to having between 4,000 to 6,000 fighters at his disposal, dismissed the threat.“You send 7,000 troops? Why don’t you send seven million? This is small. Only 7,000? By Allah, it is small. We can seize them one-by-one. We can seize them one-by-one,” he said in Arabic.

Abubakar Shekau also directly threatened Chad’s President Idriss Deby, whose forces have attacked Boko Haram in the northeast Nigerian towns of Gamboru and Malam Fatori in recent days.

Shekau’s speech appeared to put the Boko Haram insurgency in the wider context of global jihad, possibly in response to the regional nature of the conflict.

It is also thought that the terrorist group have a few direct, operational links to jihadi groups elsewhere, which is believed to include some foreign fighters, most likely paid mercenaries.

Abubakar Shekau also mentioned groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the leader of the so-called Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In his speech Shekau appears to broaden the group’s aim: “We never rose up to fight Africa. We rose up to fight the world.

“We are going to fight the world on the principle that whoever doesn’t obey Allah and the Prophet to either obey or die or become a slave.”

Culled from Vanguard