Jonathan, Buhari are infidels, says Shekau

The Boko Haram Islamist sect on Tuesday claimed
responsibility for the attack on a multinational
military base in Baga, Borno State, during which
about 2,000 people were killed on January 3, this
year.
The sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a new video
on You tube also taunted Presidents Paul Biya of
Cameroon, Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger and Idris
Deby of Chad.
He also expressed disdain for President Goodluck
Jonathan, and the presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress in the February 14
presidential election, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), describing them as infidels.
Shekau, who spoke in Hausa said, “Jonathan, you
are in trouble. And Buhari, do you think he is a
true Muslim? He’s an infidel.”
The insurgents, who invaded Baga early this year,
razed many buildings and homes in the week that
followed, shooting civilians as they tried to flee,
witnesses said.
Some local officials put the death toll as high as
2,000, although the military said it was 150.
The video was in the trademark Boko Haram style,
with the bearded man claiming to be Shekau in
combat fatigues and surrounded by masked
gunmen.
“We are the ones that carried out the attack and it
is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more
coming,” he said.
On the weapons the insurgents seized from Baga,
he said they were enough to annihilate Nigeria.
Soldiers fled the area after the nearby army base,
which is the headquarters of a multinational force
comprising troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon,
by Lake Chad was overrun. Chad and Cameroon
are being drawn into the fight against Boko Haram,
but mistrust has hampered cooperation.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court’s
prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has condemned the
escalation of “appalling levels of violence” in the
North-East and warned that she would prosecute
members of any party responsible for war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
Bensouda said her office had continued a
preliminary examination into allegations that Boko
Haram extremists were killing large numbers of
civilians, using girls and boys to participate in the
conflict and forcing massive numbers of people
from their homes.
She also warned the Federal Government of its
obligation to prosecute crimes that “deeply shock
the conscience of humanity.
“No one should doubt my resolve, if need be, to
prosecute those individuals most responsible for
war crimes or crimes against humanity,” Bensouda
said in a statement from the court’s headquarters
in The Hague on Tuesday.
Boko Haram has increased the ferocity and tempo
of its attacks in recent weeks, with international
outrage over reports that as many as 2,000
civilians may have been systematically slaughtered
in the January 3, 2015 attack on Baga town and
the military base at the border with Cameroon.
The sect had also increased attacks on Cameroon,
raising fears that the conflict was spreading and
prompting the country to deploy troops to defend
its borders with Nigeria.
Niger’s Foreign Minister, Bazoum Mohamed, told a
meeting on Tuesday of the Economic Community
of West African States to discuss a collective
response to Boko Haram, saying that the Islamic
militants are no longer a Nigerian problem but they
threaten the security of the region.