News
Relative of slain Nigeria sect leader shot dead after talks with former president
Fugu is a relative of the late Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, who died in police custody following a 2009 sect riot and security crackdown that left 700 people dead. Fugu and other family members had spoken with former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday in a fledgling peace effort to stop the sect’s attacks.
Speaking Friday to the AP in Maiduguri, Fugu said the meeting with Obasanjo raised their “confidence by 100 percent.” Fugu said the former president promised to brief current President Goodluck Jonathan about the talks.
Family members asked Obasanjo to have their destroyed homes rebuilt, to receive a promised court settlement of $6,600 from the government, Fugu said. They also asked that officials compensate other sect members who lost relatives in the 2009 security crackdown.
It remains unclear who is actually leading Boko Haram since Yusuf’s death. Analysts and diplomats have said they believe the sect is split into at least three subgroups, each with its own loose command-and-control structure. Fugu’s killing Saturday and the quick claim of responsibility by Boko Haram appears to indicate that either Yusuf’s family had no direct control of the group or that they upset sect commanders by negotiating.
The killing also suggests Nigeria’s government won’t be able to find a political solution to end Boko Haram’s violence, which has included targeted assassinations and bombings. The group’s U.N. suicide bombing that wounded 116 people also shows it expanded its targets to include foreigners.
Last month, the commander for U.S. military operations in Africa told the AP that Boko Haram may be trying to coordinate attacks with al-Shabab of Somalia and north African group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The sect’s members scattered after the 2009 crackdown, with some now reportedly living in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is split largely between a Christian south and a Muslim north. Unemployment and unceasing poverty, coming despite the nation making billions a year from oil production, have increased resentment in recent years in the north. Boko Haram, which wants the strict implementation of Shariah law in the country, tapped into that unrest.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
