A group blamed for
abducting Westerners claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on troops
heading to Mali on Sunday in Kogi State, Reuters quoted Desert Herald yesterday
as reporting.
The suspected
gunmen opened fire on a convoy of troops traveling to Kaduna from military
formations in southern part of the country for their deployment to Mali,
killing two officers and wounding eight others, in Kogi state, central Nigeria.
The statement in
the online newspaper said the attack was part of a mission to stop Nigerian
troops joining Western powers in their “aim to demolish the Islamic empire of
Mali.”
“We are warning the
African countries to ... (stop) helping Western countries in fighting against
Islam and Muslims or face the utmost difficulties,” said the statement by the
group, whose full name Jama’atu Ansarul Musilimina Fi Biladis Sudan means
“Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa.”
Ansaru is one of
several radical groups seen as the leading security threat to Nigeria.
Dubbed a terrorist
organization by Britain, it has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a
French national last month, citing France’s ban on full-face veils and its
support for military action in Mali as reasons for the abduction.
Thought to be a
breakaway from Boko Haram sect, it has risen to greater prominence over the
past few months. Unlike better-known Boko Haram, it seems to have a much more
thorough focus on global fight, rather than a domestic political agenda
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