Nigeria’s military
banned the use of Thuraya mobile phones on Wednesday in Borno State, a step it
said was designed to stop the Boko Haram sect from communicating.
President Goodluck
Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and two other states on May 14,
ordering extra troops in to try to crush the sect, whose insurgency has killed
thousands of people in the past three years.
Reuters reports that
authorities cut the mobile network in the state in the same week to disrupt
Boko Haram’s operations.
It is the most
determined offensive yet against Boko Haram, whose nickname translates as
“Western education is sinful” and whose struggle to carve an Islamic state out
of religiously-mixed Nigeria has destabilized the country.
The military spokesman
in Borno State, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said the ban was imposed after evidence
emerged that Boko Haram used satellite phones to coordinate attacks on
civilians, including in two school attacks in the past week.
Suspected sect members
fired on a school in Maiduguri on Tuesday, killing nine students. The attack
followed one in the city of Damaturu, also under a state of emergency, that
killed seven pupils and two teachers.
“Effective from June
19, the JTF imposes a ban on the use and sales of Thuraya phones and accessories,”
Musa said in a statement handed out to journalists. “Anyone seen with Thuraya
phones, recharge cards and accessories will be arrested.”
The move will make it
even more difficult for journalists to report from the conflict zone, something
press freedom groups say Nigeria’s military has been trying to do anyway.
Source: The Nation
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