France to increase troop numbers in Ivory Coast after beach attack

French Defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

(Reuters) - France will nearly double the number of troops it has in Ivory Coast, the defence minister said on Saturday on a visit during which he laid flowers at the site of an attack on tourists that killed 19 people.

Jean-Yves Le Drian placed a bouquet on the beach in Grand Bassam, a resort town 40 km (25 miles) from Abidjan, where gunmen shot swimmers and sunbathers before storming hotels last month, an attack claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Four French citizens were killed.

How Cameroon, Chad, Niger became a den of terrorists: Boko Haram get cross-border assistance for their operations

Take a very close look, if you have the heart, at the gory pictures of the wreckage at Nyanya Mass Transit Park, Abuja rocked by bomb blast in the early morning of Monday, April 14, 2014. About 100 people were killed, over 200 others sustained injuries, many maimed, burnt beyond recognition while nearly 18 high capacity buses, several smaller commercial vehicles and cars filled with passengers ready to leave, all destroyed in the explosion planned and mindlessly executed by Boko Haram Islamist insurgents.

Immediately following on the heels of the Nyanya deadly blast about 234 female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, were abducted by the Boko Haram sect after sitting for the West African School Certificate (WASC) examinations. This has caused international outrage as USA, Britain and other western European countries have pledged to assist Nigeria in efforts to rescue the abducted school girls.

REVEALED: ‘Islamist Boko Haram Got Over N11 Billion To Maim And Kill Nigerians’ (SPECIAL REPORT)

The Islamist group, Boko Haram,  may have got over $70million between 2006 and 2011 for its insurgent activities in Nigeria which claimed  lives, the most recent of which is the Friday Nyanya, Abuja bombing, from its sponsors. At a conservative exchange rate of 1 to 160, that amount comes to N11.2billion.

This and many others were part of  the revelations by retired Major Chris Moghalu of the United States of America’s military. And whereas he first made the disclosure on the African Independent Television, AIT, morning magazine programme, FOCUS NIGERIA, hosted by Gbenga Aruleba, Sunday Vanguard was able to track Major Moghalu.

In a telephone conversation preparatory, Moghalu disclosed that he was “bothered about the embarrassment of the specific issue of the abduction saga, but more worried about the insurgency that has given Nigeria a bad name.” He added: “All  what people like us want to do is help”.

Sources said trans-national criminal activities including kidnap for ransom, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and  armed robbery  were  sources of revenue for Boko Haram.