U.N. Security Council blacklists Boko Haram leader, splinter group

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council sanctioned the leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram and a splinter group on Wednesday, the first individual and entity to be designated by the world body since the Islamist militant group was blacklisted, diplomats said.

Leader Abubakar Shekau and Boko Haram faction Ansaru will be banned from international travel and their assets frozen under the U.N. al Qaeda sanctions list.

Boko Haram Terrorists abduct another 20 women near chibok

Suspected Islamist gunmen abducted about 20 women from a nomadic settlement near the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped two months ago, a local official said.

The ethnic Fulani women were taken after the assailants attacked a settlement known as Garkin Fulani at midday yesterday and ordered the women into their vehicles at gunpoint, Alhaji Tar, a member of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, said in a phone interview. They were driven off to an unknown location, he said.

“We got the information that they went there and took away the women at the time none of the males were there,” Tar said. “The three young men they met there could not help the women, as the gunmen also ordered the three of them to enter the Hilux vans and took all of them away.”

Chibok Girls: Hollywood celebrities and Imams agree - #RealMenDontBuyGirls

Hollywood celebrities, including Sean Penn, Justin Timberlake, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx, and others are tweeting photos of themselves holding a sign saying "Real Men Don't Buy Girls." Islamic scholars agree.

International organization for Islamic Affairs has also condemned the kidnapping of the School Girls in Chibok, Borno state, Nigeria.

We're talking about Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group that's taken nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls captive. The group, which opposes secular Western education (among other things) has been active in Nigeria for years. But as The Christian Science Monitor's reporter in Nigeria explains, 

"The numbers of those being killed by the Boko Haram insurgents, combined with the grisly operations they engineered, reached a critical mass after nearly 10 months of ever more horrific attacks on civilians, churches, boys, roadways, mosques, and bus stations." 

Boko Haram May Attack Lagos state- U S Warns

The United state of America has warned that the Lagos state of Nigeria may be attack by the Islamist Insurgents who has been terrorising the country for the past five years.

US has Issued a  warning to its citizens of a plan to attack by the militants on one of two Sheraton hotels near Lagos, Nigeria's main commercial hub which attracts many foreign business people and which so far has been spared by the country's violent Islamist militants.

The State Department made this known in a statement on its website that those behind the plot were "groups associated with terrorism", but gave no further details.

The activities of the Islamic militant group Boko Haram has been on the increase in the recent time and many places has been attacked including the Federal Capital, Abuja.

Hope the appropriate security agencies will take a precautionary measures to avert the planned attacks! 

"Soldiers In Boko Haram-Plagued Areas Accuse Army Generals Of Siphoning Security Funds" - SaharaReporters, New York

Several soldiers operating in the Northeastern part of Nigeria, which is the hub of attacks by Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group, have accused top officers of siphoning much of the funds for counter-insurgency.

In confidential interviews, the soldiers said their generals and other officers were enriching themselves even as the soldiers in the frontline of the fight against the terrorist group live in squalid conditions and suffer from extreme deprivation as well as lack of basic facilities.

The soldiers criticized the operational tactics used by the top brass of the Army who decide how to run the counter-offensive against Boko Haram insurgents. The soldiers, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of strict anonymity, claimed that it was the common view of soldiers that their commanding officers’ decisions were informed primarily by a desire to enrich themselves at the expense of the welfare and morale of soldiers and the effectiveness of the overall fight against Boko Haram.

Most of our sources wondered why three different units with separate command structures have been stationed in the same barracks located along Maha Road in the Mubi local government area of Adamawa State.