A man purporting to be
the leader of Nigerian militant sect Boko Haram has threatened to step
up violence in neighbouring Cameroon unless it scraps its constitution
and embraces Islam.
The video posted online this week shows a man
who looks like the group's head, Abubakar Shekau, but is filmed from a
distance at different angles.
The group, which has killed
thousands and kidnapped hundreds in its bid to carve out an Islamic
state in northern Nigeria, had also targeted Cameroon over the past
year. At least 15 people were killed in an attack by suspected Boko
Haram militants on a bus in northern Cameroon on New Year's day .
The
militants have issued dozens of videos since their uprising turned
violent in 2009, sometimes claiming attacks or threatening more. In each
film a man with a beard says he is Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram
leader whom the military in 2013 said it had killed.
The latest message is addressed to Cameroon President Paul Biya.
"I
advise you to desist from following your constitution and democracy,
which is unIslamic," the man says, reading from a script.
"The
only language of peace is to repent and follow Allah, but if you do not
then we will communicate it to you through the language of violence," he
adds.
It was not possible to verify the video independently. It
was done in the style of most of Boko Haram's releases, with Shekau, or
his lookalike, standing in the middle of a patch of sandy bush
surrounded by the masked men with AK-47s and four-wheel-drive vehicles
with guns mounted on them.
The videos are the main means that the group - or at least a faction of it - uses to get its message out.
Boko
Haram has long been the main security threat to Nigeria, Africa's
leading energy producer, biggest economy and most populous nation, but
it is also a growing menace to neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
It took over the headquarters of a multinational force for the four countries over the weekend.
Nigeria
last year accused Cameroon of not doing enough to tackle Boko Haram.
But since then Islamist attacks have risen in Cameroon, and the country
has responded by killing scores of their fighters.
No comments:
Post a Comment