Ansaru claims attack on Mali-bound troops

Category: News Published on Monday, 21 January 2013 06:00

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.