A BBC documentary on Boko Haram, entitled ‘Niger hit by Nigeria’s Boko Haram fallout’
yesterday focused on young boys of a Niger Republic border town with Nigeria, Diffa.
In their hangout, the gang explained their association with the sect. “They have paid
500,000 Nigerian naira ($3,085, £1,835) to those of us who followed them over there. The rest of us, here, we give them information. When they come, we inform them about what’s going on, what the security forces are up to. If they tell you to set off a bomb and it succeeds, if it kills a lot of people, they will pay you a lot of money,”one of the young men said.
Five members of this gang in Diffa, near the border, have joined the group; two have since been killed on operations, he said.
But the ideals for which Boko Haram is fighting – the imposition of strict Sharia, an Islamist caliphate and the banning of Western education – hold no interest for the gang, the report continued.
One of the gang members said, “Boko Haram Islamist militants from Nigeria regularly come across the border, looking for recruits. We can’t contact them, they come to us.”
The documentary showed about a dozen gang members in a tiny, dark room, built with local mud-bricks in the town, with a couple of home made stools and weights for them to exercise just outside the door.
Already, Nigeria’s neighbouring countries – Niger, Cameroon and Chad – are fearful that the group’s insurgency may spill over to their borders.
The Diffa government believes that the emergency rule in place in north-eastern states of Nigeria has not changed anything over the last year.
“It has radicalised Boko Haram more than anything else and generated other gangs and groups of bandits,” one official said.
Asked if they agree with Boko Haram’s reason for fighting, the gang answered in unison: “No. We only do it for the money.”
At least this gives ua insight into how they operate.
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