Several members of Boko Haram, the Islamic sect blamed for the violence that swept across five states in northern Nigeria last week, were trained in Algeria in the last three years while the sect got its arms from Afghanistan, the private Nation newspaper reported Sunday.
Quoting an unidentified ”highly-placed source”, the paper said the sect, which abhors Western education and whose members targeted the security agencies and government infrastructure for attack, has links with a guerilla group called GSPC or Jamatul Salafia, which is based in the desert of Algeria.
It identified one Khalid Barnawi, an Algeria, as the sponsor of the Algerian group.
The Nation reported that the first batch of Boko Haram recruits were trained in Algeria in 2006, while the Algerian group trained six bomb making experts in Borno – the base of the Boko Haram sect.
”They have Al- Qaeda network through some of their members like Abdul Barah and Mohammed Al-Amin who was in Afghanistan because of his strong connection with a few Al-Qaeda members,” the paper reported.
Boko Haram is known as the ‘Nigerian Taliban’, apparently because of its connection to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Since launching an attack against a police station in Bauchi and triggering a shootout with the police, the sect has launched violence in four other states in the north, leaving over 1,000 people dead.
In a four-day running battle with police and soldiers, the sect’s base in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, was destroyed and its leaders killed.
The State Security Service (SSS) said its series of warnings about the activities of the group were ignored by the authorities.