A Nigerian Islamist sect routed in a brutal assault last year is feared to have reemerged with a series of attacks and shootings, leading to military patrols and grim reminders of 2009 unrest.
Police suspect the sect, known as Boko Haram, has been behind a spate of deadly shootings by gunmen on motorcycles in Nigeria’s north, as well as attacks on police stations and a prison raid that freed more than 700 inmates.
Military deployments, including army checkpoints and two helicopters that hover above throughout the day, have been sent to this northeastern city in recent weeks.
Hundreds were killed after the military and police launched an assault to put down an uprising by the sect last year, leaving its headquarters and mosque in ruins.
A video has emerged purporting to show the Islamists raid the prison in the city of Bauchi in September — an attack that also freed about 100 suspected sect members — as well as issue new threats.
The militants in the video say they do not want to be known as Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language.
They say in the video, which includes a picture of Osama bin Laden, that they want to be called a phrase that translates roughly to “People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad.”
“We will avenge the killings of our brethren and the destruction of our homes,” a militant whose face is masked as well as blurred says in the video in the Hausa language as he sits beside an AK-47 rifle.
“We have been permitted by Allah to fight whoever kills us and destroys our homes.”
The video has apparently not been widely distributed and its authenticity could not be confirmed. Footage purportedly showing the prison raid was filmed from a distance and is unfocused, though gunfire can be heard.
Abdulkareem Mohammed, a filmmaker who has written a book on the sect and watched the footage, said he believed it to be authentic.
Kyari Mohammed, a professor who is also working on a book on Boko Haram, had not seen the video but said its existence would not surprise him. He also said one reason it may not be more widely distributed is because the group remains a local one.
However, a Washington-based organisation, the Middle East Media Research Institute, recently warned that Boko Haram may be forming links with Al-Qaeda’s north Africa branch.
Such links would mark a sharp change in the group, with many observers saying it grew out of frustration with Nigeria’s massive corruption, poverty and lack of opportunities for young people.
Local chiefs in the city say they have received threats from suspected sect members because they are perceived as having assisted police in identifying militants after last year’s unrest.
“I live in constant fear of attack by Boko Haram members, who have called me twice informing they were going to kill me,” one neighbourhood chief said.
Police officers and community leaders have been among the targets of the shootings in recent months.
Authorities refused to comment this week about the military presence and suspected return of the sect, though the army chief of staff recently visited Maiduguri and spoke of the strategy.
“The deployment of the helicopters … was to provide surveillance and trace the hideout of members of Boko Haram and other criminals who have been terrorizing the state,” said Azubuike Ihejirika.
Motorcycles are now banned at night, though shootings have still occurred here despite the restriction.
The government in Borno state, where Maiduguri is the capital, has promised a 500,000 naira (3,333 dollar) reward for information on the sect.
But suspected sect members responded with their own campaign, distributing fliers — since torn down — warning that anyone who provided police with information would be killed, residents said.
Abubakar Tsav, a respected former police commissioner for the economic capital Lagos, said authorities had embarked on the wrong strategy.
“I can’t see any rationale in the use of gunships to check hit-and-run attacks by motorcycle riders in alleyways,” he said, referring to the helicopters. “The best strategy in such situation is the use of undercover surveillance.”
One resident said locals would never report the sect members.
“The truth is that the attackers are known among residents, but no one is willing to stick his neck out for fear of reprisals,” the resident said at a shopping centre in the city.