More than 250 members of the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), more commonly referred to as Boko Haram, have left northeastern Nigeria to join criminal gangs in the northwest, which they are said to be training in the handling of weapons.
Two military sources told AFP that the fighters were in the Rijana forest in the Chicun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Two JAS commanders – with their foot soldiers – would train the gangs to handle weapons, anti-aircraft guns and automatic weapons and how to manufacture explosive devices.
The move by JAS is said to be a sign that it is cooperating with criminal gangs in the northwest, which raid and loot and conduct mass abductions for ransom.
The military had told security agencies in Kaduna to brace themselves for attacks, abductions and more theft of cattle. They believed that these gangs, known as bandits, did not act out of any ideological motivation but that they had been involved with insurgents northeast for several years.
The commanders and their foot soldiers belonged to a faction still loyal to Abubakar Shekau, the long-time leader of the JAS, who died in May during a clash with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Shekau reportedly detonated his suicide vest, killing himself and others instantly.
They were allied with Bakoura Buduma, a JAS chief, and had a camp around Lake Chad, close to the border with Niger.
A Nigerian security agency communique earlier this month had warned counterparts in Kaduna that the two JAS commanders and their foot soldiers were moving into the northwest.
According to the memo, the Civil Defence Corps was “directed to step up surveillance and intelligence gathering” in the area.
AFP reported that the northwest had been plagued by bandit groups for years, but that they had stepped up the number of attacks this year.
Abductions had also surged as the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic had fed criminality.
Criminal gangs had targeted schools in a series of high-profile mass abductions of pupils for ransom.
On September 1, gunmen abducted 73 pupils from a school in the northwest, just days after three other groups of hostages were freed when ransom payments were reportedly made.
Attackers descended upon the Government Day Secondary School located in the remote village of Kaya, according to Zamfara State police spokesman Mohammed Shehu.
The increasing rate of abductions in the northwest had forced some state governments to temporarily close down schools because they could not ensure sufficient security in areas where there was not an adequate police presence.
