The Clarion Project, a United States group challenging Islamic extremism, has begun a campaign to pressure the US government to classify Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organisation.
The project, formerly known as RadicalIslam.org, on Tuesday launched an online campaign to draw America’s support and the White House’s attention to fully regard the Nigerian group as a terrorist organisation.
It gained global relevance with the documentary “The Third Jihad,” and is using an online petition to press its Boko Haram classification project. The online petition has since attracted petitioners from across the world.
Last week, Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group in Nigeria, slaughtered at least 30 school children. The armed terrorists stormed a government secondary school in Mamudo, in the Potiskum aread of Yobe state, then assembled the students and opened fire at them. A witness said many of the victims were burnt alive by the attackers. The gunmen, who also shot dead a teacher, escaped without any arrests.
The attack happened despite a state of emergency imposed on the area by the Nigerian government flooding the area with Nigerian armed forces to wipe out the proscribed organisation.
The attack occurred less than one month after gunmen, on June 16, killed seven students and two teachers in a government secondary school in the nearby city Damaturu; and nine students a day later in neighbouring Borno state. Yobe state has since shut down its secondary schools to forestall further attacks.
Boko Haram in the face of the US
Since 2012, the US State Department has been considering the idea of classifying the group as a terrorist organisation. In June 2012, the US named three leaders of the Boko Haram sect “foreign terrorists,” in the first global move to classify the sect.
The US designated Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnati Lil Da’awati wal Jihad – Boko Haram’s official name – and Abubakar Kambar, and Khalid al Barnawi as terrorists.
Just last month, the US officially declared Abubakar Shekau as “wanted” and placed a $7m bounty on his head. But the US has yet to officially designate the group as an international terrorist.
“The US State Department has refused to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist Organisation,” the Clarion Project said.
Boko Haram terror sect has ravaged northern Nigerian cities with bombs, shootings, abductions and other forms of terrorism, killing at least 3600 since its first attack in August 2009.
Boko Haram set out seeking to impose a stricter form of Sharia, or Islamic law, in northern Nigeria, and end corruption.
Violence by the group, which had only religious interest before 2009, can be traced to the five days of clashes in July 2009, between the group and members of security forces in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, and Kano states that left more than 800 people dead, including at least 30 police officers.
The police summarily executed the captured Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, along with several dozens of his followers, in front of police headquarters in Maiduguri. Dozens of its members were also arrested.
Boko Haram frequently said its attacks on the government, especially the police, were in revenge for these killings, and were attempts to set free its members incarcerated by the police.
On Tuesday, a Nigerian court in Abuja sentenced four Boko Haram members to life imprisonment after convicting them of terrorism charges.
The US pressure group hopes to gather enough signatures to call on the Obama administration to designate Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
........................................ The article was first published in Premium Times and republished again with the author's consent.
