Who's financing Boko Haram?
By
Peter Weber | 10:30am ET
A wanted poster for Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is pasted on a wall in a village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria. (Tim Cocks/Reuters/Corbis)
"Analysts say the actual source of the funding is as elusive as the militants themselves,"
says Heather Murdock at VOA News. But Boko Haram is clearly getting richer. Its weapons have shifted from relatively cheap AK-47s in the early days of its post-2009 embrace of violence to desert-ready combat vehicles and anti-aircraft/anti-tank guns. Here's a look at what we know, and what we suspect, about the organization's financial support:
Kidnapping
Abducting hundreds of schoolgirls, possibly to sell as "brides," is how Boko Haram gained international notoriety. But additionally, "kidnapping has become one of the group's primary funding sources, a way to extract concessions from the Nigerian state and other governments, and a threat to foreigners and Nigerian government officials,"
says Jacob Zenn at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center.
It has been a lucrative source of cash, too. Last year, Boko Haram secured $3 million and the release of 16 prisoners in exchange for a French family of seven it seized in northern Cameroon. The group has claimed credit for a few kidnappings since then, but they are widely suspected of carrying out dozens of other abductions-for-ransom in northern Nigeria, says Zenn. "Virtually all of the kidnapping victims were mid-level officials, or their relatives, who were not wealthy enough to have security details, but could afford modest ransoms of about $10,000."
Robbery
Along with ransom money, "Boko Haram has partly financed its militant operations by attacking and robbing banks,"
says David Doukhan at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism. The group has robbed hundreds of banks in its home province of Borno and two other northern regions of Nigeria, and nabbed convoys and successful businesses. If that sounds not particularly pious for a fundamentalist religious group, "the robbery is justified by Koranic interpretation that bank robbery is permitted, since the money from the banks is considered 'spoils of war,'" Doukhan adds. Some estimates put Boko Haram's thievery spoils at about $6 million.
Taxes and protection money
Boko Haram has demanded and received protection money from the governors of the northern Nigeria states since 2004,
says Taiwo Ogundipe at Nigeria's The Nation, citing an unidentified spokesman for the group and other captured Boko Haram operatives. "The Northern governors are overwhelmed about the strength of the group and are aware of the capabilities of Boko Haram operatives in their respective states," the spokesman said.
That was in 2011. From then until at least mid-2013, Boko Haram was the de facto ruler of large swathes of Nigeria. "It would appear that they have established bases in certain parts of the northeast that nobody can even penetrate or go to, and they’ve excluded every symbol of authority in those areas," Clement Nwankwo, at the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center in Abuja,
told VOA News in May 2013. "Some even say they are in control of various local governments in the northeast and are collecting taxes and running the show in those places."
Foreign terrorist organizations
Boko Haram is widely believed to have received funding from regional and international Islamist terrorist organizations, though how much and from which groups is in dispute.
The Daily Beast's Eli Lake reports that the group received some early seed money from Osama bin Laden in 2002, through a disciple named Mohammed Ali who bin Laden sent to Africa with $3 million for like-minded militant organizations.
"We are not saying all $3 million went to Boko Haram," the International Crisis Group's
E.J. Hogendoorn tells The Daily Beast. "What I can tell you from talking to lots of conservative Muslims in Nigeria is that there was a lot of money coming into northern Nigeria, there are many sources of that money. One of those sources was from al Qaeda."
The group has also reportedly gotten money from Algerian al Qaeda offshoot al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Somali group al-Shabab. One motive those groups have is setting up friendly safe havens in the region. "I think there must be some funding coming from extremist groups, coming from some extremist groups who want perhaps to create a base in northern Nigeria,"
Nwankwo tells VOA News.
Foreign civic groups
There are a handful of non-militant groups
accused of shuttling money to Boko Haram, including Britain's Al-Muntada Trust Fund and Saudi Arabia's Islamic World Society. "Monetary practices embedded in Muslim culture, such as donating to charities and informal money-transfer centers, have compounded the difficulty in tracking down terrorist financial links,"
says David Doukhan at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
Who's financing Boko Haram? - The Week
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Boko Haram’s funding traced to UK, S/Arabia •Sect planned to turn Nigeria into Afghanistan •Arrested kingpin opens up
INVESTIGATIONS into activities of the dreaded militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram have led operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) and its collaborative local and international agencies into the sources of funding of the dreaded sect.
Information at the disposal of Nigerian Tribune indicates that operatives were told that the group had received funds from some Al-Qaeda-linked organisations based in the middle East.
However, the operatives were said to have made a shocking find, which confirmed that the group actually received funding from a United Kingdom-based (UK) organisation.
It was gathered that leaders of the sect already arrested had opened up by giving some strategic information, especially on the funding of the dreaded organisation.
Sources confirmed that while the organisation relied on donations by its members in its earlier days, its links with Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) opened it to fundings from groups in Saudi Arabia and the UK.
According to the sources, different confirmations coming from sources in Boko Haram had indicated clearly that a group known as Al-Muntada Trust Fund, with headquarters in the United Kingdom, had extended some financial assistance to the sect.
Investigations, so far, revealed that the sect received financial assistance from some Islamic organisations.
“The sect was also said to have received funding from Islamic World Society with headquarters in Saudi Arabia,” one source stated.
It was gathered that while initial funds for the sect came from contributions by members, there were also donations from notable Muslims, especially a businessman, who was once said to have donated a bus and some loud speakers to the organisation and the late Baba Fugu, Mohammed Yusuf’s in-law, who was said to have donated a farmland at Auno village in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State.
It was also gathered that security agencies have uncovered another sponsor, whose identity was given as a businessman from Bauchi State. He was said to have developed links with Al-Qaeda in Somalia having received some training from one Abu Umar Al-Wadud, the man who leads Al-Qaeda in Somalia.
The man was said to have escaped from Nigeria in 2009, following the onslaught by security agencies and he is said to be living in Somalia.
Intelligence officers were also said to have been told that the said businessman visited Nigeria in October 2010 and was said to have held meetings in Kano with the leaders of Boko Haram, including Abubakar Shekau, the acclaimed military commander.
It was also gathered that the sect originally planned to replicate Afghanistan situation in Nigeria, as it named its original base in Yobe State as Afghanistan.
Investigators were said to have confirmed that Boko Haram was fashioned after the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and that one of its earliest bases located in Kanama, Yobe State was named Afghanistan.
The base was, however, said to have been demolished in December 2004.
“The group is originally fashioned after the Tali-bans in Afghanistan and it intended to replicate the Afghan situation across Nigeria.
“That is why one of the original bases was named Afghanistan before its demolition in 2004,” a source disclosed.
It was also learnt at the weekend that the State Security Services (SSS) planned to immediately commence the trial of the arrested Boko Haram kingpins as, according to sources, the Director-General of SSS had issued orders indicating that the operatives investigating the suspects must conclude investigations quickly, so as to give way for trial.
http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php...ia-into-afghanistan-arrested-kingpin-opens-up
KSA nor any other Arab country or Muslim for that matter has anything to do with that cult or the social/economic/cultural realities of Nigeria that helps create and sustain Boko Haram.
