Nigerian Islamist sect claims to have formed an Islamic caliphate in the northeastern town of Gwoza, more than four months after gaining international attention by kidnapping 200 schoolgirls.
ABUJA - The leader of Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram said his fighters were now ruling the captured north-eastern town of Gwoza “by Islamic law,” in the first video to state a territorial claim in more than five years of violent insurrection.
Abubakar Shekau, who leads the insurgents, said in a video that the group would enforce Islamic law in Gwoza, a town of about 250,000 people, in Borno state, about 850 kilometres north-east of the capital, Abuja.
- "We are in an Islamic State Caliphate. We have nothing to do with Nigeria"
- "Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza, and made her part of the Islamic Caliphate."
His forces have killed thousands since launching an uprising in 2009, and are seen as the biggest security threat to the continent's leading energy producer.
Boko Haram is also believed to control other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swaths of territories in northern Borno.
Although, the Nigerian military denied Boko Haram had taken control of the town, the UN Humanitarian Office confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.
Officials refused to deploy soldiers to Gwaza without better weapons (in an apparent mutiny).
People reportedly lined up before being executed by members of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. Photo: AFP
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