Britain and
the United States on Friday said Boko Haram was preparing to kidnap foreigners
in remote northeast Nigeria , which is in the grip of a food crisis caused by
the conflict.
The Foreign
Office in London said it had received reports the Islamist militants were
“actively planning” to seize foreign workers in the Bama local government area
of Borno state.
Both said in
travel advice that the affected area was “ along the Banki -Kumshe axis ” ,
which is near the border with Cameroon.
The US
embassy in Abuja said in a message to its nationals that the report was “
credible ”.
Boko Haram
has kidnapped thousands of women and children, including more than 200
schoolgirls from the Borno town of Chibok in 2014, which brought the conflict
to world attention.
At least 20,
000 people have been killed since 2009. But abductions of foreigners have been
rare.
There was a
spate of kidnappings of foreign workers in the wider north from 2011 to 2013,
claimed by a Boko Haram splinter group, Ansaru, which was more ideologically
aligned to Al - Qaeda.
The leader
of Ansaru, Khalid al- Barnawi, has been charged with the abduction and murder
of foreign workers, among them an Italian, a Briton, a German, Greek, Lebanese
and Syrians.
Most were
engineers or construction workers.
International
aid workers now account for the majority of foreign nationals in northeast
Nigeria. Most are based in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
Hundreds of
thousands of people in the Lake Chad region require urgent food aid as a result
of the conflict , which has made more than 2.6million people homeless and
ravaged farmland.
AFP visited
Banki with other international media two weeks ago.
Humanitarian
agencies operating in the town include the World Food Programme , International
Organization for Migration and other UN bodies.
Banki was
liberated from Boko Haram in September 2015 and is currently home to some 32,
000 displaced people in a sprawling, overcrowded camp.
The
surrounding area still suffers from frequent Boko Haram attacks on military
convoys , as well as suicide bombings.
Fighters
loyal to Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau , who were pushed out of their camps
in the Sambisa Forest area last December , are believed to be responsible.
The kidnap
warning and the threat to humanitarian operations underline the fragility of
security in northeast Nigeria , despite claims from the government and military
that Boko Haram is a spent force.
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