Jonathan, Buhari Are Infidels, Says Shekau -

The Boko Haram Islamist sect on Tuesday claimed
responsibility for the attack on a multinational military base in
Baga, Borno State, during which about 2,000 people were
killed on January 3, this year.
The sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, in a new video on You tube
also taunted Presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon, Mahamadou
Issoufou of Niger and Idris Deby of Chad.
He also expressed disdain for President Goodluck Jonathan,
and the presidential candidate of the All Progressives
Congress in the February 14 presidential election, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), describing them as infidels.
Shekau, who spoke in Hausa said, “Jonathan, you are in
trouble. And Buhari, do you think he is a true Muslim? He’s an
infidel.”
The insurgents, who invaded Baga early this year, razed many
buildings and homes in the week that followed, shooting
civilians as they tried to flee, witnesses said.
Some local officials put the death toll as high as 2,000,
although the military said it was 150.
The video was in the trademark Boko Haram style, with the
bearded man claiming to be Shekau in combat fatigues and
surrounded by masked gunmen.
“We are the ones that carried out the attack and it is just the
tip of the iceberg. There are more coming,” he said.
On the weapons the insurgents seized from Baga, he said they
were enough to annihilate Nigeria.
Soldiers fled the area after the nearby army base, which is the
headquarters of a multinational force comprising troops from
Chad, Niger and Cameroon, by Lake Chad was overrun. Chad
and Cameroon are being drawn into the fight against Boko
Haram, but mistrust has hampered cooperation.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor,
Fatou Bensouda, has condemned the escalation of “appalling
levels of violence” in the North-East and warned that she
would prosecute members of any party responsible for war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bensouda said her office had continued a preliminary
examination into allegations that Boko Haram extremists were
killing large numbers of civilians, using girls and boys to
participate in the conflict and forcing massive numbers of
people from their homes.
She also warned the Federal Government of its obligation to
prosecute crimes that “deeply shock the conscience of
humanity.
“No one should doubt my resolve, if need be, to prosecute
those individuals most responsible for war crimes or crimes
against humanity,” Bensouda said in a statement from the
court’s headquarters in The Hague on Tuesday.
Boko Haram has increased the ferocity and tempo of its
attacks in recent weeks, with international outrage over
reports that as many as 2,000 civilians may have been
systematically slaughtered in the January 3, 2015 attack on
Baga town and the military base at the border with Cameroon.
The sect had also increased attacks on Cameroon, raising
fears that the conflict was spreading and prompting the
country to deploy troops to defend its borders with Nigeria.
Niger’s Foreign Minister, Bazoum Mohamed, told a meeting on
Tuesday of the Economic Community of West African States
to discuss a collective response to Boko Haram, saying that
the Islamic militants are no longer a Nigerian problem but they
threaten the security of the region.