Boko Haram threatens region in video, attacks Niger, Cameroon
Abubakar Shekau in new YouTube video, threatening the region photo/ screenshot
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau vowed in a new video released on Monday that the group would defeat a regional force fighting the extremists in Nigeria’s far northeast, Niger and Cameroon.
“Your alliance will not achieve anything. Amass all your weapons and face us. We welcome you,” he said in a 28-minute speech, one of three videos posted by the Islamists on YouTube.
The Islamic terrorists attacked attacked a town in north Cameroon last week, leaving behind over 100 dead as they stormed the town of Fotokol, killing civilians in their homes and a local mosque.
Niger’s army repelled the second attack in three days by Boko Haram on the border town of Diffa on Sunday, a day before its parliament votes on whether to join a regional offensive against the Nigerian Islamist group.
Several people were killed in fierce early morning fighting when Boko Haram gunmen attempted to advance toward the town but were pushed back by the army, military sources said.
“We never rose up to fight Africa. We rose up to fight the world,” Shekau said.
“We are going to fight the world on the principle that whoever doesn’t obey Allah and the Prophet to either obey or die or become a slave.”
Chad has deployed some 2,500 troops to Niger’s southern border region and to Cameroon ahead of a planned military offensive by regional powers against Boko Haram, this brings the rumored troop total to over 8,000.
“You send 7,000 troops? Why don’t you send 70 million? This is small. Only 7,000? By Allah, it is small. We can seize them one-by-one. We can seize them one-by-one,” the Boko Haram leader mocked and then directly threatened Chad’s President Idriss Deby
