Ramon Oladimeji
The new Boko Haram leader, Abu Masab
Al-Barnawi, says Christians in Nigeria will be the new target of the
sect’s attacks, vowing that the sect will kill all Christians and “blow
up every church that we are able to reach.”
Al-Barnawi was the spokesman for the
fundamentalist sect until August 3 when he was declared its new leader
to replace Abubakar Shekau.
In an interview he granted Al-Naba Newspaper,
which was translated by SITE Intelligence Group, Al-Barnawi was
reported as describing Boko Haram’s activities in Nigeria as a war
fought by Muslims against “apostates” and “crusaders.”
He said the group was aggrieved that the
West had been trying to Christianise Africa, saying the West was
spreading Christianity to the African region and charities were
assisting them in doing that.
He also claimed that victims of
insurgency were being kept in the Internally Displaced Persons’ camp,
fed and sheltered for the purpose of turning their children to
Christians.
He, however, said the group would retaliate.
He said, “They (West) strongly seek to
Christianise the society…They exploit the condition of those who are
displaced under the raging war, providing them with food and shelter and
then Christianising their children.”
Al-Barnawi vowed that Boko Haram
fighters would retaliate by “booby-trapping and blowing up every church
that we are able to reach and kill all those (Christians) who we find
from the citizens of the cross.”
The new Boko Haram leader said the sect “remained a force to be reckoned with,” boasting that it had enlisted new recruits.
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