http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/paying-for-terrorism-where-does-boko-haram-gets-its-money-from-9503948.html
Paying for terrorism: Where does Boko Haram gets its money from?
The Islamist terror group’s recent attacks in Nigeria are notable for the
expensive military hardware on display. Terrence McCoy reports on the sources
of this money, from wealthy Middle Eastern backers to the black market
Terrence McCoy
Friday 06 June 2014
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If there was an exact moment that the international community understood the
breadth of Boko Haram’s evil, it came last month, when the group’s leader
grinned and announced that he would sell more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls in
his “market of selling human beings”.
Behind Abubakar Shekau, a man who rose to the top of Boko Haram through
unmatched brutality and religious fanaticism, loomed several armoured vehicles.
Local experts said the video was likely to have been filmed in the remote
Sambisa forest in north-eastern Nigeria. The juxtaposition between rural land
and advanced machinery made a jarring contrast.
Despite the poverty of northern Nigeria – where 70 per cent of people live on
less than 60p a day – the Boko Haram terrorist group has at its disposal a
seemingly limitless amount of heavy weaponry, vehicles, bombs and ammunition
that it uses to kill with unfathomable wantonness. The Islamic militants,
masquerading as members of the military, raided three villages in north-eastern
Nigeria this week and killed 400 villagers “from house to house” using
“sophisticated weapons”, one local leader told Bloomberg.
Dozens more Boko Haram members arrived at another village, Bargari, disguised
as preachers and assembled all those living in the village, ostensibly to teach
Islam. Once they had gathered, another “large number of terrorists” arrived and
“opened fire on the congregation”, one resident told Nigeria’s Daily Post. “The
gunmen numbering 20 ambushed the village with four Toyota Hilux vehicles, AK-47
rifles, improvised explosive devices, and petrol bombs,” the paper said.
Saleh Mohammed, a member of Civilian JTF – one of a number of vigilante groups
that have sprung up to fight the militants – told Reuters: “Boko Haram wreaked
havoc in the villages. They burned houses and killed people mercilessly after
tricking the residents.”
The expensive equipment on prominent display soon prompted questions about who
was funding Boko Haram’s campaign of slaughter.
According to a survey of academic, governmental and journalistic accounts, Boko
Haram funds its escalating acts of terror through black market dealings, local
and international benefactors, and links to al-Qa’ida and other well-funded
groups in the Middle East.
Analysts say its fundraising apparatus is intricate and opaque. “The actual
source of the funding is as elusive as the militants themselves,” Heather
Murdock wrote for Voice of America.
The story of Boko Haram’s fundraising began after the 2001 terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The group’s original leader, a
charismatic cleric named Mohammed Yusuf, who was later killed, founded the
group in 2002 pushing an alternative to Western education, which he claimed
undermined Nigeria’s development. (The group’s Hausa name translates as
“Western education is sin”.)
Teachers in Kaduna protest against the abduction of schoolgirls (EPA/STR)
Around that time, Osama bin Laden sent an aide to Nigeria with about £1.8m in
local currency to dispense among groups that shared al-Qa’ida’s mission to
impose Islamic rule. One of the “major beneficiaries”, the International Crisis
Group said, was Boko Haram.
EJ Hogendoorn, the International Crisis Group’s deputy programme director for
Africa and an author of the report, told The Daily Beast: “What I can tell you
from talking to lots of conservative Muslims in Nigeria is that there was a lot
of money coming into northern Nigeria. There are many sources of that money.
One of those sources was from al-Qa’ida.”
The connection between Boko Haram and al-Qa’ida – and its money – perhaps
deepened when Yusuf fled to Saudi Arabia to escape one of Nigeria’s first
crackdowns on the terrorist group. It remains unclear what happened while he
was in Saudi Arabia, or who he met, but Boko Haram leaders have later said that
much of their funding comes from al-Qa’ida. A Boko Haram spokesman said in
2011: “Al-Qa’ida are our elder brothers. We enjoy financial and technical
support from them. Anything we want from them we ask them.”
But even such alleged financial connections with al-Qa’ida cannot explain Boko
Haram’s money. The group reportedly also gets cash from Islamic terrorist
groups such as al-Shabaab in Somalia and local al-Qa’ida affiliates.
Then there’s the black market money. Beyond a hatred of Western education,
economic motives may have also driven Boko Haram’s recent abduction of the
schoolgirls. A robust and terrifying slave market exists in Nigeria and
neighbouring countries.
Imam Abubakar Shekau, leader of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram is
wanted by the Nigerian military, with a reward for information that could lead
to his capture (Getty Images)
The Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point, the US military academy, said:
“Kidnapping has become one of [Boko Haram’s] primary funding sources, a way to
extract concessions from the Nigerian state and other governments, and a threat
to foreigners and Nigerian government officials.”
Experts now estimate that kidnapping is worth “millions of dollars in ransom
money” to the militants.
What experts agree on is that one of the best ways to stall Boko Haram is to
cut off its funding. But how to do that remains unclear. The group is an
entrenched part of life in northern Nigeria, possessing control and influence,
and even collecting taxes.
Next week, Foreign Secretary William Hague will host a meeting of African and
Western officials in London aimed at stepping up efforts to defeat the
militants. Its effectiveness may hinge on the West’s ability to cut off the
group’s funding
