{"id":41687,"date":"2014-08-25T11:39:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T11:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=41687"},"modified":"2014-08-25T11:39:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T11:39:32","slug":"boko-haram-declares-islamic-state-in-northern-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=41687","title":{"rendered":"Boko Haram declares &#8216;Islamic state&#8217; in northern Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Militant group Boko Haram has said it has set up an Islamic state in the towns and villages it has seized in north-eastern Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was speaking in a video released to congratulate his fighters for seizing the town of Gwoza earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear if Mr Shekau has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria&#8217;s army has rejected the claim as &#8220;empty&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people have been killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, since 2009 when Boko Haram began its insurgency.<\/p>\n<p>Gwoza, which had 265,000 residents in the last census, is the biggest town under Boko Haram control.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A picture taken on August 21, 2014 shows Internally Displaced People (IDP) standing outside a classroom they found shelter in, at Gulak camp in Nigeria&quot;s northeastern Adamawa State.\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/77156000\/jpg\/_77156272_9407cb3a-01fc-42b4-a8f7-9e1e26a3a5dc.jpg\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/>Thousands have fled Gwoza &#8211; these people are now living in a school<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It has raised its flags over the palace of the Emir of Gwoza, the town&#8217;s traditional ruler, residents say.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic state,&#8221; Mr Shekau said in the 52-minute video.<\/p>\n<p>It controls several areas, mostly in Borno state where the group was launched, but also in neighbouring Yobe state.<\/p>\n<p>The video also shows about 20 men in civilian clothes apparently being shot dead.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria&#8217;s military spokesman Chris Olukolade responded with a statement dismissing the declaration.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Nigerian state is still intact,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"line\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/75306000\/jpg\/_75306515_line976.jpg\" width=\"464\" height=\"2\" \/><\/div>\n<p><strong>Who are Boko Haram?<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Map of Nigeria\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/75329000\/jpg\/_75329061_nigeriamaidugurigwozamandara4640614.jpg\" width=\"464\" height=\"261\" \/><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Founded in 2002<\/li>\n<li>Initially focused on opposing Western education &#8211; Boko Haram means &#8220;Western education is forbidden&#8221; in the Hausa language<\/li>\n<li>Launched military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state<\/li>\n<li>Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria &#8211; but also attacks on police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja<\/li>\n<li>Some three million people affected<\/li>\n<li>Declared terrorist group by US in 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In his previous video, released in July, Mr Shekau congratulated the Islamic State (IS) for its advances in Iraq and Syria but did not say whether they were allies &#8211; there is no evidence that the two groups have been working together.<\/p>\n<p>IS has seized much of northern Iraq in recent months, leading the US to launch air strikes.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the militants sparked global outrage by beheading US journalist James Foley.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Militant group Boko Haram has said it has set up an Islamic state in the towns and villages it has seized in north-eastern Nigeria. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was speaking in a video released to congratulate his fighters for seizing the town of Gwoza earlier this month. It is not clear if Mr Shekau [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":41694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-41687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}