The Jama’atu Ansarul Islamic sect, a group that broke away from the main Jama’atu Ahlis suna Lidawati Wal-Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s kidnap of seven persons in Bauchi State, six of whom are foreigners.
Jama’atu Ansarul broke out of Boko Haram after the parent group announced ceasefire in Borno State, saying it had participated in two peace meetings with the state government and had come to the conclusion that people of the state were suffering unnecessarily.
“By Allah’s grace, we have the custody of seven persons, which include Lebanese and their European counterparts working with Setraco,” the new group said.
On Sunday night, members of the group raided the compound of the construction company, killed one security guard and kidnapping six foreign workers: an Italian, a Filipino, a Briton, a Greek and four Lebanese.
Reports claimed the Jama’atu Ansarul has links with Al-Qaeda which, operating in Northern Mali and some parts of North Africa, threatened in early January to strike countries that have sent troops or assistance to Mali to dislodge terrorists from the country.
Meanwhile, the Bauchi State Police Command has said that efforts are ongoing to arrest the kidnappers and that its men repelled an attack on a Police Station while security men at a prison yard also repelled an attack before the attackers burnt two vehicles in Jama’are Police Station and moved on to Setraco Construction Company.
Ansaru has consistently claimed to be “vanguards for the protection of Muslims in black nations.”
While the Italian embassy in Abuja has confirmed that one of its nationals was taken hostage during the raid, the British Embassy, as at the time of filing this report, had neither confirmed nor denied that a Briton is among those kidnapped
