Child Soldier Threatens Violence In New Boko Haram Video

Abubakar Shekau’s faction of Boko Haram, Jama’atu Ahlussunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram on Tuesday released a new video showing a child soldier threatening violence. 

The latest video by the group is the first in which a child soldier is seen and heard talking while wielding a weapon. 

In the five minutes video titled “Alwala’a Wal Bara’a” (loyalty and disavowal), the terrorist group stressed that it would continue opposing and waging war against whoever is not on its way. 

“Certainly, we will never retreat. We are different from you. You either repent or we kill you,” the little boy holding a pistol threatened. 

According to a report which documented Boko Haram violations, the terror group had recruited no fewer than 1,385 child soldiers between 2017 and 2019. 

The group uses the children mainly abducted during raids and mostly orphans as suicide bombers to attack civilian and other military locations.

On December 24, 2014, a 13-year old Zahra’u Babangida was arrested in Kano State, northwest Nigeria, trying to explode a bomb strapped in her body.

The girl was arrested after two other girls exploded their hidden bombs in a market, killing at least 10 people.

Babangida reportedly said that her parents had taken her to a Boko Haram hideout in a forest in Kano State, where according to her, she was told by the terrorist leader that she would go to heaven if she participated in the attack on the market.

The recent video also shows masked Boko Haram members in military uniform with their faces blurred attacking western and secular education.

“You train your children using Boko (secular education) and we train ours using Quran and Hadith,” one of the speakers said in Hausa language.

“There is no way we can be like you, forever. It is all about enmity and wherever we meet you it is permissible for us to spill your blood and confiscate your belongings until you believe in God,” he added.

Shekau Speaks

The remaining part of the video plays the voice of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, in which he said the aim of the group is hostility and hatred against whoever is not it’s member.

“Wallahi you’ll never see our faces until you believe in God. This is the aim of our way,” Shekau said.

The video is coming after Nigerian military said 75 Boko Haram/ISWAP members have been killed during a military operation in the northeast.

According to the Nigerian military, the Operation Fireball, which is an arm of the Operation Lafiya Dole, is meant to eliminate the Boko Haram enclaves in the troubled region.

“As a result of the aggressive offensive action carried out by the troops, several terrorist elements have been neutralized as a large number of their equipment were captured while some were equally destroyed in the process, Benard Onyeuko, a Brigadier-General and acting Director Defence Media Operations disclosed in a statement on Tuesday.

“In this regard, a total of 75 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists were neutralized within this period.”

Onyeuko stated that the captured weapons include: six gun trucks, four anti-aircraft guns, one PKT gun, one general purpose machine gun, one automatic grenade launcher, one Dushka gun, one light machine gun, 48 AK 47 rifles, one locally made pistol and 10 AK 47 magazines.

He disclosed that  a large cache of ammunition was captured also.

“This include: one 36 hand grenade, 567 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, 448 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, 50 rocket propelled grenade bombs, 17 locally manufactured rounds, 3 shells for making improvised explosive devices, one smoke grenade and two belts of PKT rounds. Other assorted non-lethal items were also captured from the criminals.”

“Regrettably, one officer and two gallant soldiers paid the supreme price while four other soldiers were wounded in action over the period. However, the wounded soldiers have since been evacuated to a military medical facility and are currently responding to treatment.”