Nigeria’s new terror group, ANSARU

First, it was Boko Haram’s terrorism. As if that is not a nightmare too much for accursed Nigeria already, another terror group has emerged. Its abbreviated name is Ansaru. And its full name just like Boko Haram’s Jamā’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lādda’awatih wal-Jihad is a mouthful: Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan.

Photographs here from a video released by the group on Xmas eve, shows unidentified armed members of the group posing in an undisclosed place in November 2012.

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The group on December 23, 2012 claimed the recent kidnapping of a French citizen in northern Nigeria, citing France’s push for military intervention in Mali as a justification.

 Ansaru “announces to the world, especially the French government, that it was responsible for the abduction of engineer Francis Colump, 63, working for the French company Vergnet,” said a statement emailed to journalists.

 Late last Wednesday some 30 gunmen stormed Vergnet’s residence in Katsina state, where the alternative energy firm has a wind power project.