THE AFRICA BAZAAR Staff Writer
December 1, 2015
The United States Department of Treasury on Tuesday announced that it will freeze all financial assets belonging to two Boko Haram leaders- Mohammed Nur and Mustafa Chad and have designated them as terrorists.
The move, part of U.S. larger strategic efforts to counter global terrorism and cut off financial safe havens for terrorist groups like Boko Haram- which the U.S Department of State designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2013 and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist- prohibits any US individual, business or financial institution from engaging in transactions with these two individuals who have been designated as terrorists.
Since the mid 2000s, the Boko Haram terrorist group have been terrorizing the Northern cities in Nigeria and its neighboring countries Chad, and Niger, and have killed and injured thousands of people, including women and children. In March 2015, the group pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
[As a result of today’s actions, all assets of these individuals that are under the jurisdiction of the United States or in the control of US persons are frozen and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.]
“From kidnapping schoolgirls to mass fatality terrorist attacks, Boko Haram represents a threat not just to innocents in Nigeria but to all civilized society,” said Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin. “We will continue our efforts to target groups like Boko Haram and all who support them.”
Mohammed Nur, a Nigerian national and a senior Boko Haram member is said to have helped orchestrate the suicide attack on the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria in August 26, 2011 that killed hundreds of people using vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He continues to supervise Boko Haram operations and campaigns of violence, including suicide bombings, direct attacks, assassinations and construction of IEDs, against the Nigerian government and innocent citizens.
Nur, who had reported trained with US-designated SDGT al-Shabaab, was among a group of Boko Haram members arrested in early November 2011 but escaped shortly after when fellow Boko Haram members attacked the prison.
His counterpart, Mustapha Chad, a national of Chad, and a Boko Haram Shura Council member and militant commander, spearheaded a 2013 Boko Haram offensive with 2000 fighters to take over Maiduguri, Nigeria and directed activities in the Yobe State in northern Nigeria, one of the five geographic areas in which Boko Haram operated. He owns and maintains several weapon cache and provides financial, weapon and technological support and other services to support Boko Haram’s violent efforts.
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