US embassy cable - 04ABUJA183

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000183 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2009 
TAGS: PTER, PGOV, PHUM, KISL, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIAN "TALIBAN" ATTACKS MOST LIKELY NOT TIED TO 
TALIBAN NOR AL-QAIDA 
 
Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY A/DCM CLAUDIA ANYASO FOR REASONS 1.5 (B & 
D). 
 
1. (C) Summary:  Political, religious and economic leaders in 
Yobe State told Econoff in late January that what government 
officials and media initially labeled a radical Islamist 
organization or "Taliban," instead called itself the Hijra 
Group and probably had no links to foreign terrorist groups 
or to the almost defunct 1980s Nigerian Islamist group 
Maitatsine.  Taking their name from the "withdrawal" to 
Medina of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, the Hijra Group was 
mostly urban, comparatively well off Nigerians who had moved 
to a commune-like village to set up their own isolated 
society.  The Hijra Group may have used Islam as a battle cry 
in attacking government institutions, but until late December 
they had no weapons nor likely espoused extremist Islamic 
doctrine.  The late December 2003-early January 2004 attacks 
on government installations were likely provoked by a 
communal incident, although by the end of the bloody affair 
the Hijra Group had seized considerable amounts of arms from 
police stations.  With poverty and political corruption 
omnipresent in Nigeria, however, the country is an excellent 
breeding ground for Hijra-like sects as well as radical 
Islamic groups.  End Summary. 
 
Who Were the Hijra? 
------------------- 
 
2. (U) According to press, Borno and Yobe Government 
officials, religious leaders and academic scholars, the Hijra 
Group was made up of individuals from wealthy Islamic 
families in Borno State, unemployed university students and 
friends and colleagues from other states including Ogun and 
Lagos.  Several sources told Econoff during a late January 
reporting trip to Yobe and Borno that the Hijra Group were 
individuals who "fled a corrupt society" to pray and fast, 
settling in an isolated fishing area on the outskirts of a 
small village in the wetlands of northern Yobe State near the 
Niger border in early 2003.  An official in Yobe stated the 
group was unconventional but left largely on its own due to 
connections many of its members had with the Borno and Yobe 
notables.  Nonetheless, the group certainly did attack and 
kill policemen over a four-day period. 
 
3. (U) According to local sources, the Hijrah group had 
neither been armed nor espoused extremist Islamist teachings. 
 Government and local sources told Econoff that the group had 
lived peacefully and often met with local villagers to trade. 
 Those sources believe the start of the problem was likely a 
request from a local chief to pay him a sum of money, as was 
the custom for fishing in the area.  Perhaps they did not 
pay.  Local leaders asked the Hijra members to leave the area 
where they had been living in tents and mud structures, and 
the police allegedly arrested several Hijra members on 
December 20.  Group members, either provoked by the police or 
for other unknown reasons, then attacked the police on 
December 31. 
 
4. (U) Local officials confirmed to Econoff that Hijra 
members overpowered police in Kannama (near Niger in northern 
Yobe) and took at least five police AK-47 rifles.  Locals 
said the Hijra had not called itself "Taliban," nor had been 
referred to under that name until the Governor of Yobe called 
them that in the wake of published pictures showing an 
"Afghanistan" bumper sticker on a vehicle Hijra members had 
used in an attack.  Other press reports called the group the 
Ahlul Sunna Waljama Islamic movement.  Under whatever name, 
from January 1 to 3 the group then attacked other police 
stations in Yobe State before being stopped by police in the 
state capital, Damaturu. 
 
Yobe State Governor 
------------------- 
 
5. (U) Yobe State Governor Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim told 
Econoff on 26 January that the so-called sect comprised 
misguided youth who settled in northern Yobe State to 
practice Hijra.  Governor Ibrahim, a Muslim, said the group 
was emulating the Prophet Mohammed in l a corrupted society 
to find a place where they could worship God as they pleased. 
 Two sources in Borno said that Governor Ibrahim's son was 
among the 50 to 60 Hijra members.  Ibrahim denied it, 
claiming that the police captured or captured 47 out of 54 
Hadjira and none were originally from Yobe State.  Governor 
Ibrahim bristled at Econoff's questions, saying the Hijra 
Group left a black mark on all the government was trying to 
do in Yobe, and claiming that the international press had 
blown this story out of proportion. 
 
Not Maitatsine Followers 
------------------------ 
 
6. (U) Post has seen other media and GON reports that the 
Yobe Hijra Group members belonged to the mostly defunct 
Maitatsine organization of the 1980s.  When questioned, press 
and GON sources confirmed there was no/no connection to 
Maitatsine.  (Note: Alhaji Muhammadu Marwa established a 
quasi-Muslim fringe group called Maitatsine that appealed to 
Kano State's poor and uneducated in the late 1970s by 
teaching that the modernity and the Nigerian leadership had 
corrupted true Islamic values.  After the Emir of Kano banned 
Maitatsine from religious life in Kano because of Marwa 
opposition to the role of traditional rulers, the Maitatsine 
regrouped and sparked religious riots in Kano, Kaduna and 
Borno in the early and mid-1980s.  Marwa died during a 1980 
disturbance in Kano where over 4,000 people died.  The 
Maitatsine are now disbanded, although they are blamed 
whenever Muslims use violence, and they are a potent reminder 
of a many young Muslims' rejection of Nigeria's ruling 
religious and political class.  End note). 
 
Potential For Religious Violence on the Increase 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
7. (C) On January 27, Econoff also met with several academics 
from the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, to discuss the 
Yobe Hijra group.  Professor Abdulmumin Sa'ad, a nationally 
known sociologist, confirmed knowing students who had joined 
the Hijra group, and he claimed Yobe State Governor Ibrahim's 
son was a member.  Sa'ad said the group was likely on an 
"idealistic outing in Yobe State," but he noted that this and 
other groups like it could easily turned violent and adopt 
extremist ideology or foreign ties.  Other professors at the 
university stated that there has been an increase in sects 
starting on universities over the last few years -- 
Christian, Muslim, regional and ethnic.  Sa'ad said that 
across the nation sects are on the rise in universities, 
while radical Islamist groups are also emerging from 
unemployed academics looking to make sense of their corrupt 
society.  With Nigeria sinking into economic despair, he 
opined, radical groups will likely emerge and youth may look 
to Islamic extremism to strike back at economic and political 
injustice. 
Poverty, Breeding Ground for Terrorism 
-------------------------------------- 
 
8. (C) COMMENT:  Throughout northern Nigeria, fringe leaders 
continue to mobilize their followers to reject secular 
Nigerian politics and society.  Small sects like the Hijra 
Group seem to be more usual now than larger political 
organizations like that of the Zaria-based Muslim leader 
Ibrahim Zakzaki, who is allegedly linked to the Iranian 
government and often travels to Iran.  Zakzaki had been able 
to mobilize thousands of his followers to civil disobedience 
in the past, and the Hijra Group attacks scared both the 
state and federal governments.  A small sect could easily 
turn to terrorism, or be used as a tool by international 
terrorist groups.  Over 14 police and military checkpoints 
were in place on the road in and out of Damaturu.  The GON 
has launched an official investigation into the group which 
will be reported septel. 
Roberts