The government of the United States of America has imposed new sanctions on Boko Haram and
its factional leader Mus’ab al-Barnawi.
its factional leader Mus’ab al-Barnawi.
The new sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department targets the Islamic State and its affiliate networks around the world.
The U.S. department added Boko Haram, also known as ISIS-West Africa, to the sanction list for global terrorism.
Al-Barnawi, who was the spokesperson for
Boko Haram before the group pledged allegiance to ISIL, and Mahad Moalim
from Somalia and seven organisations in Africa and Asia, linked to
Islamic state (ISIS), were added to the list.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets
Control said the additions include ISIS-Philippines, ISIS-Bangladesh,
ISIS-West Africa, ISIS-Egypt, ISIS-Somalia, Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia,
also known as ISIS-Tunisia, and the Philippines-based Maute Group, also
known as Islamic State of Lanao.
Reuters reports that the U.S. State
Department, in a separate statement, said that it had designated 40
Islamic State leaders and operatives dating back to 2011 under an order
aimed at denying them access to the U.S. financial system, including the
latest additions.
“These designations are part of a larger
comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS that, in coordination with the
75-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, has made significant progress
toward that goal.
“This effort is destroying ISIS in its
safe havens, denying its ability to recruit foreign terrorist fighters,
stifling its financial resources, negating the false propaganda it
disseminates over the internet and social media, and helping to
stabilise liberated areas in Iraq and Syria so the displaced can return
to their homes and begin to rebuild their lives,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to visit Dapchi in Yobe
State, where Boko Haram kidnapped 110 girls from Government Girls
Secondary and Technical School on February 19.
The PDP urged Buhari to go to Dapchi so as to get first hand information on the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The party also added that Buhari’s visit
to Dapchi, who it accused of feasting in Aso Rock with chieftains of his
ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), while parents of the abducted
girls are wailing, will bridge the gap between him and Nigerians.
In a statement by its National Publicity
Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the opposition party said Buhari has
reneged on his promise, prior to his election as president, to lead the
fight against insurgency in the country, from the front.
It added that Nigerians are worried that
president Buhari has allowed himself to be “holed” in the fortress of
Aso Rock while citizens are either killed or taken captive by bandits
and insurgents.
“Most appalling is the fact that while
the parents of our 110 abducted Dapchi daughters are still wailing and
insurgents driving into deeper recesses, the president and his partymen
are busy feasting in the presidential villa and plotting their 2019
campaigns; of course, with funds meant for the wellbeing of the people
and our nation…
“We, therefore, plead with president
Buhari to show leadership by immediately calling off his feasting in the
presidential villa and take that bold step to visit Dapchi, where a
soothing word from him will be a balm for the distraught community.