Nigeria:Top Nigerian militant arrested

The Nigerian military say they have captured Khalid al-Barnawi, the pioneer of Nigeria's Ansaru jihadist bunch. There is hypothesis over the nature and centrality of his connection to Boko Haram

In 2012 the U.S. State Department named Ansaru pioneer Khalid al-Barnawi as one of three Nigerian aggressors boycotted for binds to Boko Haram and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Safeguard representative Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said al-Barnawi was captured in Lokoja, the capital of the focal condition of Kogi, on Saturday (02.04.2016).

DW has been conversing with Ryan Cummings, chief of the South African danger investigation bunch Signal Risk about what al-Barnawi's capture could mean for Nigeria's endeavors to vanquish Boko Haram.

DW: How did Khalid al-Barnawi come to be captured?

Ryan Cummings: There are bunches of theories in regards to who Khalid al-Barnawi is, the thing that his part was and, assuming, without a doubt, he was associated to Boko Haram. There's additionally an issue of whether an individual captured by Nigerian security strengths was to be sure one of the senior individuals from the Boko Haram purported Shura Council, or the most noteworthy basic leadership body. As far as the military dispatch, it appears they have been following al-Barnawi for very huge time and after that utilization this open door when he was in Kogi state, the capital of Lokoja, to fundamentally snare and along these lines capture him.

What effect is his capture liable to have on the Ansaru and Boko Haram activist gatherings?

It's being hard to say in light of the fact that as I said despite everything we don't know precisely what al-Barnawi's position was inside Boko Haram. There were recommendations that al-Barnawi was a piece of branches of Boko Haram known as Ansaru, which split far from the gathering in mid 2012. Ansaru was asserting that Boko Haram was aimlessly focusing on Muslims and submitting viciousness. It was something that Ansaru's initiative at the time did not concur with. Al-Barnawi had not showed up in any of the gathering's recordings, they haven't insinuated al-Barnawi in any of the reports they have discharged; the center has dependably been on Abubakar Shekau. It's truly hard to say to what the effect would be on Boko Haram, given that we don't comprehend what his position was in the development itself.

How noteworthy is his capture in the battle to vanquish Boko Haram?

It could be a noteworthy capture if al-Barnawi was a piece of the Shura board, on the off chance that he assumed a top authority position inside of the gathering; he may have been included in some abnormal state operational and logistical getting ready for the gathering, then it could be a noteworthy blow that has been done to Boko Haram. Another imperative thing, if a senior activist officer is captured, rather than executing him on the war zone, you will have the capacity to get entirely noteworthy measure of insight from him.

Do we know of any assaults that Ansaru has guaranteed obligation regarding?

There was a spate of kidnappings we found in January 2012 after the gathering reported its development. We saw a hijacking of a German national in condition of Kano, this wasn't specifically guaranteed by Ansaru, however it is trusted the gathering was behind the assault. Later on, in any case, there were two separate kidnappings again in the northern Nigeria, incorporating one in which a French national was taken prisoner. There was another abducting in the north of Bauchi State. Both of these assaults and kidnappings were asserted by Ansaru. Interestingly, in January 2013, in one of Boko Haram's first kidnappings for which it guaranteed obligation, seven individuals from a French family in Dabanga in Cameroon were abducteed. Shakau guaranteed he had arranged this abducting close by Ansaru which has proposed that the part between two associations may have patched and Ansaru and Boko Haram were teaming up as per each other.

Ryan Cummings is a security advisor with Signal Risk

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