A new radical Islamist sect, Ansaru, on Sunday claimed
responsibility for the recent kidnapping of a French national in Katsina.
The group cited France’s push for military intervention in
Mali as a justification, accordint to AFP.
A statement by the group said, “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.”
Wednesday last week, about 30 gunmen stormed Vergnet’s
residence in Katsina State, where the alternative energy firm has a wind power
project.
“The reason for his kidnap is the stance of the French
government and the French people on Islam,” said the statement written in
Hausa.
The group specifically pointed to “France’s major role in
the (planned) attack on the Islamic state in northern Mali.”
It also cited France’s “law outlawing the use of Islamic
veil by Muslim women.”
Paris has backed plans to deploy a west African force in
northern Mali to flush out the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist groups who took control
of the vast desert territory earlier this year.
“We inform the French government that this group will
continue launching attacks on the French government and French citizens … as
long as it does not change its stance on these two issues,” the Ansaru
statement said.
The police chief in Katsina, Abdullahi Magaji, told AFP that
there were indications that former or current employees of Vergnet had been involved,
arguing that the attack appeared to be “an inside job.
Ansaru is less well known than Islamist group Boko Haram,
which is waging a deadly insurgency in the North since 2009.
The two groups are known to have ties but are seen as
independent.
In November, Britain’s interior ministry identified Ansaru
as a “Nigeria-based terrorist organisation” and declared membership or support
for it illegal.
The group’s full name, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis
Sudan, is roughly translated as Vanguards for the aid of Muslims in black
Africa.
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