The Life of Niger Delta Militant Henry Okah

Publication: Volume: 3 Issue: 4

April 30, 2012 05:43 PM Age: 9 days

Category: Militant Leadership Monitor, Home Page, Featured, Africa

By: Mark McNamee

Henry Okah

This article is the Featured piece for the April 2012 Issue of Militant Leadership Monitor. To view the entire issue please visit mlm.jamestown.org.

Henry Emomotimi Okah was born in 1965 and raised in Ikorodu, Lagos State, although his family’s ancestral home was in Baylesa State.  The fourth child of a Navy officer, his upbringing was described by a sibling as very “British”; he attended private schools and led a relatively privileged life. He earned a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from the Maritime Institute and, upon graduation, took a position with the Nigerian Merchant Navy. Prior to his career as an alleged rebel leader, he was a door-to-door handgun salesman in Lagos in the 1990s. Okah is believed to have begun his militancy in the late 1990s and early 2000s; in 2003 he left for South Africa where, aside from his stint in prison in Nigeria, he has remained.  Although he has denied being a rebel fighting with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta  (MEND), Okah has admitted that he is sympathetic to the MEND cause (Mail and Guardian [Cape Town], November, 19, 2010).

According to his brother Charles Okah, Henry’s return to his family’s ancestral home in Bayelsa at the age of 19 was the formative experience in his turn towards militancy. Having witnessed firsthand the marked difference between his upbringing in Lagos State and the endemic poverty in the Niger Delta, he retained these images while a student and in his work after graduation (Vanguard, [Yenagoa], October 25, 2010). Building on his experience and contacts in the Navy, as well as his days as a weapons salesman, he eventually began to direct this background toward ostensibly social and economic ends in the Niger Delta.  Okah bunkered oil and sold it on the black market, using the funds derived therefrom to suffuse the region with weapons; this process eventually gave rise to a loosely organized network of armed rebels.  Over time, these previously disjointed rebels, often hired by Okah and other higher-level militants, as well as politicians, coalesced under the brand name of MEND. This moniker, in actuality, functioned as a catch-all term encompassing various militant groups within the Delta. One MEND leader, Alhaji Dokubo-Asari, noted in 2009 that MEND was created “not as an organization but as a name for the purpose of issuing unified statements” (Sahara Reporters [Lagos], January 1, 2009).

Having helped execute, supply and fund operations in the Delta region from abroad in South Africa, Okah was eventually arrested in Angola while attempting to purchase equipment and arms in September 2007. He was deported back to Nigeria in February 2008 and charged with more than 60 crimes, including treason and terrorism, both of which carry the death penalty. From early 2008, he was held in solitary confinement until his July 2009 release in accordance with an amnesty order handed down by then-President Yar’Adua.  Although initially viewed as an outsider, Okah had gained the respect of Delta militants in the 2000s, and his arrest in 2007 greatly enhanced his prestige with the fighters, bringing him an almost celebrity status within the group [1]. 

How to Pirate Proof Your Tanker –Slideshow

A shocking rise in pirate attacks over the last decade has left many in the shipping industry scrambling for protection, leading to a new market for security forces trained to fight off the swashbuckling foes. Photographer Amnon Gutman witnessed this scramble for security first-hand as he sailed one of the most dangerous waterways in the world with a crew, their cargo — and a private security detail trained in pirate-deflecting techniques. The fear of attack, especially near Somalia, is a well-founded one. As Gutman notes, of the 439 attacks reported to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in 2011, 275 attacks took place off Somalia’s east coast and in the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa. However, while Somali pirates continue to account for the majority of attacks — approximately 54 percent – and while the overall number of Somali incidents increased from 219 in 2010 to 237 in 2011, the number of successful hijackings decreased from 49 to 28. The 802 crew members taken hostage in 2011 also marks a decrease from the four-year high of 1,181 in 2010.

This may be because of more aggressive policing — the European Union recently authorized its most expansive mission against pirates in Africa — but many ships aren’t taking any chances. On this journey through the Indian Ocean on a shipping vessel  that wishes to remain anonymous, SeaGull security walked through the methods still being developed to combat modern piracy.

Above, crew members secure barbed wires on the side of the tanker to prevent potential pirates from climbing aboard two days before going into the high-risk zone.

Amnon Gutman

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Terrorist and Colonial Borders | Terrorism In Africa

Terrorism Africa News

It is possible that Nigeria and Somalia will each be divided into multiple countries during this decade or the next.  I could not be surprised if it happens sooner than later.  Each country is in the midst of violence that was primarily perpetrated by terrorist groups.  In each case the central government is ineffectual in managing security and delivering the needed services to the poorer districts.  If we do witness the partitioning of these countries we will be well on our way to seeing the redrawing of many national boundaries on the continent.

Over the past sixty years African countries have struggled to gain independence from their colonial rulers.  That process took close to fifty years.   South Africa was the last to achieve such a righteous milestone.  Yet, this independence was for countries who borders were set by the colonialists and looked very little like the kingdoms and ethnic domains recognized by Africans for centuries.  The continent may well be on the verge of a redrawing of the demarcations of sovereign states to more accurately represent the realities of the continent.  It could be said that the movement to throw off colonial borders may have begun with the division of Ethiopia, resulting in Ethiopia and Eritrea, followed by Sudan splitting into Sudan and South Sudan.  These divisions were preceded by violent conflicts and referendums.

Al-Shabaab claims to be a jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda with the agenda of placing all of Somalia under Sheria.  Few analysts would differ with that description.  The ability of Al-Shabaab to take control and place all of present day Somalia under Sharia is questionable.  In fact the current struggle in Somalia has spawned several ad-hock meetings of diaspora Somalians who have drawn up plans that would result in Somalia being divided into three countries separated primarily along ethnic or clan lines.

Boko Haram has its genesis and base of operation in the poor, Muslim north of Nigeria.   They have bombed Christian houses of worship, government and United Nations instillations and recently demanded that government troops and southerns leave the north.  Their terrorist operations have brought Nigeria to the brink of civil war. 

Migration Information Source – Living In Between: The Chinese in South Africa

Image via Wikipedia

By Yoon Jung Park
Rhodes University, South Africa
Visiting Professor, Howard University, Washington DC

Two South African young men view a poster advertising a 2006 Chinese cultural festival in Pretoria, South Africa.

January 2012

While there is a long history of limited migration from China to Africa, the past decade has brought tens of thousands of Chinese to African cities, towns, and rural areas. These migrants are part of the growing political, economic, and sociocultural ties between China — now the world’s second largest economy — and the poorest and most underdeveloped continent.

In a clever political move, China recently supported South Africa’s candidacy to become the newest member of the international organization of rapidly emerging markets that make up BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), thus ensuring South African (and perhaps even African) support for China at the United Nations Security Council as well as other international bodies.

In terms of economic ties, trade figures between Africa and China are dazzling with respect to both their rapid rate of growth as well as their actual total, now estimated at more than $120 billion. Beijing is now Africa’s largest trade partner, with Chinese investments fueling 49 countries and a wide range of sectors, including mining, finance, manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. Where many Western investors see risk, the Chinese see opportunity — an outlook that has led to phenomenal growth in the numbers of Chinese in Africa.

Al Shabaab attack Kenyan police camp, kill 7

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By Noor Ali

ISIOLO, Kenya | Thu Jan 12, 2012 11:58am EST

ISIOLO, Kenya

(Reuters) – Somali Islamist rebels stormed a remote police camp in northeastern Kenya, killing seven people and kidnapping three, the militants and Kenyan officials said on Thursday.

Scores of rebel fighters threw grenades and other explosives as they raided the police camp on Wednesday evening in Gerille, a town 7 km (4 miles) from the porous frontier with Somalia, Regional Commissioner Wenslas Ongayo said.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said in a statement there were about 100 suspected al Shabaab attackers and two officials and a member of the public had been abducted.

Kenya has tried to beef up security along the border since it sent troops into the anarchic Horn of Africa country in October to crush the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents.

Al Shabaab said it carried out the raid to avenge the “aggressive Kenyan invasion”.

Gulf of Aden Security Review – December 28, 2011 | Critical Threats

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Yemen: Clashes in Sana’a between the Republican Guard and Hashid tribesmen kill one civilian and injure three others; three al Shabaab militants and six al Qaeda-linked militants reportedly killed by airstrike in Abyan governorate

Horn of Africa: KDF and TFG troops kill 10 al Shabaab militants in Lower Jubba region; Kenyan air raid targets villages in Gedo region in southern Somalia; suspected Somali pirates hijack Italian cargo ship with a crew of 18 off Gulf of Oman

Yemen Security Brief

• Witnesses reported that clashes between the Republican Guard and gunmen loyal to Hashid tribal confederation leader Sheikh Sadiq al Ahmar broke out in Sana’a near the interior ministry in Amran Street in Hasaba neighborhood. One Yemeni civilian was killed and three more were injured. The incident took place when the military commission attempted to remove barriers.[1]

• Suna Times reported that three al Shabaab militants and six al Qaeda-linked militants were killed by an airstrike in Abyan governorate. The Somali consul in Yemen, Hussein Haji Ahmed, confirmed the report.[2]

Horn of Africa Security Brief

• Somali government officials reported that at least 10 al Shabaab militants were killed by Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops in Lower Jubba region in southern Somalia. Witnesses stated that the attack started when al Shabaab militants launched an offensive on a joint KDF-TFG military base in Burgabo in southern Somalia.[3]

Boko Haram

Author:	Toni Johnson, Senior Editor/Senior Staff Writer

Image via Wikipedia

Update: December 27, 2011

• Introduction
• Birth of Boko Haram
• Rising Against the State
• The North-South Divide
• Terror Ties and Policy Prescriptions

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Introduction

Boko Haram, an Islamist religious sect, has targeted Nigeria’s police, rival clerics, politicians, and public institutions with increasing violence since 2009. Some experts say the group should primarily be seen as leading an armed revolt against the government’s entrenched corruption, abusive security forces, strife between the disaffected Muslim north and Christian south, and widening regional economic disparity in an already impoverished country. They argue that Abuja should do more to address the issues facing the disaffected Muslim north. But Boko Haram’s suspected bombing of a UN building in Abuja in August 2011 and its ties to regional terror groups may signal a new trajectory and spark a stronger international response that makes it harder to address the north’s alienation.

Birth of Boko Haram

Mohammad Yusuf, a radical Islamist cleric, created Boko Haram in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno. The group aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, including the implementation of criminal sharia courts across the country. Paul Lubeck, a University of California professor studying Muslim societies in Africa, says Yusuf was a trained salafist (CSMonitor) (a school of thought often associated with jihad), and was strongly influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, a fourteenth century legal scholar who preached Islamic fundamentalism and is considered a “major theorist” for radical groups in the Middle East.

Boko Haram colloquially translates into “Western education is sin,” which experts say is a name assigned by the state. The sect calls itself Jama’atul Alhul Sunnah Lidda’wati wal jihad, or “people committed to the propagation of the prophet’s teachings and jihad.” Some analysts say the movement is an outgrowth of the Maitatsine riots of the 1980s (AfricaToday) and the religious/ethnic tensions that followed in the late 1990s. Many Nigerians believe Yusuf rejected all things Western, but Lubeck argues that Yusuf, who embraced technology, believed Western education should be “mediated through Islamic scholarship,” such as rejecting the theory of evolution and Western-style banking.

Before 2009, the group did not aim to violently overthrow the government. Yusuf criticized northern Muslims for participating in what he saw as an illegitimate, non-Islamic state and preached a doctrine of withdrawal. But violence between Christians and Muslims (al-Jazeera) and harsh government treatment, including pervasive police brutality, encouraged the group’s radicalization. Human Rights Watch researcher Eric Guttschuss told news service IRIN that Yusuf gained supporters “by speaking out against police and political corruption.” Boko Haram followers, also called Yusuffiya, consist largely of hundreds of impoverished northern Islamic students and clerics as well as university students and professionals, many of whom are unemployed. Some followers may also be members of Nigeria’s elite.

Iran in Africa: Terrorism & Broken Promises

Introduction 

 -view this clip about Iran in Africa.

Increasing political and economic isolation and a broader policy of “exporting the revolution” have led Iran to seek new allies around the world. In this way, Iran hopes to block diplomatic moves against it in the UN, expand into new markets and promote its radical agenda.

The clearest examples so far have been the members of a new anti-US alliance in Latin America.  But while this Latin American activism has been in the spotlight for some time, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his government have also been busy shuttling to Africa, speaking of a “new, just world order” and pledging to increase trade and to invest in development projects.

But while Tehran is handing out countless economic promises and talking about the “end of Western capitalism and colonialism,” the effects of an increasing Iranian presence in Africa are already becoming apparent. There, too, Iran takes advantage of its new “friends” to promote its anti-Western foreign policy and support radical militant groups.

Rhetoric of a “New World Order”

An editorial published in the Iranian conservative daily Iran claims that in contrast with the West, whose relations with African states are based on “furthering its own interests”, Iran is seeking relations that will prove mutually beneficial. Indeed, the main line in Tehran’s rhetoric about Africa is that the West is still looking to exploit African countries for its own gain, and Tehran often blames “colonialist powers” for Africa’s poverty and other problems. On a visit to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Togo,   Manouchehr Mottaki, then Iran’s foreign minister, stated that the nations of the world are no longer willing to be subjected to an “unfair system”. For this reason, Iran claims that “resistance against the colonialist powers is the sole way to achieve independence and economic progress”. In any event, according to repeated claims by Ahmadinejad, the “capitalist system” is on the verge of collapse.

But some leading officials in African countries are fully aware of the truth about the Iranian regime. During Ahmadinejad’s visit to Harara in April, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called the visit a “colossal political scandal”, and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) attacked Ahmadinejad over his record on human rights, saying, “He has made his reputation as a warmonger, a trampler of human rights, an executioner of those with dissenting voices and leader of questionable legitimacy.”

Even back in Iran Ahmadinejad’s doctrine is received with scepticism. A reformist newspaper recently warned that the president’s “unrealistic and impossible” view of a new world order only translates into large expenditures for the Iranian people.

France and Nigeria joins forces to fight terrorism

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan welcomed to Elysee Palace by President Sarkozy.

AFP/Fred Dufour   By RFI

France and Nigeria are to step up their joint fight against Islamic terrorists in West Africa. The announcement by Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan came at the end of his three-day visit to the French capital which also saw a deal for a 75,450 million euro loan to build a bus network in the capital Lagos.

 

Jonathan said security experts from the two countries will work together to stop terrorism from spreading throughout the region.

“When Africa is undergoing a crisis, Europe feels the effects,” he explained.

Once Upon a Time in Mogadishu

A peek into the “pleasant” colonial past of the world’s most dangerous city.

BY SOPHIA JONES | NOVEMBER 17, 2011

When the great Arab explorer Ibn Battuta landed on Mogadishu’s shores in 1331, he was greeted with a feast fit for a king. Hundreds of camels were slaughtered daily to feed the flourishing port city, where a man could eat for ten. The sultan, clad in silk and fine Jerusalem cloth, was followed by a procession of trumpets and colorful canopies upon which golden birds perched.

How times have changed in Somalia. Today, centuries of European colonization and political strife, coupled with interludes of devastating drought and flooding, have created a failed state that’s become a haven for lawlessness. For years, Somalia was passed between foreign powers: first the Portuguese, then the British, then the French and Italians. Upon its declaration of independence in 1960, the country’s artificially drawn borders proved incapable of anything resembling stability. Now, Somalia remains in a constant state of conflict.

Once known as the “pearl of the Indian Ocean,” tourists flocked by the plane-full until the country descended into civil unrest in the 1990s. Now the only visitors are aid workers and their heavily armed bodyguards. When a Canadian tourist landed in Mogadishu last year, immigration officials thought he was either a spy or insane.

Above, young foreigners enjoy a warm day at Lido Beach. Sydney Oats, a former Royal Air Force (RAF) electrical fitter who was stationed in Mogadishu in 1949, provided this photo, as well as several others. He told Foreign Policy that Lido Beach, with its white beaches and breathtaking view, was the best part of Mogadishu, where young soldiers spent their afternoons nearly every day. Until 1991, when President Siad Barre was overthrown by a coalition of warlords after 22 years in power, Lido Beach was a popular club scene. This week brought news that Somalis are finally returning to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean after years of deserted beaches. But this brief beach-going interlude may be short lived. With pirates patrolling the coastline and the terrorist network al Shabaab arming children with AK-47s, Mogadishu remains arguably the most dangerous city in the world.