Hizballah in Northern Nigeria

This report from World Defense Review is not too specific and doesn't mention in what state of Nigeria such goings are occurring:

"As I and others have reported with increasing frequency over the past few months, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are increasingly developing forward operating bases in many of Africa’s “ungoverned” – or poorly governed – regions.

"Additionally, these groups – as unlikely allies as they may be – are coordinating their efforts more and more. We’ve seen quite a bit of this in North African countries like Morocco and East African Somalia, wherein captured or hunted Jihadists have been determined to have received tactical training by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then received funding and were taught the finer points of bomb-making by Hezbollah in Lebanon (I wrote about this at Human Events and Townhall.com).

"After receiving these photos, I forwarded them to Africa expert Dr. J. Peter Pham, who says it is “not surprising,” and provides additional context.

“As for Hezbollah’s presence, I am not at all surprised. The Lebanese terrorist group has long made West Africa a center for its financing [see Dr. Pham’s column of two years ago, here]. Furthermore, even before that, I had reported on Iranian influences on Muslims in Nigeria [Pham’s column here]. Last year, a well-known Sunni cleric in Sokoto – the traditional center of Nigerian Islam and seat of the sultanate – by the name of Umuru Danmaishiyya was shot dead in his mosque, purportedly by Shiites angered by his orthodox Sunni denunciations of Shiism. In response, Nigerian security forces demolished the Shiia center belonging to the radicals."

J. Peter Pham's article at the above link has this interesting report:

"The support that Saudi and other sources poured into these groups have paid off handsomely since the restoration of 1999 restoration of civilian rule in Nigeria. In violation of the Nigerian federal constitution's ban on the establishment of a state religion, in October of that year, Governor Ahmad Sani of Zamfara, established Shari'a law, codifying harsh penal sanctions, including flogging for alcohol consumption, amputation for theft, and stoning for adultery. Eleven other northern states subsequently followed Zamfara's example. The almost continual backlash has led to some of the country's worst communal violence since the Biafran war in the 1960s."

This is no information in the report on the Hizballah rally in Nigeria on whether representatives of Kansas State University were in attendance. Earlier this month K-State honored the Governor of Zamfara of Sharia Law fame, Mahmud Shinkafi at the campus memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

Crossposted at The Dougout