State under threat

21 June 2011 Last updated at 07:41 GMT By Jonah Fisher BBC News, Maiduguri At least six people were killed when the police HQ was bombed Last week's bomb attack by Boko Haram in the capital Abuja has raised questions about Nigeria's ability to defend itself.

But a reassessment is also being made of the nature of the enemy they are confronting.

Having long regarded the Islamist sect as a localised problem, security sources have told the BBC that they now believe the radical Islamist group to be receiving training and expertise from outside Nigeria.

Boko Haram have, until recently, focused their activities in the far north-east of the country and as you approach the city of Maiduguri there are checkpoints at regular intervals.

At each a security officer, clad in bulletproof black and clutching a machine-gun peers into your vehicle.

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In the next couple of weeks and months Boko Haram will become a thing of the past”

End Quote Kashim Shettima Borno State governor This is part of "Operation Flush", the Nigerian authorities' attempt to clamp down on the Islamist sect.

So far there has been little sign that it works.

In the last few weeks Boko Haram appear to be bombing police stations at will.

No longer are the attacks confined to the north-eastern state of Borno either.

Last Thursday in their most high-profile strike yet, they detonated a vehicle in the parking lot of national police headquarters in Abuja.

Trained in Somalia?

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan urged people not to panic but questions are starting to be asked about Boko Haram's recent upsurge in activity.

The police are Boko Haram's main target but they have also bombed churches and assassinated Islamic clerics.

Rev David Bridley says St Patrick's Cathedral was targeted because of its focus on education

St Patrick's Cathedral is Maiduguri's largest with close to 1,000 people regularly packing its pews.

But many of the congregation are making plans to leave.

The compound has just been bombed for the second time in two weeks, with five people dying in the street outside.

"My guess is that because the church is behind education - behind enlightening people we are being targeted," Reverend David Bridley tells me.

"Boko Haram is, I would say, an expression of the al-Qaeda movement and the attack on Christianity. So here, we are the ones taking the heat."

Several Islamic clerics who dared criticise Boko Haram have been assassinated. The only cleric willing to speak to me would only do so on condition that we not film his face or use his voice.

Security sources told the BBC that they believe Boko Haram fighters are travelling to Somalia for training, with some thought to have gone to Afghanistan too.

That information has been been partially corroborated by statements claiming to be from Boko Haram, and unconfirmed reports that Somalis have been detained in Nigeria.

If the links are confirmed, it is worrying news for the authorities who still talk as if the problems is about to resolved.

Continue reading the main story 2002: Founded2009: Hundreds killed when Maiduguri police stations stormed2009: Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf captured by army, handed to police, later found deadSept: 2010: Freed hundreds of prisoners from Maiduguri jailDecember 2010: Bombed Jos, killing 80 people and blamed for New Year's Eve attack on Abuja barracks2010-2011: Dozens killed in Maiduguri shootingsMay 2011: Bombed several states after president's inaugurationJune 2011: Police HQ bombed"In the next couple of weeks and months Boko Haram will become a thing of the past," says Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima.

"Those who are willing to talk to us - the government is willing to enter into dialogue with them. But you cannot negotiate from a position of weakness, you have to negotiate from a position of strength."

And that is why more armoured personnel carriers and troops are pouring into Borno state.

President Jonathan's much vaunted "carrot and stick" solution is seemingly getting ever lighter in the vegetable department.

It is hardly surprising that Boko Haram has shown little interest in the two "carrots" on offer - dialogue and amnesty.

Memories are still fresh of how its leader Mohammed Yusuf was captured alive two years ago - and then shot dead by security forces.

The increased military presence will not help the authorities with their biggest obstacle, the lack of co-operation from the local population. Boko Haram members live among the community but people are either too scared or unwilling to inform on them.

Islamic government

In the back room of a mobile phone shop Abubakar tells me that as he is not a target for Boko Haram, he just tries to steer clear of them.

"The only thing people are scared of is being in an area when they attack - like for example the security forces so we try and stay further away from there."

The police have banned motorbikes at night after a spate of ride-by shootings

Harassment from checkpoints or as some residents call them "toll booths" has helped alienate the police from the Maiduguri population.

"I'm not scared of Boko Haram," Zakaria tells me.

"I am scared of security; whenever they come they bully us all the time."

Like many in town, Zakaria leaves work early to avoid going through checkpoints in the dark.

Despite the increased frequency of their attacks, Boko Haram's message is being blurred by the emergence of more than one people who claim to speak for them.

One spokesman, Abu Abdurahman, told me their aims now go far beyond their initial gripes with Western education.

"We are demanding an Islamic government be established in the northern states. Not this kind of democratic government," he said.

"There is not real Sharia in northern states."

Pressed on foreign support, he said they were inspired by al-Qaeda and the Taliban but that they could not say where they were training for security reasons.

Financial support, he said, was coming from "brothers inside Nigeria".

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Sudan 'bombs southern oil state'

10 June 2011 Last updated at 14:45 GMT South Sudan's army was recently forced out of the disputed town of Abyei Sudan's military has bombed a village in an oil-rich southern region, southern officials say, as tensions increase ahead of the south's independence next month.

Three people were killed in the raid on Unity State, in a move to take control of the region's oil fields, the south's military spokesman said.

Some 140,000 people have fled recent fighting along the border, the UN says.

Sudan's north-south conflict left some 1.5 million dead over two decades.

The war ended with a 2005 peace deal, under which the mainly Christian and animist south held a referendum in January on whether to secede from the largely Arabic-speaking, Muslim north.

Some 99% of voters opted for independence. President Omar al-Bashir said he would accept the verdict of the south, where most of Sudan's oil fields lie.

But last month, his forces seized the disputed town of Abyei. There have also been recent clashes in South Kordofan state, which is in the north but is home to many pro-south communities.

Aid agencies looted

South Sudan's military spokesman Philip Aguer told the AFP news agency that the bombing of Unity State was a move to seize the region's oil and said the south's military was boosting its defences.

"SAF [Sudan Armed Forces] aircraft bombed the area of Yau, in Unity state, many times on Thursday," he said, adding that the attacks had continued on Friday.

"This area is deep inside South Sudan and is a move by Khartoum to control the area and create a de facto border to control our oil fields."

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There are two scenarios. Neither is good.

One is that northern planes were bombing armed forces fleeing fighting in Southern Kordofan state, and overshot across the southern border.

That shows the government in Khartoum will stop at nothing to crush armed forces there, who used to be part of what is now the south's army.

The other is potentially worse: if the south's fears are proved correct, the north wants to annex oil-rich border areas.

The south already accuses Khartoum of backing rebels in the same area - as a proxy force to control the oil fields there - claims denied by rebels and Khartoum.

The south protested but did not react militarily to Khartoum's occupation of the contested Abyei region last month, but bombing in the south itself is a step beyond even that.

The north bombed the south in attacks last year, and the situation did not escalate.

But with the south about to break away, tensions now are far higher. It raises the prospect of a worrying slide back into north-south war.

However, a UN official said the bombing took place in a disputed area, where southern fighters had gathered, AFP reports.

The Khartoum-based military has not commented on the allegations.

The BBC's Peter Martell in South Sudan says the southern reaction suggests they are taking it very seriously indeed.

If the south's fears are proved right, our correspondent says it is a worrying development as it could trigger wider north-south clashes.

But he says it is also possible that it could be an extension of the fighting in South Kordofan, with the north bombing pro-southern fighters who had crossed into South Sudan.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 people have fled recent fighting just across the north-south border in South Kordofan, the UN says.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said more half of the population of the South Kordofan capital, Kadugli, had left their homes.

She also said aid agency offices in the town had been looted and that many aid workers were among those who had fled, reports the AP news agency.

Show regions

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

Sudan's arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.

The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.

The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.

Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.

Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.

Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-producing region of Abyei was due to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south, but it has been postponed indefinitely.

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Obama to visit tornado-hit state

24 May 2011 Last updated at 13:08 GMT Barack Obama told the people of Missouri "the American people are by your side"

US President Barack Obama says he will visit the tornado-hit state of Missouri on Sunday, straight after returning from a six-day tour of Europe.

Sunday's huge tornado cut a path some six miles (10km) long and at least half a mile wide through the city of Joplin, killing at least 116 people.

President Obama said the tornado was "devastating and heartbreaking".

He vowed the US government would "do absolutely everything we can" to help victims recover and rebuild.

Meanwhile, the US National Weather Service warned of more storms on Tuesday, with the risk for severe weather increasing later in the day.

South-east Kansas and Missouri are set to be battered by 70mph winds, hail "the size of baseballs" and possible tornadoes, said the agency.

Reduced to rubble

Mr Obama was speaking from London before meeting Queen Elizabeth II at the beginning of his stay in the UK.

Resident Dominic Puller filmed the destruction caused by the tornado

It is the second stop on a four-country tour of Europe, and Mr Obama is due back in Washington on Saturday night.

Continue reading the main story March 1925: Deadliest twister in US history as so-called Tri-State Tornado kills 695 in Missouri, southern Illinois and south-west IndianaMarch 1932: Deep South tornado outbreak kills 332 people from Texas to South Carolina, with 270 dying in Alabama aloneMay 1840: The Great Natchez Tornado kills 317 people in Mississippi town, most living on flatboats on the riverApril 1974: 310 killed in 24-hour "super outbreak" of 148 tornadoes across 13 states.May 1896: Two weeks of storms kill 305 people in Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky"I want everybody in Joplin, everybody in Missouri, everybody in Minnesota, everybody across the Midwest to know that we are here for you," said Mr Obama.

"The American people are by your side. We're going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighbourhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."

The damage wrought in Missouri could, Mr Obama said, end up exceeding the destruction of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, by tornadoes in April.

Federal disaster and homeland security officials have travelled to the affected areas, said the US president.

Much of the south side of Joplin is reported to have been levelled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to rubble.

On Monday, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said storms had caused extensive damage across the state.

"As a state, we are deploying every agency and resource available to keep Missouri families safe, search for the missing, provide emergency medical care, and begin to recover," he said.

He warned that the storms were not finished and urged Missourians to keep a close eye on the latest weather information.

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Queen greets Obama on state visit

24 May 2011 Last updated at 16:00 GMT The Queen welcomes President Obama to Buckingham Palace

The Queen has greeted US President Barack Obama, and his wife Michelle, at the start of his first UK state visit.

The Obamas also met Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall and spent 20 minutes with newlyweds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

They have laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey and will attend a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

It came after David Cameron and Mr Obama spoke of "essential" UK-US ties.

'Common interests'

In a joint article in the Times, Mr Obama and Mr Cameron said of their countries' relationship: "Ours is not just a special relationship, it is an essential relationship - for us and for the world.

Continue reading the main story James Landale Deputy political editor, BBC News

Whenever a US president comes here there is always a slightly tortuous debate on whether or not the relationship is still special or not.

Both sides have decided the best way of avoiding that debate is to come up with a new wording entirely. They have a new adjective. It is now an essential relationship.

In a joint article for the Times newspaper, the prime minister and the president say the relationship between their countries was based originally on what they called emotional connections, sentiment and the ties of people and culture but now it thrives on common interests and shared values.

So what they are trying to focus on here now is more business-like pragmatism rather than any idea of appealing to the mythology of past historic links.

"When the United States and Britain stand together, our people and people around the world can become more secure and more prosperous.

"The reason it thrives is because it advances our common interests and shared values. It is a perfect alignment of what we both need and what we both believe."

The presidential pair's visit to Westminster Abbey included an impromptu meeting with choirboys, when Mr Obama was teased by his wife for his lack of singing talent.

"He insisted on speaking to each one of them and shaking their hands," the Dean, Dr John Hall said.

"He said that he liked to think he could sing and Mrs Obama said 'Well, he can't really, he can dance'."

Mr Obama briefly met the prime minister in Downing Street ahead of talks on Wednesday. They then left together for a surprise visit to the Globe Academy in Southwark, south London.

The leaders' talks are likely to focus on the Middle East and the ongoing conflict in Libya.

David and Samantha Cameron greet Barack and Michelle Obama

In their article, they also vowed not to abandon the protesters fighting for democracy in Arab countries, writing that they would "stand with those who want to bring light into dark, support those who seek freedom in place of repression, aid those laying the building blocks of democracy.

"We will not stand by as their aspirations get crushed in a hail of bombs, bullets and mortar fire.

"We are reluctant to use force, but when our interests and values come together, we know we have a responsibility to act."

BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall said the two countries were anxious to play up their closeness.

"Security is the secret glue at the core of the special relationship, and that bond is being strengthened," our correspondent said.

"Behind the flags and formalities, be sure there are tensions, but in this era of tightened budgets and sudden crises, there's a new eagerness to work together."

Mr Obama arrived in the UK from the Republic of Ireland a day ahead of schedule on Monday, to avoid any disruption from a volcanic ash cloud.

After the president was welcomed by Prince Charles and his wife at the US ambassador's residence Winfield House in Regent's Park, his cavalcade made its way to Buckingham Palace where he joined the Queen.

They briefly met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge before moving to the palace gardens where there was a ceremonial welcome, including a 41-gun salute.

There was an exchange of gifts, with the Obamas presenting the Queen with a collection of memorabilia and photographs from her parents' 1939 visit to the US.

They also received a selection of letters from the royal achives, between past US presidents and English monarchs.

When President Obama was shown letters and artefacts charting Britain's loss of the American colonies, he joked: "That was only a temporary blip in the relationship."

The royal newlyweds spent 20 minutes with the Obamas, but will not attend the state banquet

Michelle Obama was also given an antique brooch made of gold and red coral in the form of roses.

Number 10 barbecue

The Obamas are due to return to Buckingham Palace to meet Labour leader Ed Miliband.

In the evening there will be a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, where they will stay overnight.

Wednesday's itinerary will include talks with the prime minister before Mr Obama is joined by his wife and British and American military veterans for a barbecue at Number 10.

They will visit the Houses of Parliament and give a speech about US foreign policy to MPs in Westminster Hall, before a return banquet at Winfield House, where the Queen will formally say farewell.

The state visit to the UK is the 101st to be hosted by the Queen but only the third involving a US president in 100 years. The last US president to visit officially was George Bush in 2003.

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