Military bans mobile phones in Borno after fresh attack

Musa

Nigeria’s military has banned the use of Thuraya mobile phones in Borno State, a step it said was designed to stop the Boko Haram sect from communicating. Reuters reports that authorities cut the mobile network in the state in the same week to disrupt Boko Haram’s operations. 

It is the most determined offensive yet against Boko Haram, whose nickname translates as “Western education is sinful” and whose struggle to carve an Islamic state out of religiously-mixed Nigeria has destabilized the country.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and two other states on May 14, ordering extra troops in to try to crush the sect, whose insurgency has killed thousands of people in the past three years.

The military spokesman in Borno State, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said the ban was imposed after evidence emerged that Boko Haram used satellite phones to coordinate attacks on civilians, including in two school attacks in the past week.

Suspected sect members fired on a school in Maiduguri on Tuesday, killing nine students. The attack followed one in the city of Damaturu, also under a state of emergency, that killed seven pupils and two teachers.

“Effective from June 19, the JTF imposes a ban on the use and sales of Thuraya phones and accessories,” Musa said in a statement handed out to journalists. “Anyone seen with Thuraya phones, recharge cards and accessories will be arrested.”

The move will make it even more difficult for journalists to report from the conflict zone, something press freedom groups say Nigeria’s military has been trying to do anyway.