Nigeria arrests Islamist group leader

Nigeria arrests Islamist group leader

Nigeria’s army says it has arrested the leader of the Islamist militant group Ansaru, a breakaway faction of Boko Haram.

Ministry of Defense spokesman Rabe Abubakar said Khalid al-Barnawi was arrested in the central city of Lokoja on Friday.

The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward for al-Barnawi since 2012.

Ansaru emerged as a separate group from Boko Haram that year. Both groups aim to establish an Islamic state in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria.

The United States accused Ansaru of kidnapping and killing several foreign workers in Nigeria and killing Nigerian police officers during a 2012 attack on an Abuja police station.

It also said Ansaru has close ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and designated Ansaru as a terrorist group in November 2013.

Tags:

Nigeria Al Shabaab Boko Haram Abuja AL QAEDA Khalid al-Barnawi

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