New terrorist group claims responsibility for Bauchi kidnapping

The fast-growing new terrorist group, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis- Sudan (a.k.a JAMBS), on Monday claimed responsibility for Sunday’s seizure of six foreign workers in Bauchi.

A guard was also killed during the raid on the company’s premises where the expatriates were kidnapped.

The victims are believed to include an Italian, a Filipino, a Briton, one Greek and a Lebanese.

They were working on a construction project when the militants attacked on Sunday, reports say.

JAMBS, believed to have been a breakaway faction of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, had similarly claimed responsibility for the attack on Nigerian soldiers on their way to Mali last month.

In the attack on the soldiers on Okene-Lokoja Road, in Kogi State, two soldiers and many others were said to be injured during a gunfight that ensued.

The group, according to a BBC report, announced that it was behind Sunday’s kidnapping in an email, saying it had “the custody of seven persons, which include Lebanese and their European counterparts” working with a construction firm, Setraco.

On Monday, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office would still not confirm or deny reports that a Briton was among those held.

The kidnappers of the six foreigners said to be about 24, armed with rifles and dynamites, were said to have blown up two separate spots at the facility and escaped with the hostages, including those seized from the club house.

 The incident has precipitated a fresh travel alert by the British and American embassies, warning their citizens to avoid troubled states in Nigeria.

The embassies updated their travel warnings on Monday, asking their citizens against all but essential travel to some states of the federation.

In a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, in Abuja, on Monday, the Political Officer in the British High Commission, in Abuja, Mr. Robert Fitzpatrick, said, “We are aware of reports that a number of foreign nationals, including a British national, working for a construction company were abducted on the 16 of February in Bauchi State, we are in contact with the Nigerian authorities.”

He could however, not confirm whether one of the kidnapped foreigners is a British national.

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