Joe Parkinson, an award-winning journalist who has covered revolutions, conflicts, and economic crises in more than 40 countries in a recent Twitter post made deep revelations about the abduction of the Dapchi school girls. Parkinson, of The Wall Street Journal, (the Wall Street Journal, based in New York City, is America’s most circulated newspaper with more than 2 million copies daily) in a series of tweets yesterday revealed that Dapchi girls abduction not carried out by Boko haram. See thread below;
Last month's kidnap of 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi appeared a carbon copy of Boko Haram's abduction of the Chibok Girls… Only it wasn't the same Boko Haram.
Our latest report from Nigeria: https://t.co/R7LU4oWzUV
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
1) An Islamic State-backed faction led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi–& not Boko Haram leader Abubakr Shekau – was responsible for the Dapchi kidnap.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
2) We reviewed encrypted comms showing Barnawi's faction in regular contact with Islamic State emirs in Syria, Iraq and Libya. They have their own slickly-produced news channel (al-Hakik – or "credible") distributed on Telegram.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
3) Shekau has been shunned by Islamic State since 2016 – he sent eight letters to Al-Baghdadi through emissaries that were ignored. His unpredictability and use of child suicide bombers was too much, even for ISIS.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
4) One reason the factions were at odds was over the Chibok girls. Shekau, paranoid about a coup, repeatedly refused Nigerian govt deals to release top commanders, infuriating Barnawi and his allies.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
5) IS began to cultivate Barnawi–son of Boko founder Muhammad Yusuf–who had risen to senior commander and propaganda chief. He had backing of many seasoned commanders who felt sidelined by Shekau.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
6) In August 2016 the split became formalized: IS publicly declared Barnawi as leader of Lake Chad jihad (ISIS-West Africa) and began helping the group with military / comms training / opsec.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
7) In the months that followed, the factions turned their guns on each other: more than 400 people were killed in intra-Boko fighting. At one point Barnawi's group tried to wrestle Shekau's most prized asset – the Chibok girls.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
8) Under pressure, Shekau ransomed 103 Chibok girls – for millions of euros and five loyal, more junior, commanders. His group has increased attacks, particularly suicide bombings.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
9) From the end of last year, the Barnawi faction also launched more brazen attacks — kidnapping oil workers, teachers and UN employees. Also launching assaults on police and military bases.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
10) On February 19th militants loyal to Barnawi drove up to the Dapchi Science and Technology College, and kidnapped 110 girls, the youngest aged 10. Nigeria – and its political leadership – is stunned.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
11) Nigeria's government say they want a negotiated solution – understood to mean an exchange &/or ransom. Backchannel talks have already begun. Dozens more schools across the north have been closed.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
12) One only hopes the kidnapping of schoolgirls – which offers jihadists a route to money, profile and political leverage – does not happen again.
— Joe Parkinson (@JoeWSJ) March 19, 2018
Meanwhile, Amnesty says that between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm on February 19, at least five calls were made to tell the security services that Islamist fighters were in the Dapchi area. Locals spotted about 50 members of the Islamic State group affiliate in a convoy of nine vehicles in Futchimiram, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Dapchi, then at Gumsa. Amnesty, whose researchers spoke to about 23 people and three security officials, said the army command in Geidam had told callers they were aware of the situation and were monitoring.
This stories if true, clearly shows that the military and Government of Nigeria are involved with what is happening.