Nigeria: Leaked memo claims ISWAP is planning Abuja attacks

According to Leadership reporting on 10 July 2022, a memo dated 8 July 2022 written by the Federal Capital Territory Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has been leaked to the press. In the memo it is stated that there is “certified intelligence” revealing that ISWAP have plans “to launch more coordinated and spontaneous attacks on selected targets within the FCT [Abuja] and have declared war against Christians in Nigeria”. The report by Global Upfront on 9 July 2022 even supplies photographs of the memo in question.

Frans Veerman, Managing Director of World Watch Research comments: “Either this memo is a fake trying to draw attention away from the ethnoreligious drive of Fulani militia or it is a genuine document. If the latter is the case, it could indicate that ISWAP is taking on a leading role in the increasing cooperation between ISWAP, Boko Haram, Fulani militia and related ‘bandits’. Whether fake or real, both possibilities are very worrying. If the presence of a widespread Fulani militia is being ‘protected’, that is doubly dangerous since it gives the militants a free hand for their destabilizing aggression and because it could mean that the highest governmental echelons have taken them under their wing. On the other hand, if ISWAP is indeed increasingly taking on a leadership role, it indicates that they are growing both in confidence and power, and are particularly dangerous due to their international links to the wider Islamic State group. Also for ISWAP, the question needs to be asked: Why is the federal government giving them so much space? If the government simply allows them to continue their attacks, the country will inevitably reach some sort of tipping point. The ensuing chaos would be disastrous for the Christian community and all Nigerians.”