Nigerian Islamist group Ansaru says it has killed seven foreign hostages

No confirmation of the killings could t be obtained from the Nigerian government or the countries of origin of the seven hostages.
 

 "In the statement, the group said that following the actions of the British and Nigerian governments to free the hostages, and arrests and abuses they have committed, he was compelled to kill the hostages, reports SITE.
 

 SITE quotes a statement written in Arabic and English and released on Saturday and also refers to "screenshots" of a video "showing the hostages dead."
 

 A senior executive of the Lebanese construction company Setraco which employed seven men abducted on 16 February, told AFP he could not confirm the information.

In a statement sent by e-mail to reporters two days after the kidnapping, Ansaru had reported " taking hostage seven people, including Lebanese and European colleagues working for Setraco."
 

Two Lebanese, two Syrians, a Briton, a Greek and an Italian were then captured in the village of Jama'are in Bauchi State (North), according to a Setraco.official. The claim of abduction, the Ansaru group had raised "transgressions and atrocities committed against the religion of Allah (...) by the European countries in several places including Afghanistan and Mali."
 

Ansaru is considered a faction of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, responsible for the death of hundreds of people in attacks in northern and central Nigeria since 2009.
 

Boko Haram also claimed in a video posted on the Internet on February 25, the removal of a French family of seven - including four children - in northern Cameroon. This video, however, was very different from previous videos released by Boko Haram and the group had never previously claimed the abduction of foreigners.
 

However, Ansaru was quoted as being linked to several kidnappings including, in May 2011, a Briton and an Italian working for a construction company in Kebbi State, near the border with Niger. The hostages were killed in March 2012 in the neighbouring state of Sokoto in a failed attempt to release them.
 

.Ansaru also claimed the kidnapping of a French engineer in the state of Katsina, border with Niger. It remains unclear where the hostages.
 

The announcement of the execution of the seven foreign hostages came as the Nigerian army said they had conducted n Friday, a new operation in Maiduguri, a stronghold of the Islamist group Boko Haram in the north-eastern Nigeria. According to the army, twenty suspected Islamist militants were killed and two soldiers.

This is the latest in a series of actions conducted by the JTF, joint force of army and police against " Boko Haram. terrorists" In ten days, the force said it had killed 52 alleged members of this movement and arrested 70. This announcement has however not been confirmed by any independent source, and the army has often been accused of human rights violations and abuses.
 

The release of the police followed a visit by President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday and Friday in two states of North East, particularly shaken by the attacks of Islamist group, for the first time since his election in 2011.

 

 Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with 160 million inhabitants, the largest oil producer on the continent. The country is divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.