Boko Haram has been forced to produce its own
fuel to power its motorbikes because of an acute
petrol shortage caused by a military squeeze on
supply lines.
A senior military source said the Islamists were
paying huge sums of money for jerrycans of fuel
while a woman who recently escaped from the
group said they were making groundnut oil into
biodiesel.
“Boko Haram were paying outrageous sums to
get fuel and the incredible profit margin made
young men defy the risk and take fuel to them,”
said the source in the Borno state capital,
Maiduguri.
“The cutting off of fuel supplies has badly
crippled Boko Haram and that has been made
possible by blocking all identified supply routes
and the crackdown on the suppliers,” he told
AFP.
Fuel vendors seeking to exploit the group’s need
for fuel could sell each 25-litre jerrycan for
50,000 to 70,000 naira ($250-$350, 222-311
euros) each, said escapee Ya-Mairam Ya-
Malaye.
A jerrycan of fuel in Maiduguri costs only $13.
But the risk of being caught up in a military
aerial bombardment on Boko Haram positions
has forced the vendors to stay away, said the
security source.
Babakura Kolo, a civilian vigilante assisting the
military against the Islamic State group affiliate
in Maiduguri, said the militants would pay any
amount to get fuel.
“It was a lucrative business for the fuel vendors,”
said Kolo, who was involved in the crackdown
against Boko Haram suppliers in the city.
“But we have taken care of them and Boko
Haram are feeling the crunch because they are
out of supplies.”
Previous reports have indicated the rebels are
also running low on food.
– Groundnut oil –
Nigeria and its neighbours Cameroon, Chad and
Niger began a concerted fight-back against Boko
Haram in January last year, recapturing territory
lost to the militants the previous year.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said the
rebels, whose insurgency has killed an estimated
20,000 people and forced some 2.6 million to
flee since 2009, can no longer fight conventional
warfare.
Instead of its trademark hit-and-run attacks using
pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine
guns, the insurgents have even mounted strikes
on remote villages on horseback, bicycles or on
foot.
Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye, a 57-year-old mother-of-
eight who was among hundreds of women and
children abducted from the town of Bama in
September 2014, managed to escape Boko
Haram last week.
She said the group has devised a crude way of
adding salt to oil extracted from groundnuts to
make biodiesel for their motorcycles to mount
attacks from their Sambisa Forest enclaves in
Borno.
“They confiscate the groundnuts (that) farmers
in villages in and around Sambisa cultivated all-
year-round from their farms and irrigation fields,”
she explained from Maiduguri.
“They crush the nuts using diesel-powered
grinding machines to extract the oil to which
they add salt to make it light and combustible.”
Boko Haram had been getting fuel from young
men who would bring the petrol to designated
points near Sambisa (forest) for the fighters to
pick, she added.
Ya-Malaye said she was taken to Sambisa Forest
from Bama and moved between camps as troops
pushed further into the former game reserve in
pursuit of the militants.
The offensives and heightened border security
made it difficult for the militants to receive
deliveries from fuel vendors from Maiduguri and
Cameroonian border towns, she added.
fuel to power its motorbikes because of an acute
petrol shortage caused by a military squeeze on
supply lines.
A senior military source said the Islamists were
paying huge sums of money for jerrycans of fuel
while a woman who recently escaped from the
group said they were making groundnut oil into
biodiesel.
“Boko Haram were paying outrageous sums to
get fuel and the incredible profit margin made
young men defy the risk and take fuel to them,”
said the source in the Borno state capital,
Maiduguri.
“The cutting off of fuel supplies has badly
crippled Boko Haram and that has been made
possible by blocking all identified supply routes
and the crackdown on the suppliers,” he told
AFP.
Fuel vendors seeking to exploit the group’s need
for fuel could sell each 25-litre jerrycan for
50,000 to 70,000 naira ($250-$350, 222-311
euros) each, said escapee Ya-Mairam Ya-
Malaye.
A jerrycan of fuel in Maiduguri costs only $13.
But the risk of being caught up in a military
aerial bombardment on Boko Haram positions
has forced the vendors to stay away, said the
security source.
Babakura Kolo, a civilian vigilante assisting the
military against the Islamic State group affiliate
in Maiduguri, said the militants would pay any
amount to get fuel.
“It was a lucrative business for the fuel vendors,”
said Kolo, who was involved in the crackdown
against Boko Haram suppliers in the city.
“But we have taken care of them and Boko
Haram are feeling the crunch because they are
out of supplies.”
Previous reports have indicated the rebels are
also running low on food.
– Groundnut oil –
Nigeria and its neighbours Cameroon, Chad and
Niger began a concerted fight-back against Boko
Haram in January last year, recapturing territory
lost to the militants the previous year.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said the
rebels, whose insurgency has killed an estimated
20,000 people and forced some 2.6 million to
flee since 2009, can no longer fight conventional
warfare.
Instead of its trademark hit-and-run attacks using
pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine
guns, the insurgents have even mounted strikes
on remote villages on horseback, bicycles or on
foot.
Ya-Mairam Ya-Malaye, a 57-year-old mother-of-
eight who was among hundreds of women and
children abducted from the town of Bama in
September 2014, managed to escape Boko
Haram last week.
She said the group has devised a crude way of
adding salt to oil extracted from groundnuts to
make biodiesel for their motorcycles to mount
attacks from their Sambisa Forest enclaves in
Borno.
“They confiscate the groundnuts (that) farmers
in villages in and around Sambisa cultivated all-
year-round from their farms and irrigation fields,”
she explained from Maiduguri.
“They crush the nuts using diesel-powered
grinding machines to extract the oil to which
they add salt to make it light and combustible.”
Boko Haram had been getting fuel from young
men who would bring the petrol to designated
points near Sambisa (forest) for the fighters to
pick, she added.
Ya-Malaye said she was taken to Sambisa Forest
from Bama and moved between camps as troops
pushed further into the former game reserve in
pursuit of the militants.
The offensives and heightened border security
made it difficult for the militants to receive
deliveries from fuel vendors from Maiduguri and
Cameroonian border towns, she added.
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