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Cornflakes for jihad: How the jihad terror group Boko Haram began, and how the U.S. helped

https://westafricaweekly.substack.com/p/cornflakes-for-jihad-the-boko-haram

Excerpt:

A question that is not asked frequently enough is how jihad groups are able to amass so much wealth. This extraordinary article pulls back the curtain on how one such group, Boko Haram in Nigeria, was able to get started.

“Cornflakes for Jihad: The Boko Haram Origin Story,” by David Hundeyin, West Africa Weekly, October 2, 2021:

In May 2021, a 96 year-old businessman died in Rome, Italy. In his lifetime, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin might have amassed a personal fortune of close to half a billion dollars, but the death of NASCO Group’s multimillionaire founder barely made the news. At first glance, the only extraordinary thing about his life story was that it embodied the African entrepreneurship dream.

Nasreddin was an Eritrean who moved to Jos in Nigeria’s Plateau State, and grew his father’s small manufacturing business into a $460 million conglomerate involved in everything from breakfast cereal and confectionery to pharmaceuticals, real estate and energy. After many years of growth and success, he eventually handed his sprawling business empire over to his son Attia Nasreddin, and retired at an old, satisfied age.

In an official statement released after Nasreddin’s death in May, Plateau State governor Simon Lalong said:

“NASCO has over the years remained a major employer of labour in Plateau and continues to contribute to the economic prosperity of the State and Nigeria at large through tax revenue and corporate social responsibility.”

Well that was the cover story, anyway.

… Wikileaks cable from 2002 hints at American hesitancy on the subject of freezing NASCO’s Nigerian assets due to the economic implications for Plateau State and political implications in Nigeria

…Summary: The question of including the NASCO Group (Nigeria) Ltd AND other NASCO SUBSIDIARIES IN NIGERIA in the assets freeze is a question of balancing our national security interests in confronting terrorism and its many components against our interests in Nigeria and the resultant strain the designation of the NASCO subsidiaries would have on the bilateral relationship. The national security imperative against counter terrorism is of paramount importance and that effort must not be found wanting. However, pursuit of this objective in a given situation, may undercut other important objectives and interests we may have in a particular country. This is the case with Nigeria and NASCO. The Mission does not know the extent to which NASCO’s Nigerian operations contribute to the global network of terrorism; Nor are we arguing that the NASCO group should not be placed on the list. If NASCO has abetted terrorism, it should pay the price for that affiliation. However, we would like to make Washington aware of the potential reaction in Nigeria to such a move and to the effect it might have on our relations here. If NASCO is added, the public disclosure of corroborative evidence would go far in reducing the inevitable criticism of our move. Additionaly, we offer other thoughts in paras 13 and 14 below on how the NASCO Group link with terrorism could be severed, but in ways that would tend to reduce the fallout inimical to the US-GON bilateral relationship. These ideas include the proposal that any freezes ordered should be limited to the NASCO parent company in Turkey, not the Nigerian subsidiaries. (Reftel C was transmitted in error and should be disregarded.) End summary.

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/02ABUJA187_a.html

The real proof of Nasreddin’s double life however, comes from the US Treasury Department which publishes a comprehensive account of how he launders and moves money around the world for terrorist entities. Want to hear the real kicker? Nasreddin has been funding and laundering money for none other than GSPC – the Algerian terrorist group which Yakubu Katsina and Shahru Haruna are also involved with at the exact same time.

…Today, in a significant action in our ongoing campaign against terrorism, our two nations – the United States and Italy - are blocking the assets of twenty-five individuals and entities based on their support for terrorism. This action furthers international efforts to shut down identified terrorist financing networks using targeted freezing actions under domestic and international law. In accordance with relevant United Nations procedures, we are submitting these names to the United Nations for listing by the UN 1267 Sanctions Committee because of the connections between these entities and individuals and Al-Qaida.

Of today’s twenty-five designations, all eleven individuals are related to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (”GSPC”), a separatist faction of the “Gruppo Islamico Armato (GIA).” The GSPC, an Algerian-based terrorist organization that continues to operate in North Africa, Spain and Italy, is a lethal terrorist group whose members support and finance terrorism around the globe. The United States designated both the GSPC and the GIA on September 24, 2001, and the United Nations placed them both on the list of terrorist entities linked to Al-Qaida on October 8, 2001.
Fourteen of the twenty-five are entities that are owned or controlled by either Ahmed Idris Nasreddin or Youssef Nada, both of whom have been previously designated as supporters of terrorism by the United States and the international community under U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1267, 1333 and 1390. These entities are part of an extensive financial network providing support to Al-Qaida and other terrorist related organizations.

This designation of additional corporate holdings will further choke the flow of funds that facilitate the financing of terrorism by disrupting the sources of their funding through their financial network.

The simultaneous blocking of the assets of these individuals and entities by Italy and the United States demonstrates the international commitment to choke off the sources of financing for terrorist acts. This particular designation is also unique in that it is the direct result of the collaborative and cooperative efforts of not just two, but four nations - the United States, Italy, the Bahamas, and Luxembourg - working together toward a common purpose. All four of those nations provided financial information, investigative assistance, or key documents or support – which allowed us to make the case necessary for today’s designation.

Since September 11th, the United States and other countries have frozen more than $112 million in terrorist-related assets. As a result of our efforts – including today’s action - 234 individuals and entities are currently designated as financiers of terror.

https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/po3380.aspx

The Nigerian jihadis being trained in Algerian camps in 2002 will later return to Nigeria and make up the core of what will later become known as “Boko Haram.” And – what a coincidence – NASCO is also based in Jos, which so happens to be the headquarters of the Izala Movement and its many North African dalliances.

Using money made from selling market-leading FMCGs to Nigerian consumers, a cross-border network of terrorism is being nurtured that will someday kill the very kids eating NASCO cornflakes every morning.

And it’s all thanks to this nice gentleman from Eritrea.