Nigeria, Aug. 22 -- On 16 August, Nigeria's National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, announced that security services had captured two terrorist leaders who have been on the wanted list for a long time. They are Mahmud Muhammad Usman, a leader of the al-Qaida-linked faction, Jama'atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan, popularly known as Ansaru and his colleague, Mahmud al-Nigeri. The leader, Malam Mamuda, was described by the NSA as someone who had been trained in Libya between 2013 and 2015 under foreign jihadist instructors from Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, with specialisation in weapons handling and the fabrication of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

The NSA said the arrest was "the most decisive blow against Ansaru" since i...