Tag: boko haram

Yaoundé  – Cameroon has deported more than 2,000 Nigerians who were living in the country illegally as part of new security measures intended to prevent suicide attacks by Boko Haram jihadists, according to reports last night.

Regional newspaper L’Oeil du Sahel reported that about 2,500 Nigerians had been “rounded up” in Kousseri, in the far north of Cameroon, and sent back to their country on Thursday.

The weekly posted a photo on its Facebook page showing several departing trucks crammed with hundreds of passengers.

A source close to regional authorities confirmed that “more than 2,000 ‘irregular’ Nigerians have been expelled from Kousseri”.

Mey Aly, an official from a local NGO, said that most of the Nigerians “had fled the atrocities of Boko Haram” to take refuge in Cameroon.

Thursday’s deportations came just a day after President Muhammadu Buhari visited Cameroon for talks on how to combat the escalating regional threat from Boko Haram.

Buhari and Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya pledged to strengthen cooperation between their two countries in the fight against the insurgents.

The Cameroonian border post at Kousseri — which has been hit by two suicide attacks since June — occupies a strategic position, with just a bridge separating it from Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

Authorities in Cameroon’s far north have taken significant steps to boost security, including banning women from wearing the full face-veil amid fears that suicide bombers could use the garment to conceal explosives.

“With these attacks, the tone of the authorities has changed,” said a security source in Maroua. “They have asked that foreigners (notably Nigerians) and displaced people in the border areas go home.”

Some 300 Cameroonian children were removed from their Koranic schools in Maroua and taken back to their villages on Friday, according to a source close to local authorities, as the schools’ managers feared that insurgents could try to use them for suicide attacks.

Massive attacks  by the armed forces on Boko Haram  camps are in progress  in Borno,Yobe and Adamawa States  on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari  in the latest effort to end  the terrorism in the Northeast.

A no retreat, no surrender operation modality has been adopted by the military  for the operation even as  the Chadian Army  announced yesterday that its men had  killed about 117 terrorists on Lake Chad  islands.

President Buhari  who returned  to Abuja from Cameroun on Thursday at the end of another round of the anti-Boko Haram campaign is due in Benin Republic today to rally the support of the government  and people of  that country in the war against terrorism.

He  also told the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa , Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, who visited yesterday  that the army is now more ready than ever  before to defeat Boko Haram.

He was confident  that the full activation and deployment of  the Multi National Joint Task Force which has been established under the auspices of the Lake Chad Basin Commission will hasten the  defeat and elimination of Boko Haram.

He said that the morale of troops in the front-line states has improved significantly following the  establishment of  the Command and Control Centre of the  military in Maiduguri.

“You can tell the Secretary-General that we are doing our best and our best will be good enough for the nation and the sub-region,’’ President Buhari told Dr. Ibn Chambas.

Buhari’s visit to benin Republic today  ,according to Presidency sources,is aimed at consolidating the   “military alliance” between the country and Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

But a suicide bomber struck at the Gamboru market, Maiduguri yesterday killing  16 people while Boko Haram extremists  went on a revenge mission to Kikuwa-Gari village ,Yobe State, leaving 10 villagers dead.

A top military source said yesterday that troops   ” have launched massive attacks on the over 200 camps and many Forest bases of Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East. The counter-insurgency attacks could be likened to a full-scale war.

“The President has mandated the military to adopt a no retreat, no surrender. The new Service Chiefs are leading this new initiative.

“With the understanding of Chad, Niger Republic and Cameroon, there will be no hiding place for the insurgents.

“Some of the bombings being recorded in markets and motor-parks in the North-East are consequences of the pursuit of the insurgents from their hideouts.”

On   President  Buhari’s visit to Cotonou today,a source said “Buhari’s trip is part of the steps to co-opt Benin Republic into the new military alliance by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic.

“Troops are closing in on the insurgents in all fronts, we do not want them to use Benin Republic as a new base, especially for their supplies.

“The President believes that all our neighbours must be involved in the anti-terror war. This is why he is not taking anything for granted.”

Confirming the Lake Chad operation against Boko Haram,spokesman for Chad’s army, Col. Azem Bermendoa Agouna, said  : “For two weeks, Boko Haram terrorists have been trying to infiltrate our islands on Lake Chad to carry out attacks on peaceful citizens.

“Our armed forces and security forces have launched a vast offensive to dig out and neutralise these terrorists on these islands.

“Several boats have been destroyed and several weapons of different calibres have been recovered.

“117 terrorists have been killed, two Chadian soldiers died and two others were wounded” in the operation against the Nigeria-based movement, which began two weeks ago.

“The sweep continues and the definitive toll will be released later.”

Suicide bomber kills 16, injures 11 in Maiduguri

 A suicide bomber struck a crowded Gamboru market in Maiduguri yesterday, killing 16 people, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of the terror Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but the city has been repeatedly targeted by the extremists.

The National  Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said 11  people were wounded in the attack, which came just as  10 other   people were killed when Boko Haram insurgents  raided Kikuwa-Gari village ,Yobe State , in a revenge attack against local vigilantes.

Reports  said about  32 gunmen on motorcycles raided the village at around 10:30 pm  on Wednesday, killing 10 people including two women.

 Witnesses said the driver of a tricycle  detonated a device at the entrance to the crowded market around 7.30 a.m. yesterday.

“The wreckage of the tricycle used by the bomber was there. I saw the charred body of the bomber,” said Usman Ali, adding that he saw rescue workers removing bodies from the scene.

But a police officer who works in the Explosives Ordnance Department said he counted eight bodies at the scene of the blast near Gamboru market in Maiduguri.

He said the bomber, a male, arrived at the scene carrying a female passenger on  a tricycle laden with explosives.

“From the way his body was destroyed it showed that he was actually the suicide bomber and not the woman,” the police officer, who did not want to be named, told journalists.

A source the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital confirmed to journalists they received five bodies and seven injured persons.

Boko Haram 10 in  revenge raid

A resident of Kukuwa-Gari,Baba Nuhu  said  the terrorists who attacked the village also destroyed much  of the village.

“They burnt more than half of the village, including food silos and livestock on which the people depend for their livelihood,” Nuhu said.

“The attack came two ‎days after two Boko Haram members who came into the village were identified by residents and mobbed to death,” Nuhu said, adding that “the attack was obviously in reprisal” over their killing.

News of the attack was slow to emerge because the insurgents have destroyed telecom masts since the insurgency began in 2009.

The Gujba area of Yobe state, where Kukuwa-Gari village is located, has been hard hit by Boko Haram violence in the past but has seen relative calm since troops reclaimed it in March.

Buhari orders  release of N5 billion to  Victims  Support Fund

President Muhammadu Buhari  yesterday  directed the Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, to facilitate the immediate release of the N5 Billion pledged by government  last August  to the Victims Support Fund (VSF).

Receiving   a briefing from the VSF Presidential Committee headed by Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd.) in Abuja,also  urged the Committee to ensure proper coordination with other government agencies providing support and assistance to victims of terrorism.

General Danjuma had told the President that   of the N55.92 Billion pledged at the fund-raising dinner for the project  last year, N33.54 Billion  was still outstanding, including N5 Billion from the Federal Government.

He said that the VSF currently has N23.33 Billion in four bank accounts and that the Committee received approval from the immediate past administration to incorporate the money into a Trust Fund, to “insulate it from political interference”.

General Danjuma asked the President to use his office to persuade all organizations and individuals to honour their pledges to the Committee.

President Buhari, according to a statement by his  Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, assured General Danjuma and members of the VSF Committee that his administration was taking proactive steps to defeat terrorism in the country.

He said that despite the challenge of acquiring much needed strategic equipment and weapons to confront the terrorists, the Nigerian military has recently gained much ground in its effort to defeat and degrade Boko Haram.

He added that the full deployment of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), under the auspices of member-states of Lake Chad Basin Commission, will further boost ongoing military operations against the insurgents.

Speaking to reporters at the end of his meeting with the President,General Danjuma said the committee ” will continue to ask people who pledged to honour their pledges.”

He  described  the N20 billion as a drop in the ocean compared with the needs  of the victims .

“If really the war stops tomorrow, already those displaced are really looking for support to go back to their homes and this N20 billion is nothing,” he added

Also yesterday ,President Buhari  declared that  with the formation of a stronger regional coalition, Nigeria and neighbouring countries now have an increased capacity to deal effectively with Boko Haram and other terrorist groups.