The Nation Newspaper

Tag: boko haram

  • Boko Haram attacks Niger’s Army base

    Boko Haram attacks Niger’s Army base

    Suspected Boko Haram fighters in motorised canoes have attacked a Niger army base on an island in Lake Chad, Niger’s Defence Ministry said.

    The Niger Army, sources said, might have suffered “heavy losses” in the attack on Karamga Island.

    Casualty figures were not provided in a defence ministry statement.

    A similar attack on Karamga Island in February killed seven Niger soldiers and 14 Boko Haram fighters, military officials said at the time.

    The ministry said in the latest attack, the assailants approached at dawn in about 10 motorised canoes.

    “Operations are ongoing with the aid of allies” to put an end to the insurgent movement, the statement said.

    Niger joined a regional offensive earlier this year that is credited with retaking large swaths of territory in Nigeria from Boko Haram.

    The original plans called for a 8,750-member regional force with troops also coming from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Benin.

    In addition to the Lake Chad violence, Niger towns bordering Nigeria were targeted in the early weeks of the offensive.

  • Boko Haram kills four in Plateau

    Boko Haram kills four in Plateau

    Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members have attacked a village in Plateau State, killing four persons including two members of the state security outfit code named Operation Rainbow.

    The gunmen struck at Shonong village in Riyom local government area.

    The other victims were residents of the village.

    The gunmen were said to have stormed the village at about 12 noon, taking the residents by surprise.

    A source in Shonong said the invaders first killed two of the villagers.

    Others managed to escape and subsequently sent a distress message to the security agency.

    The agency’s response was swift but its men were no match for the well armed terrorists who proceeded to kill two of the security agents.

    They made away with two rifles seized from them.

    The commissioner of police Nasiru Oki ordered the withdrawal of the remaining security personnel from the village, an action that has forced the people to seek refuge in Riyom, headquarters of Riyom local government area.

    Repeated attacks on the village have claimed over 130 lives within the last three years.

     

  • Boko Haram retakes Marte from army

    Boko Haram retakes Marte from army

    suspected Boko Haram insurgents are back in control of Marte, Borno State, a border town along the shores of Lake Chad, after forcing soldiers to flee.

    It is among several retaken in recent weeks by Nigerian troops, who have launched an offensive against the insurgents as part of a regional operation supported by Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

    The terrorists stormed the town on Thursday, a local official and witnesses said.

    “The terrorists, numbering over 2,000, appeared from various directions on Thursday and engaged the soldiers in Kirenowa town and adjoining communities in Marte,” said Imamu Habeeb, a local community leader.

    Fighting raged all night on Thursday and continued on Friday.

    Local fighter Shehu Dan Baiwa said the more than 2,000 fighters had been armed with bombs and tanks. “They used the weapons without restraint and succeeded in killing several people,” he said.

    This is the third time Boko Haram has seized control of Marte.

    But Boko Haram has been fighting back, and Nigerian troops were also forced to retreat from Boko Haram’s Sambisa Forest stronghold last week after a landmine blast killed one soldier and three vigilantes.

    A senior local politician confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that the insurgents had retaken Marte.

     

    “We lost many (people) because some of our people that fled to Chad and Cameroon have return after Nigerian troops recovered the town recently,” he added.

    A senior military official confirmed the attack on Marte, but refused to say whether Boko Haram had retaken the town, describing the army’s retreat as “strategic”.

  • Nigerian forces invade Sambisa forest for Boko Haram

    Nigerian forces invade Sambisa forest for Boko Haram

    Nigerian forces backed by warplanes invaded the Boko Haram’s last known stronghold, the Sambisa forest, on Wednesday, in an effort to finally defeat their six-year-old insurgency, two military sources told Reuters.

    Armies from Nigeria and neighbours Chad, Niger and Cameroon have in the past two months launched a concerted push to try to crush the insurgents, who have killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in their battle to establish an Islamic state.

    The Sambisa forest in northeast Nigeria, a vast former colonial game reserve, is about 100 km (60 miles) from the village of Chibok from where Boko Haram abducted more than 200 secondary school girls a year ago. Intelligence officials had believed that this was where they were being held, although United States reconnaissance drones have failed to find them.

    The United Nations Special Representative for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said this month that Boko Haram militants seeking shelter in the Sambisa Forest may be using some of the captured girls as human shields.

    A spokesman for the military was not immediately available for comment.

    An official in the Chadian army said Chadian and Cameroonian troops were ready to attack Sambisa, which lies near the Cameroon border, from the other side and would move in soon.

    Chadian troops were assembling in Mora, northern Cameroon, ahead of the joint operation, a Cameroonian army official said.

    The militants controlled an area the size of Belgium at the start of the year, but have since lost much of that ground.

  • Boko Haram chief killed as troops storm insurgents’ enclaves

    Boko Haram chief killed as troops storm insurgents’ enclaves

    A notorious terrorists commander, Abu Mojahid, has been killed in an encounter with troops on the outskirts of Alagarno, the Defence Headquarters said yesterday.

    A statement by the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade said the terrorists on Tuesday staged a daring attack on troops who were on patrol of the area.

    “A number of the terrorists died as the troops repelled the attack. Some Rocket Propelled Grenades as well as vehicle mounted by Anti-Aircraft guns were either captured or destroyed in the encounter”, Olukolade said.

    The DHQ added that operations were continuing in the form of offensive actions on identified terrorists in some forest locations. The statement added that aggressive patrols, mopping up as well as cordon and search were also ongoing in the other locations.

    “Improvised explosive devices planted by the terrorists to deter the comprehensive offensive by the advancing troops are also being carefully cleared as troops continue to pursue fleeing ones.

    “The operations, especially in forest locations, are progressing – in defiance of obstacles and land mines emplaced by the terrorists,” the statement said.

    A BBC report monitored yesterday indicated that troops had intensified offensive, including aeriaal bombing targeted at the various terrorist enclaves.

    BBC reported that aerial bombardments on Sambisa, in northeastern Borno State, were being slowed down by inclement weather conditions and poor visibility.

  • Military launches final offensive against Boko Haram in Sambisa

    Military launches final offensive against Boko Haram in Sambisa

    Nigerian ground troops have joined an offensive on the last known hideout of the Boko Haram Islamist militants, a military spokesman has told the BBC.

    The vast north-eastern Sambisa forest is where they have many bases – and it has been subject to aerial bombardments since February.

    There has been speculation that some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped more than a year ago are being held there.

    Boko Haram has killed thousands in the north since 2009.

    The  military, backed by troops from neighbouring countries, launched an offensive against Boko Haram in February – and has recaptured most of the territory the militants had taken in the previous year

    But the BBC’s Africa security correspondent Tomi Oladipo says the Sambisa forest is far larger than any other territory that has been fought over in the conflict.

    The aerial bombardments on Sambisa, which is mainly in north-eastern Borno State, have been slowed down by weather conditions and poor visibility, he says.

    Military spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade refused to give any further details about the offensive.

  • Boko Haram kills two soldiers in Baga rocket attack

    Boko Haram kills two soldiers in Baga rocket attack

    Two soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram rocket attack on a military vehicle in Borno State town town of Baga, residents told French News Agency (AFP) yesterday.

    Six other soldiers and a civilian vigilante were critically injured when their vehicle hit a mine planted by the Islamists just outside the town on Sunday, the sources added.

    The attack and the mine explosion happened as the military escorted about 1,200 people from Baga on a brief return visit to their hometown from Maiduguri, the state capital.

    Boko Haram seized the town on the shores of Lake Chad on January 3 and is suspected of killing hundreds in what was feared to have been the worst massacre in the six-year insurgency.

    Nigeria’s military recaptured the town in late February, in an operation also involving Chad, Niger and Cameroon stepped up to drive out the militants from occupied territory.

    “Boko Haram fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a military van in an ambush in Baga which killed two soldiers and destroyed the vehicle,” said resident Karimbe Maina

    The soldiers were driving back to their base outside Baga to mobilise more troops to help drag an armoured vehicle stuck in the mud across town on the shores of Lake Chad, he added

    “Following the attack which killed two soldiers there was a prolonged gun battle ýbetween soldiers and the Boko Haram gunmen, which forced the gunmen to flee,” said vigilante Haruna Shuaibu.

    The attack disrupted the tour, forcing the residents to leave their badly damaged and pillaged town as quickly as possible, said Musa Bulama who was on the visit.

    The visit was initially planned for Sunday but was temporarily stalled after a military vehicle set off a mine in Kauyen Kuros village, six kilometres (four miles) from Baga.

    “We had to spend the night in Kauyen Kuros as a result of the explosion which injured six soldiers and a member of the civilian vigilantes giving security cover to the convoy,” said Bulama.

    Military spokesman Chris Olukolade said on February 21 that troops had to clear landmines planted by Boko Haram before being able to enter Baga.

    Nigeria claims to have Boko Haram on the run and that troops are poised to storm the group’s Sambisa Forest stronghold by the handover of power to president-elect Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.

    But with increasing talk of some of the 1.5 million people forced to flee the fighting returning home, the Baga residents said the area was still infested with militant fighters.

    “Boko Haram are still in the bushes around Baga and move in and out of the town unchallenged because soldiers confine themselves to their base in Mile 4 and only carry periodic patrols of the town,” said Maina.

    Bulama added: “The area is still not safe. Boko Haram fighters are very much around in the surrounding areas. No one should contemplate moving back into the area because it is dangerous.”

  •  Too dazed to reason

    One way of looking at the outrageous seizure of over 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno State, one year ago, is through the eyes of the Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe.

    With most of the kidnapped girls still missing and the world still in shock, it was predictable that on the April 14 anniversary world leaders reiterated the familiar demand: bring back the girls.

    While the solemn international remembrance made the headlines, Okupe was busy posting his own views about the abduction on the social media. He was quoted as saying on Facebook: “One of the reasons the Chibok girls were kidnapped was to present Jonathan’s administration as incompetent and to hold it to ransom against 2015 elections. One of the reasons the BBOG (BringBackOurGirls) was formed was to sustain and internationalise the embarrassment.”

    Okupe continued: “One of the reasons President Jonathan lost the election was a national and international conspiracy predicated on this carefully choreographed and assiduously sustained perception.”

    It would seem that Okupe is still too stunned to accept that his boss was demonstrably defeated in the March 28 presidential poll, and still too dazed to reason out how it happened that an incumbent with alleged poor marks in governance was voted out of power. Also, which is worse, it would appear that Okupe may never be able to see Jonathan’s fall as a consequence of his administration’s failure to bring about the developmental transformation the people need.

    Contrary to Okupe’s narrow reasoning, the abduction was not necessary to “present Jonathan’s administration as incompetent” since its incompetence was already self-evident. What the abduction exposed was the gargantuan extent of its incompetence. Okupe should reflect on whether the one-year-old unresolved kidnap is a testimony to the administration’s competence, if any.

    It is disturbing that, considering Okupe’s role in the administration, he may not be the only one thinking this way. It is even worse that he may have been communicating the general thinking in Jonathan’s camp.

    In a significant way, Okupe reflected the presidency’s incompetence when he said: “What is reasonable and expedient for well-meaning men and women of good conscience is to dialogue with the incoming administration on what best new approach to employ to find and rescue the Chibok girls.” When a spokesman speaks of focusing on “what best new approach to employ”, it can be interpreted as a sign, if not an admission, that the administration he represents has handled the issue incompetently.

    Of course, incompetence must have consequences, and the incompetent must bear the consequences, never mind what Okupe seems to think. Interestingly, Okupe said: “Not much can be achieved, except mischief, by continuing to flog this administration on this matter.”  The truth is that the Jonathan administration deserves to be continually flogged until it hands over power to the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration. Beyond the first level, there is no doubt that the Jonathan presidency will be continually and deservedly flogged by history.

  • Boko Haram kills 12 in Borno

    Boko Haram kills 12 in Borno

    Boko Haram militants have slit the throats of 12 people in Gwosa town, Borno State, as the army was trying to evacuate civilians from the area, a military source and a witness said on Friday.

    The militants have been driven out of much of the huge swathe of territory they controlled at the start of the year, thanks to a concerted push by troops from Nigeria and neighbours – Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

    The town of Gwoza, in mountainous terrain, was one of the last places to fall, on March 27, and there remain pockets of Boko Haram activity in the area, security sources say.

    “Just as troops were trying to evacuate some civilians from the hills so as to safeguard them from a planned air strike. Some Boko Haram members attacked them and slit the throats of 12 people,” a military source said of Wednesday’s attack.

    A witness, Jonas Musa, told Reuters his parents were among the victims. He said soldiers had moved one group of people from the hills around Gwoza, but before they could go back for the second, the attackers struck.

     

  • Buhari pledges support for Chibok family

    Buhari pledges support for Chibok family

    “As we remember the kidnap of the girls, it is time to reflect on the pains and suffering of the victims, their friends and family on the account of this heinous crime”.

    These were the words of the president-elect (Rtd.) General Muhammadu Buhari as it makes one year after the terrific abduction of over 200 girls from a secondary school in Chibok town of Borno state, by Boko Haram sects.

    Buhari in his speech sympathized with the families affected and assured Nigerians – particularly the parents of the girls – that his administration will do everything within its capacity to make sure the girls are found (if still alive) and reconciled with their families despite the fact that their whereabouts is yet unknown.

    ‘’As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them, but I say to every parent, family members and friends of the children that my government will do everything in our power to bring them back home.

    ‘’We don’t know if Chibok girls can be rescued, as their whereabouts remain unknown.”

    He further promised that his administration will defeat the Boko Haram insurgents who for years have brought terror to the nation by massive massacre of people.

    ‘’What I pledge, with absolute certainty, is that starting from the first day of my administration, Boko Haram will know the strength of our collective will and commitment to rid the nation of terror and bring back peace and normalcy to all affected areas,” he said.

    According to him, his administration will give listening ears to the request of the masses and act in accordance.