Tag: boko haram

A Boko Haram leader may have been killed during air strikes against the insurgents in the Northeast by Nigerian and Allied forces, it was learnt yesterday.

Members of the allied forces are Chad, Niger and Cameroon who are Nigeria’s neighbours.

But the authenticity of the reported killing of the sect’s chief is being investigated by military authorities.

The sect leader is said to be one of the senior officers in Boko Haram command during the tenure of the late Mohammed Yusuf, founder of the group.

Besdies, the military has recovered deadly weapons from the insurgents in Baga. They include armoured tanks, artillery guns, and many Toyota Hilux vans.

Military source said troops have recaptured six towns from the insurgents. These are Gamboru-Ngala, Malamfatori, Abadam, Kirawa,  Ashigashiya and Michika.

The battle to liberate Gwoza, Gulak and others was ongoing yesterday.

According to military sources, the battle to sack Boko Haram from the Northeast has assumed a large-scale dimension.

The sources claimed that many camps and cells of the insurgents had been razed down through heavy air strikes.

One of the sources said a top Boko Haram leader was feared killed in one of the air strikes.

The highly-placed source said: “As the battle to annihilate Boko Haram terrorists in the Northeast parts of the country intensifies with Nigerian troops in conjunction with allied forces from neighbouring countries gaining the upper hand, there is suppressed excitement about the reported death of a top ranking leader of the terrorists operating in the region.

“Commanders at the frontline reported that the leader was a casualty of the ongoing heavy air bombardment from warplanes while clearing the way for the ground troops of multinational task force to move into some towns near one of the borders.

Director of Defence Information Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade declined to give details on the killing of the top Boko Haram leader.

He simply said: “As far as we are concerned, anybody that is associated with terrorism is a target and right now, we have a task of cleaning up the entire Boko Haram – infested region and returning peace to the country.”

One of the leaders of Boko Haram whose death has been controversial is Abubakar Shekau.

On 19 August 2013, the Joint Task Force (JTF) announced his death.

They claimed he died of gunshots wounds received in an encounter with the JTF in one of their camps in Sambisa Forest on June 30, 2013.

Many months later, Shekau re-emerged to dispute the claim of his death.

But the military disputed the re-emergence of Shekau by claiming that the man in the video was allegedly “having different mannerisms, gait and character from the original Shekau”.

•Chad not driving attacks, says DHQ

Chad’s military has captured Nigeria’s Borno State town Gamboru from Boko Haram’s control, a report said yesterday.

Gamboru, which is on the Nigeria-Chad border, is the latest in a series of excursions into Nigerian territory by the Chadians in their battle against Boko Haram.

But the Nigerian military yesterday denied that the Chadians were leading the battle against the sect.

“Our troops entered Nigeria this morning. The combat is ongoing,” one of the sources at Chad’s army headquarters told Reuters.

Armoured vehicles and infantry crossed a bridge from Cameroon following air strikes and mortar attacks on Boko Haram positions, officials said

Chad has deployed some 2,500 troops as part of a regional effort to take on the militant group that has waged a bloody insurgency to create an Islamist emirate in northern Nigeria.

Chadian forces have also liberated Baga, Dikwa and other Borno towns.

Malam Fatori, Damasak, Ngala and parts of Bama in the past four days, Jubrin Gunda, a spokesman for a Nigerian militia group, said yesterday on telephone from Maiduguri.

Chadian troops are in these places and are pushing for other areas where the insurgents have bases,” he said.

The Chadian contingent of about 2,000 troops crossed the frontier without a shot being fired, AFP news agency reports from the scene.

Chad warplanes had earlier carried out air strikes for about an hour.

On Monday, the Nigerian Army said it had recaptured Gamboru, a small town separated from Cameroon by a river.

African leaders agreed to set up a task force of 7,500 soldiers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin to counter Boko Haram, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said on January 31 at a briefing in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The force will have its headquarters in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital, and a 12-month mandate starting in February, he said.

Also, French military aircraft are carrying out surveillance missions to help countries bordering Nigeria tackle Boko Haram militants, officials said yesterday amid efforts by African countries to coordinate a response to the threat posed by the group.

“Our air force is carrying out reconnaissance missions, but not over Nigeria,” said a French defence ministry source. “Our support is limited to neighbouring countries such as Chad and Niger.”

The source added intelligence was being given to Chadian forces fighting Boko Haram on the Cameroon and Nigeria border region.

Speaking at a ceremony yesterday marking the accidental death of nine French airmen in Spain last month, French President Francois Hollande earlier said aircraft were operating over Nigeria.

Clarifying Hollande’s comments, the presidential palace said French planes were not flying over Nigeria, but that France was “co-operating in the fight against Boko Haram,” accrording to Reuters

Hollande said in May that Rafale fighter jets would be used for reconnaissance missions to help find some 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

Since then there has been no official comment on any French operations in the country.

France has headquartered its 3,200-strong Sahel counter-insurgency force, Barkhane, in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, some 50km from the Nigerian border. It has fighter jets based there and in Niger, where it also has surveillance drones.

Paris has ruled out direct military involvement for now, but said it can play a role in easing tensions and instigating dialogue between its three former colonies – Chad, Niger and Cameroon – and anglophone Nigeria.

Chad and Cameroon have stepped up troop deployments to fight the militants and on 31 January Chad’s army said it bombarded Boko Haram militants two days after their troops drove Boko Haram fighters from a northern Nigeria border town.

“France is in D’Djamena. We have the capacity to do surveillance and provide intelligence,” a French diplomatic source said.”Our job is to put some oil in the cogs between Nigeria and its neighbours.”

 

The Defence Headquarters yesterday said Chad is not driving attacks on Boko Haram insurgents contrary to insinuations.

It said Nigerian troops had been leading the plan and coordinating attacks on insurgents.

It also said Chad has not taken over any Nigerian territory in the ongoing onslaught against the insurgents.

The DHQ,  which made the clarifications in a statement on its blog, said Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad are involved in joint operations against Boko Haram under the auspices of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF).

The statement said: “The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in which Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad have contingents are part of the ongoing onslaught against terrorists in this region.

“The countries that make up the Lake Chad Basin Commission also had some understanding, which now enables a massive move against terrorists from all angles.

“Contrary to the impression being pushed in some quarters, it is the Nigerian forces that planned and are driving the present onslaught against terrorists from all fronts in Nigeria; not the Chadian Forces as is being propagated by some media.

“For instance Chadian forces have been deployed in Baga Sola, which is a Chadian territory.

“There have been some joint deployments and patrols around Kirawa, Ashgashiya and other locations in borders of Cameroun, Nigeria and Chad as part of these operations.

“Chadians and others are however keying into and working in concert with the overall plan for an all-round move against the terrorists as agreed.

“Nigeria’s territorial integrity remains intact.”

A military source , who spoke in confidence, also added: “While it is true that these other countries are collaborating with Nigeria, their troops contributions are not as massive as to make the kind of impressions being peddled by sections of the press.”

“The  cooperation by countries making up the Lake Chad Region against Boko Haram terrorists has in no way compromised the territorial integrity of the country.”

A member of the National Conference and a security consultant, Col. Tony Nyiam, has offered some insight into why soldiers involved in the fight against Boko Haram often abandon their duty posts and run away whenever the insurgents are attacking.

Nyiam, who spoke at a one-day symposium organised by the HH Macaulay Centre for Advancement of Democracy, said many of the cadets admitted into the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) lacked the basic requirement of patriotism, commitment and courage needed to be a soldier.

Blaming what he termed undue interference in the recruitment process into the armed forces as reason why there are soldiers who are lily-livered in the war front, he also berated politicians who go out of their ways to promote mediocrity instead of merit for the sort of ill- prepared soldiers recruited into the army.

Nyiam, one of the soldiers alleged to have taken part in the botched coup by Major Gideon Orkar, said: “During our time, when you want to be an army officer, there were three things that count: patriotism, commitment and courage.

“What we have today is that a politician goes to a senator and the senator dictates who goes into the Nigeria Defence Academy. Many people going into the academy are doing so just as a job.