Skip to main content

Soldiers, Boko Haram In Fierce Battle.

•File picture of Joint Military Task Force (JTF) patrolling the streets of restive northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri, Borno State, recently. A fierce gun battle has begun between soldiers and Boko Haram extremists after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states on Tuesday. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEI

Nigerian soldiers have begun an offensive against Boko Haram Islamists, raiding camps in a remote northeastern park, while more than 2,000 troops have been deployed to retake territory seized by the insurgents, a military source told AFP Thursday.
“Our men raided some terrorist camps in the Sambisa Game Reserve,” in Borno State, said the senior officer who requested anonymity.
“So far 2,000 troops have been deployed to Borno,” he added, declining to comment on the forces sent to the other affected states of Yobe and Adamawa.
The defence ministry yesterday deployed troops and aircraft to the restive three states slammed with emergency rule by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday.
A military source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP Wednesday that fighter jets would also be deployed to the region.
President Jonathan issued the emergency decree in a broadcast, acknowledging for the first time that Boko Haram Islamists had “taken over” parts of Borno State, the insurgents’ stronghold.
“Nigerian Armed Forces have commenced operations to rid the nation’s border territories of terrorist bases,” a military statement said.
“The operations which will involve massive deployment of men and resources, is aimed at asserting the nation’s territorial integrity,” it added.
A top US official called on Nigeria to protect the rights of civilians and avoid any “heavy-handed” response against the rebels.
“We call on Nigerian officials to ensure that Nigeria’s security forces protect civilians in any security response in a way that respects human rights and the rule of law,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.
“We have made clear to the Nigerian government that its heavy-handed response to insecurity in northern Nigeria and the failure to address human rights violations will potentially affect our ability to provide security assistance going forward,” he added.
The emergency measures were applied to three states, including Yobe and Adamawa, but the offensive is widely expected to be concentrated in Borno, which shares borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Boko Haram, which says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, had used Borno’s capital of Maiduguri as a home base but its fighters have relocated to remote border regions following a crackdown in the city.
The area’s borders are porous and analysts say that criminal groups and weapons can move freely between countries.
The military’s presence in these areas had previously been limited, especially compared to northeastern cities like Maiduguri and Yobe’s capital of Damaturu, where the military has blanketed the streets to combat Boko Haram.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inside Africa

August 20,2013 Divided Egyptians united in grief Many people across Egypt have been burying their dead following the violence of recent weeks The recent violence in Egypt has claimed the lives of people on both sides of the country's political divide. But while the bloodshed is polarising the country further, grief is one thing uniting them, says the BBC's Ahmed Maher. Here in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, it was a tragedy that left the family of Ahmed Qadri devastated. Mr Qadri was shot twice in his chest and abdomen as security forces launched a brutal crackdown on the Brotherhood supporters camping outside Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on 14 August. A senior Muslim Brotherhood leader in his hometown, Mr Qadri is survived by a wife and three children. His 22-year-old eldest son, Fidaa, says he will not get over the death of his father for the rest of his life. Fighting back tears, Fidaa said he mad...
Post a Comment
Read more

News

August 19, 2013 We heard fire victims cry for help –Residents   Ekene   Neighbours of a family that perished in an inferno in a building located in Shagari Estate, Lagos State, said they heard the victims’ cries for help. PUNCH Metro had reported last week Thursday that a family of five lost their lives after  fire engulfed their three-bedroom apartment in the early hours of Wednesday. The victims of the fire were the mother, Mrs Anwuzia, the children, Ekene 16, and Emeka 17, an aunt, identified only as Philomena, and another yet-to-be- identified man. It was learnt that the father was not at home when the incident occurred. A friend of the children, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said he was talking to one of the victims when the incident happened. He said, “Around 11.30pm that day, I was chatting with Ekene on the telephone and after sometime, she stopped responding. I was later told by another fr...
Post a Comment
Read more
My Level Has Changed. Ace comic actor, Hafiz Oyetoro spoke with GBENRO ADESINA about the challenges he faced before his breakthrough. How far have you gone with your Ph.D programme at the University of Ibadan (UI)? I am still on it. This is my second year. I am currently doing some field work. I hope to round off the field work by the end of this year. Afterwards, I will start writing. How are you combining it with your tight schedule? Everybody knows what he wants in life. You have to create time to do all the things you want to do and that is why everyone must be good in managing his or her time. Definitely, scale of preference will come in. No one has time to combine many necessary and important things but one has to create time to achieve one’s dream. You did an advert for Etisalat and all of a sudden, you switched over to MTN. Why did you switch from Etisalat to MTN? I will not want to say anything about that for now. Please, do not let us go there. It is no go ...
Post a Comment
Read more