Nigerian
Military: ‘We Have Dealt with Boko Haram’
The
Nigerian army reportedly claims to have completely eliminated the Boko Haram
branch of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in its stronghold of northeastern
Nigeria. Leaders
in the West African country have made similar allegations in the past, notes NAIJ.com.
In
September 2015, Nigerian Col. Rabe Abubakar, the director of information at the
country’s defense headquarters, asserted that all Boko Haram camps and cells
had been decimated, adding that the terrorist was no longer able to hold
territory.
Moreover,
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim in December 2015 to have
“technically defeated” Boko Haram was shattered when the group continued
to operate and pose a threat.
The
Sambisa Forest, which covers parts of the northeastern Nigerian states of
Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, and Kano, has been identified as Boko Haram’s last stronghold in the country.
Col. Sani
Usman, a top spokesman for the Nigerian army, has announced the complete
eradication of Boko Haram in the entire northeastern part of Nigeria, reports
NAIJ.com.
The
colonel said:
We have
come to the point that we can beat our chest and decisively say we have dealt
with Boko Haram. The situation in the northeast has tremendously improved. The
military operations or the fight against terrorism and insurgency in the
northeast is hinged on three things.
First,
defeating the Boko Haram terrorists which have been accomplished and making
room to facilitate humanitarian assistance which is also ongoing. Then
restoration of law and order for good governance to take place. We no longer have
camps of Boko Haram terrorists and we no longer have them conveyed in the
territories.
Just
about two months ago, the Emir of the Gwoza Local Government Area in the
northeastern state of Borno, Alhaji Muhammadu Idrissa Timta, refused to return
to areas that had allegedly been cleared of the Boko Haram threat.
Vanguard quotes the emir as saying that “none of his Internally
Displaced Persons, IDPs, including himself and his immediate family will return
to Gwoza until Boko Haram terrorist are completely wiped out.”
The Nigerian
news outlet points out: According to him, most communities especially
surrounding mountainous villages of Ngoshe, Ashigashiya, Barawa and other
border communities with Cameroon Republic are strictly under the control of the
[Boko Haram] sect members, lamenting that over “10,000 persons are still
trapped in Mandara Mountains” (Bayan Dutse)…
The Emir
insisted that the so-called liberation of Gwoza communities hitherto under Boko
Haram control by troops was only visible on the pages of newspapers.
Echoing news reports from 2015, Quartz claimed in March of this year that some areas in
northeastern Nigeria have been liberated from the menace of the jihadist group.
The news
outlet notes:
There has
been a reversal of fortunes in the [northeastern] region as the terrorist group
has been gradually beaten back and territory formerly under its control retaken
by the Nigerian army. In the past few months, there has been relative calm and
it has brought with it a gradual restoration of economic activity.
This
economic rebound is most evident… in the three major cities in the region:
Maiduguri, the northeast’s biggest city—home to some two million people in Borno
State; Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe State and Mubi, a town on the
Cameroonian border that is the commercial hub of Adamawa State.
Boko
Haram was the second
deadliest terrorist group in 2015, responsible for 491 terrorist attacks that
resulted in 5,450, the U.S. State Department reported.
In the
report, Boko Haram was treated as a separate terrorist group from ISIS, despite
the Nigeria-based group pledging allegiance to Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi last year.
The United
States
has provided military
assistance
to the African countries combating Boko Haram, namely Cameroon, Niger, Chad,
and Nigeria.
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