In a bid to guarantee victory over Boko Haram before the
elections, a detachment of the Nigerian military has
stormed the Sambisa Forest in Borno State to dislodge
members of the violent sect, Boko Haram, who are believed
to have used the forest as their stronghold, from where
they unleash their terrorist activities.
Sambisa Forest was once believed to be the most feared
hideout of the militants, where over 200 schoolgirls, who
were abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok,
Borno State, on April 14, 2014, were held captive.
It was learnt that the military high command decided to
invade the vast forest in order to make the North-West safe
for the general elections.
A reliable source in the Army told one of our correspondents
in Abuja that Air Force jets started the raid on Monday. He
added that surveillance activities and raids were also
ongoing as of the time he spoke on Wednesday.
The source, who did not want his name in print because he
was not authorised to speak on the development, said that
massive ground operation would follow the aerial
operations .
He said, “The military started an operation in the Sambisa
Forest on Monday. For now, there are no specific cases of
arrest; we don’t have that information now. The Air Force
has been operating in the area since Monday. It is after that
that the ground troops who are on red alert would be moved
in.”
Also, a source close to an office strategic to the operations
said that a lot of activities were going on simultaneously in
the forest and other parts of the North-East believed to host
Boko Haram camps.
He explained that the military was combing the forest
because of intelligence reports that some of the insurgents
who were dislodged from some communities in the North-
East were moving back to the forest.
The Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris
Olukolade, could not be reached for comments on the raids
as calls to his mobile did not connect.
Meanwhile, 800 children from areas affected by insurgency
in Adamawa State are currently undergoing psychotherapy
in the state.
Executive Chairman of the state Universal Basic Education,
Bello Furo, who made this known explained that the
psychotherapy was to minimise the trauma faced by the
children whose parents were either gunned down or
slaughtered by Boko Haram insurgents.
He said, “The process will take some time because most of
the parents were slaughtered before their children.
“Right now, they do not have anybody to cater for them;
they lost their parents as a result of the insurgency.”
Also in the state on Wednesday, the wife of the All
Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Aisha Buhari
donated drugs worth N135m to Internally Displaced
Persons in Damare.
Aisha, who said that it was unfortunate that the IDPs were
refugees in their own country, showed sympathy and asked
them to be steadfast in their prayers for peace to return to
the country, especially the North-East.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram fighters attacked Chadian army
positions in Gamboru, Borno State on Wednesday but were
beaten back.
The Chadian troops are in Gamboru as part of a regional
offensive against the islamist sect, which had staged
several cross-border attacks over the past week.
“We knew they were going to attack us. We were waiting.
The battle didn’t last long. They fled,” a Chadian soldier
said.
He said that eight of his colleaques were wounded while
three Boko Haram vehicles were destroyed and one seized.
The Chadian Army later said in a statement that 13 Boko
Haram fighters and a soldier lost their lives during the
attack.
Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on
Wednesday in Diffa, Niger Republic, a day after mortars and
machine-gun shots were heard in N’Guigmi on the country’s
border with Nigeria.
The town lies near Lake Chad, around 100 kilometres east
of Diffa. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL AND TOUCHING NIGERIAN CELEBRITIES BIOGRAPHY AND SCANDALS
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