The Nigerian Military High Command has confirmed that the military has inflicted heavy casualties on the country’s militant group, Boko Haram by killing more 70 of its members in the northeastern part of the country.
The Punch newspaper reported on Monday that about 200 heavily armed militants invaded the town of Bama in Borno State but the military put up a strong resistance.
The Defence Headquarters in Abuja said in a Twitter post that the attack was strongly repelled by the Nigerian troops stationed in the northeast.
Many of the town’s residents were said to have fled to seek protection in the forest because of the fighting.
More than 30 of the militants were also said to have sustained serious injuries. Recently, Boko Haram has gained the upper hand against the Nigerian army by seizing some key towns in the northeast.
Some local media reports had said that the militants were planning to move into the town of Maiduguri, the State capital of Borno State after Bama but their mission was aborted.
Boko Haram has declared an Islamic Caliphate in the town of Gwoza, about 48 kilometres from Bama. It has also seized some two key police training schools in the area.
“There was pandemonium everywhere, as we continued to hear deafening gunshots, the militants entered the town in a convoy of military vehicles and motorcycles, dressed in military uniform and armed with sophisticated weapons and improvised explosive devices,” the Punch Newspaper quoted a resident of Bama as saying.
Earlier last week, Boko Haram drove some 500 Nigerian soldiers to Cameroon after the soldiers lost control of the town of Gamboru Ngala in fierce fighting.
But the Cameroonian army managed to kill 27 of the militants as the militants invaded a Cameroonian town in a cross border raid after successfully forcing the Nigerian military to flee.
The Nigerian military has said that it is preparing to launch a counter-offensive attack on the militants to re take the towns taken over by the militants in the northeast.
Boko Haram five-year insurgency has intensified in recent months despite the deployment of thousands of extra troops to the worst-affected areas in the northeast by the Nigerian government.
Boko Haram insurgency since 2009 has killed thousands of people and rendered dozen others homeless across northeastern Nigeria.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council has said that more than 3,300 people have been killed by Boko Haram this year alone. Political analysts say this is the worse year for Nigeria since Boko Haram began its campaign in 2009.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com
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