The military has taken the battle against the Boko Haram insurgents to the sect’s base in the Sambisa forest in Borno State.
It also declared that the battle will soon be over because the sect members are “on the run”
Director, Defence Information (DDI), Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, spoke in an interview in Maiduguri, when he accompanied Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Kenneth Minimah and Chief of Air Staff Air Mashall Adesola Amosu, on a visit to the troops.
“The military is operating in the Sambisa forest, in hills and other forests around.
“The idea is to make sure that the insurgents do not have a camp where they can organise their crime like before.
“Unlike some months back, the insurgents are now on the run,’’ he said.
Gen. Olukolade said the attempted attack on Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri, by the insurgents was a sign of weakness.
“You will observe that they have stopped soft spot attacks for some time now.
“Most of the attacks now are daring, like the attempted barrack attacks, because they know that there time was up,’’ he said.
Gen. Olukolade said: “The visit is to assess the operation of troops on the ground. They have always visited to see things on ground,” he said, adding that “terrorism is like armed robbery, prostitution and other crimes, which have been on for a long time.
“These cannot be wiped out completely in the society, but you can bring them down to the lowest level where they cannot affect social and economic life.
“Our aim is to reduce terrorism to the lowest level where it will not be able to disrupt social and economic lives of the people.’’
Gen. Olukolade also faulted claims that some military commanders had failed to act on urgent information due to non-approval by their high command.
“It is not true that commanders will have to wait for permission before acting on urgent information on terrorist attacks or movements.
“Certainly, our operation does not require seeking permission from outside.
“Officers have some latitude to operate in such kind of situation.
“Each officer has been briefed on the rules of engagement in any operation; it is left for him to act immediately he receives information on terrorist attack or movement.
“If we receive complaint on officers refusing to act on urgent information, such officers will be reprimanded,’’ He said.
Cameroon will send 700 soldiers to its northeastern border as part of a regional force to tackle armed groups in an area Boko Haram operates, that country’s Defence Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o said yesterday
At a two-day meeting in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, defence ministers from the six-nation Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) agreed to establish the multinational force to improve security in the zone.
The infiltration of Boko Haram militants into Cameroon’s Far-North region, which they use as a launch pad for attacks in Nigeria, has led to mounting insecurity there. Rebels are believed to be hiding among an influx of refugees from Nigeria.
Ngo’o said details of the multinational force would be established at a summit in Niger’s capital Niamey this year.
“Cameroon has decided to provide a contingent of 700 soldiers for this unit of the LCBC,” Ngo’o said. “But we believe each country should keep its troops within its own borders.”
Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, LCBC executive secretary, had requested that member countries quickly put in place a multinational force to reimpose order in the region.
A Cameroon soldier was killed by suspected Boko Haram militants in Fotokol in the Far-North region, close to the border with Nigeria, last month.
As well as the threat from Boko Haram, the area has become a crossroads for weapons trafficking to Nigeria, Sudan and Central African Republic. Cameroon’s military detained a man attempting to transport 655 guns to Nigeria in January.
The LCBC was created in 1964 by the four countries bordering Lake Chad – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria – and was later joined by Central African Republic and Libya, according to its website.
The Catholic diocese of Maiduguri consisting of three North Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe has said that 109 members of the Church were killed by the insurgents in different attacks. It declared that 27 women lost their husbands while 107 children were orphaned.
The Church spoke yesterday at a news conference at the Saint Augustine’s Minor Seminary, Yola.
The Director Social Communications Directorate of the Church, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasagie, who lamented the persecution said unless the Federal Government took drastic measures to save Christians living in the three states, Christians would be completely wiped out as the scale of violence being mated to them was unfathomable.
Speaking on the attack on his school in Chakawa by the sect, the Rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary Rev. Father Alexander Miskita William recalled how the insurgents fired shots which aroused the suspicion.
“We were surprised to note that insurgents launched attack in the area because we know the military were deployed there.
“We were told that Boko Haram men were on the rampage as a result, we gathered the students as we have no alternative other than to move.
“So when we heard the chant of Allahu Akbar we immediately took the 240 students in the school to safety through the perimeter fence where they spent the night in the bush”.
He added that the attack was premeditated to kill the priest as the insurgents kept asking of him while the operation lasted.
“There was a cripple in the school who could not escape before the insurgents struck. When they met him, they asked him to take them to the priest but he told them that he was a stranger and did not know anybody. He said 90 pupils have been withdrawn by their parents.
The Parish Priest of Saint Peter’s Parish Pulka, Reverend Father James John said between Gwoza and Bama areas of Borno State, about 23 local Churches have been burnt as Christians were forced to leave the areas. He said 43 people lost their houses.
source: nigerianeye
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