Troops kill three Boko Haram female bombers in Borno

Troops of 22 Brigade Garrison of Operation Lafiya Dole have killed three Boko Haram female bombers in a clearance military operation in Kubtara village of Borno State.

A Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) and suicide vest were recovered during the three-hour patrol in Dikwa-Bama border axis.

In a statement by Col. Onyema Nwachukwu yesterday in Maiduguri, the Nigerian Army said: “The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, has commended the troops for the successful exploits and encouraged them to be more daring, vigilant and steadfast.”

According to Nwachukwu, the ongoing patrols are to clear remnants of Boko Haram terrorists in the Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad region.

But suspected Boko Haram insurgents, in a convoy of gunship trucks and motorcycles, have attacked Buni/Gari community in Yobe State, torching many residential and public buildings.

Even though lives were not lost, the residents, particularly women and children, had to flee to neighbouring of Buni/Yadi community for safety on Sunday.

Residents of the community had been attacked severally by Boko Haram insurgents, leading to their being displaced, before they were returned to their homes by the Yobe State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) early last year.

Confirming the attack on Monday in Damauru, Yakubu Audu, a fleeing
resident said: “The Sunday attack was a reprisal one. Boko Haram insurgents had before then been killed by members of the vigilante group that keeps vigil on our community.

“At about 6:50pm on Sunday, the terrorists, in their numbers, invaded Buni-Gari town of Yobe State and started shooting sporadically
making the residents of the village to run into the bush and Buni/Yadi.”

In a telephone interview yesterday in Damaturu, two residents told The Guardian that there was a military post at Buni-Gari but the soldiers had relocated to Buni-Yadi after last month’s attack on their location. “There was no soldier at the post, when the insurgents were torching our houses that Sunday evening. We had fled to the nearest Buni/Yadi,” one of the residents said.

According to him, a group of vigilante had to intervene and confront the terrorists, while the soldiers of 27 Task Force tactically withdrew to the nearest Buni/Yadi.

Meanwhile, the spokesman, Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Comd. Ibikunle Daramola, has disclosed that two fighting helicopter gunships are to be deployed to sustain the counter-insurgency and terrorism operations in Northeast.

The deployment of gunships will commence in the first quarter of 2019 to Back up ground troops in the front lines of the Lake Chad Basin and Sambisa Forest.

Daramola, in a statement issued yesterday in Maiduguri, said: “The expected aircraft, a Mi-35P and EC-135 helicopters which have long been on ground due to technical failure, are being reactivated.”

According to him, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar had last Saturday inspected the level of work on the helicopters during his operational visit to 115 Special Operations Group (115 SOG) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.

Also yesterday, the Nigerian Army headquarters insisted that a video clip which has gone viral showing a soldier in the North East complaining of lack of weapons to fight terrorists is not a true reflection of today’s reality.

Another statement by the army yesterday said: “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to an old video clip circulating in the social media in which a supposed soldier clad with an AK-47 rifle is alleging lack of arms and ammunition, among other soldiers in a remote location.

“This is not true, as the video was recorded in 2014 and, therefore, cannot be a true reflection of the present reality.”