The Nigerian Army on Monday confirmed the killing of a minimum 35 people over two gun duels with adherents of the Boko Haram Islamist sect in Borno State.
The sect had warned of attacks towards the end of the Ramadan fast now winding up, and this threat was executed at the weekend.
“Troops have successfully repelled Boko Haram terrorists attack on Mobile Police Base and Bama town.” Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa wrote in a statement.
“Terrorists using sophisticated weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices launched attacks at about 6:45am on 4th August 2013. The encounter led to the death of one policeman and 17 Boko Haram Terrorists; two soldiers were also wounded. Four trucks, three motorbikes, dozens of explosive devices, three rocket-propelled grenades, 10 AK47 rifles and over 100 rounds of ammunition were recovered.”
The terror group similarly attacked a military base in the town of Malam Fatori, spawning a gun battle ended in the killing of two soldiers and 15 members of the sect, according to Musa.
Since its emergence in 2009, the Boko haram Islamist sect has ruthlessly executed series of gun and bomb attacks on Christians, security agents and dissident Muslims, in pursuit of its three-prong agenda of exterminating all forms of western education, dislodging democracy and enthroning Islamic Sharia as the instrument of public governance, and as well Islamising a country so famed for its multi-religious and multiethnic composition. In those four years, it is estimated that more than 10,000 people have been killed while many more have been injured.
