Fighters of the Islamic extremist sect Boko Haram operating near Maiduguri, Borno State capital have been rooted out, the Military has said.
Army spokesman Timothy Antigha made the revelation in a statement on Monday.
He said the terrorist launched a massive attack on the town of Konduga, about 35 kilometres from Maiduguri, on Friday but the Military was able to repel them after a fierce battle that lasted three hours.
Antigha revealed that four pick-up trucks with mounted anti-aircraft guns, three heavy machine guns, more than 30 AK-47 assault rifles and two global positioning systems (GPS) were recovered by troops.
“The entire area is still being combed for terrorists, who may have escaped with bullet wounds. Morale of troops remains very high,” Antigha said.
The battle came a day after the Borno Elders Forum called for military reinforcements to protect Maiduguri, warning that the key city was “completely surrounded” by the militants.
After a series of land grabbing and caliphate declaration in small towns by the terrorists, there has been fear that the state capital may soon fall.
Nigeria’s military have repeatedly rejected claims about Boko Haram taking over towns and villages, despite multiple testimonies from fleeing residents.
Boko Haram had stormed the town of Bama, 70 kilometres by road from Maiduguri, on 1st September.
The Bama Development Foundation, a community group, maintained that the town was still “under the custody and control of Boko Haram sect and many residents were still trapped.
Mohammed Hassan, leader of the community group, begged that the government should quickly do something because the residents trapped in the community are “dying of hunger and stress”.
“The Nigerian security forces are yet to return to Bama after they left on Monday 1st September,” Hassan said.
Some locals who escaped said hundreds of women, children and the elderly were trapped and that Boko Haram had appointed their own “emir” or leader at the deserted palace of the traditional chief.
“There is no food in Bama and residents have to go to the palace to beg the emir for grains every few days,” Hajjo Muhammad, who escaped to Maiduguri on Wednesday, told reporters.
She said residents were forced to beg for medicine at the palace and some were dying of illness, particularly children. Permission was even required to get water from the river.
“We just live like slaves,” said Muhammad, who fled at night through the bush.
Another woman who left the town on Thursday, Maimuna Ali, said a lack of fuel had forced the insurgents, who were flying their black ensign over the town, to patrol Bama on foot.
Residents were able to escape as the insurgents slept, she said.
Decomposing bodies of hundreds of local men who were killed in the fighting littered the streets, young men had been imprisoned and the elderly forced to swear on the Koran not to fight, she added.
“Those that took the oath had their small fingers inked just like the way a voter’s finger is inked after casting a vote during elections,” said Ali.
Anyone caught by Boko Haram patrols without the ink stain risked imprisonment for two to three days, as well as whipping and being forced to take the oath, she added.
Meanwhile, the Military authorities have been struggling to reassure frightened locals that the armed forces would defend them against the Boko Haram militants, who have overrun a string of towns and villages in the area in recent weeks.
Maiduguri residents said they heard gunfire and explosions coming from the direction of Konduga, southeast of the city, on Friday, and later saw army troop carriers heading there, Reuters reported.
“Some people came from Konduga … they told us the army are in control,” Musa Sumail, a human rights activist in Maiduguri, told Reuters by phone. Other residents said they were told the army had intercepted an attempted probe into Konduga by a group of Boko Haram fighters. No details of casualties were available.
The residents also said that Military helicopters were flying over Maiduguri, which has now become a refugee town due to the activities of Boko Haram.
Several warning s have been sounded to the government local civic organisations have warned that Maiduguri is surrounded by the terrorists and is vulnerable to attack.
Reuters reported that Nigeria’s defence headquarters, which avoids giving detailed accounts of military operations, criticised such reports as “alarmist” in a statement on its Twitter account @DefenceInfoNG.
“All facets of security arrangements for the defence of Maiduguri has been upgraded to handle any planned attack,” the Military tweeted.
The insurgency has brought Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan under severe criticism.
“We are convinced that the federal government of Nigeria has not shown sufficient political will to fight Boko Haram and rescue us from the clutches of the insurgents which may ultimately lead to the total annihilation of the inhabitants of Borno,” the Borno Elders Forum, said in a press release.
In recent times, Boko Haram has become more brazen and has changed its tactics from hit-and-run violence to hoisting their flag and declaring a caliphate in a move that resembles the pattern of the middle-eastern fundamentalist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which is trying to carve it’s own state out of Syria and Iraq.
