Boko Haram
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Nigeria has recaptured 36 towns from Boko Haram since the start of a military operation by regional West African countries against the Takfiri group, an official says. Nigeria’s National security spokesman Mike Omeri said on Wednesday that four towns, located in Nigeria's troubled northeastern states of Borno and Yobe, have been retaken since last Friday. Crucial "co-operations and alliances" have brought victories against the militants, Omeri said, adding, "It is hoped that the unfolding regional cooperation will hasten the total defeat and extermination of Boko Haram in Nigeria and the sub-region.”
The official further thanked regional states for cutting off "the supply lines of the terrorists,” who are wreaking havoc on Nigeria and its neighbors. Back in February, four nations of the Lake Chad Basin - Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria - launched a joint campaign, together with a contingent from Benin, to confront the threat from Boko Haram in the region.
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Niger says it has killed more than 500 members of the Boko Haram terrorist group since February 2015. Niger's police spokesman Captain Adili Toro said on Wednesday that some 513 terrorists had been killed since February 8, adding this number does not take into account those killed in land and air operations launched on Sunday jointly by the armies of Niger and Chad against Boko Haram militants in Nigeria. Niger has also lost 24 soldiers in the operations that have also killed at least one civilian and wounded 38 soldiers, Toro stated.On March 8, Nigerien and Chadian military forces launched a joint operation against the Takfiri terrorist group in northeastern Nigeria. The military operation took place following the African Union's final decision to establish a regional force of up to 10,000 men to battle the terrorist group, which has pledged allegiance to ISIL Takfiris.
Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many. People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all. There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.
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Some 80 children liberated from a Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist camp in Cameroon do not even know their names let alone origins, an aid worker says. The rescued children, all between the ages of five and 18, were not capable of speaking English, French, or any local language, the state-run BBC quoted a director for the US-based National Democratic Institute, Christopher Fomunyoh, as saying on Tuesday. The youngsters were found at a militant training camp during a raid by security forces in northern Cameroon back in November. Fomunyoh said that he had visited the kids in an orphanage where they were being helped towards rehabilitation.
Being with their captors for so long had made the children totally forget who they initially were, he said. "They've lost touch with their parents," Fomunyoh said. "They've lost touch with people in their villages, they're not able to articulate, to help trace their relationships, they can't even tell you what their names are."
The Nigerian based Takfiri militants have started to extend their campaigns into neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls parts of northeastern Nigeria and says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which have left over 13,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced.
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Chad and Niger launched a joint army operation against Boko Haram in Nigeria on Sunday, intensifying a regional offensive designed to defeat the Islamic group, military sources said. It is the first incursion deep into Nigeria by troops from Niger, which have so far only fought Boko Haram in the border area. Chad has already sent troops many kilometres inside northeastern Nigeria and has won territory back from the Sunni jihadist group near the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
“We can confirm that Chadian and Nigerien forces launched an offensive this morning from Niger. The offensive is underway,” said Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for Chad’s army. Niger military sources said troops were attacking militants from the Islamist group in Nigeria’s Borno State, having entered via the country’s southeastern region near Diffa. One of the sources said that Abuja had given the green light for the operation. It was not clear how many troops were participating in the offensive.
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Troops from Chad and Niger have managed to liberate a Nigerian town from the Boko Haram terrorists, as the regional alliance against the Takfiri group continues its advances in western Africa. Around 200 militants of the Boko Haram terrorist group were reported killed on Monday in the operation which saw the Nigerian town of Damask liberated. A Chadian security source said three Chadian soldiers were killed and 20 others wounded in the offensive which began Sunday as part of a regional effort to purge Nigeria of the Takfiri militants. Officials in Niger also confirmed the recapture of the town, which had been under Boko Haram's control over the past four months. The heavy fighting comes as the Takfiri group, which has been wreaking havoc in Nigeria for the past six years, recently pledged allegiance to the ISIL terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria.
In an audio message last week, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau (pictured above), voiced his support for ISIL’s cruel massacre of the innocent people in the two Arab countries.The Nigerian terrorist group has expanded its militancy across the borders over the past months, killing hundreds of civilians and making many others homeless. Officials in the Nigerian army also announced late February that the government in Abuja is determined to recapture towns from Boko Haram in north of the country. They said the war against the militants will soon end. The militancy has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people. Some 1.5 million Nigerians have been also displaced with many of them escaping into the neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. African Union on Friday decided to establish a regional force of up to 10,000 men to battle the terrorist group.
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The African Union (AU) has approved the creation of a regional force to fight Nigeria-based Boko Haram militants, who have recently launched brutal cross-border assaults in neighboring countries, diplomatic sources say. The force, comprised of up to 10,000 men from Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, will “operate freely” in the region around Lake Chad, unnamed African diplomats said on Friday. Nigeria “has a problem with agreeing to have foreign troops on its soil”; thus, the troops will not operate in Nigeria, according to a diplomat. This will restrict the force to counter just the cross-border attacks by the terrorists. While the troops will be provided with “logistical support”, financial backing will pose a great problem for the collective measure, diplomats said.
The idea for the creation of the force was adopted at an AU summit in late January, when the participants also urged the United Nations Security Council to approve the plan. On January 31, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon threw his weight behind the establishment of the force. “I welcome the decision of the AU and regional countries to establish an MJTF (Multinational Joint Task Force) against Boko Haram,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 24th Summit of the African Union in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The force, which is set to be based in Chad’s capital city of N’Djamena, will be mandated “to prevent the spread of Boko Haram activities and other terrorist groups” and “eradicate their presence,” AU’s Peace and Security Council agreed in a meeting earlier this week.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” controls large parts of northeastern Nigeria and says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government. It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which have left over 13,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced. Boko Haram, which is considered the biggest security threat in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and largest economy, has also carried out attacks in the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
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