Slaughter of Villagers, Destruction of Towns by Boko Haram "Catastrophic"

[PCS]

I second that. ^^^^^

 

 

Meanwhile. 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/25/africa/nigeria-boko-haram-battle-maiduguri/

 

 

 

 

Strategic city falls in Nigeria's battle against Boko Haram

Kano, Nigeria (CNN)Hundreds of Boko Haramgunmen on Sunday launched a predawn attack on the Nigerian city of Maiduguri and were locked in a fierce battle with government troops on the outskirts of the city, according to the military, residents and citizen vigilantes.

The militants launched a simultaneous attack on the town of Monguno and were apparently successful in taking control of the town and its military barracks, a Nigerian military officer in Maiduguri told CNN.

"Our soldiers initially repelled the terrorists but they mobilized more fighters and came back in full force. They overwhelmed our troops and forced them to retreat," said the officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

 

*Click Link For More* 

 

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/huge-effort-needed-fight-boko-haram-us-commander-000118945.html

 

 

 

 

'Huge' effort needed to fight Boko Haram: US commander

Washington (AFP) - Turning the tide against Boko Haram will require a "huge" international effort, a top US military commander warned on Tuesday, taking a swipe at Nigeria's response to the emboldened extremists.

Relations between the Nigerian and US militaries have been strained with Nigeria cancelling training by US advisers of a unit that was supposed to fight the militants, who have captured towns and villages in the country's northeast and vowed to create a hardline Islamic state.

The conflict has left more than 13,000 people dead and one million homeless.

General David Rodriguez, head of US Africa Command, said the Islamists' gains on the battlefield are cause for concern and "the number of people displaced is just staggering."

 

 

*Click Link for More* 

[visionary]

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268777/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=UdXDBicW

Extremists attack biggest city in northeast Nigeria

 

Nigerian troops Sunday repelled Islamic extremists who attacked from four fronts on Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria, with several civilians killed by aerial bombs and grenades and mortar shells on the ground.

 

Soldiers said hundreds of insurgents died.

 

Terrified residents fled homes shaking from five hours of heavy artillery fire and streamed in from the outskirts of the besieged city of 2 million, already crowded with another 200,000 refugees from the fighting.

 

In a separate attack, a suspected Boko Haram suicide bomber killed himself and eight others Sunday at the home of politician Sabo Garbu in Potiskum, in neighboring Yobe state, according to witness Abdullahi Mohammed.

 

Garbu is contesting a legislative seat in Feb. 14 balloting that includes a presidential election too close to call. Boko Haram denounces democracy.

 

For weeks Boko Haram has been closing in on Maiduguri, the group's spiritual birthplace, and if it were able to plant its Islamic State-style flag there, even briefly, it would give them a major boost as the group loses ground in remoter areas, said Jacob Zenn, author of a book about the insurgents.

 

Its third attack in a week on Maiduguri came as Chadian forces launched a winning offensive, acting on an African Union directive for Nigeria's neighbors to help fight the spreading Islamic uprising by Nigeria's home-grown Boko Haram extremists.

A Chadian jet fighter supported by ground troops bombed the extremists out of Gamboru and Kolfata on Saturday and from Malumfatori on Thursday, witnesses said.

 

Chadian troops in Kolfata were "dancing around their country's flag and chanting," farmer Awami Kolobe said, quoting refugees who returned across the border from Cameroon. The towns had been under the sway of Boko Haram for months. Gamboru is about 140 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of Maiduguri, and Baga is another 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Gamboru, on Lake Chad, where Nigeria's borders converge with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

 

African leaders at a summit Saturday authorized the creation of a 7,500-strong multinational force to fight Boko Haram.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/09/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKBN0LD1O120150209?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Bomb explodes in Niger town after Boko Haram attack: sources

 

A bomb exploded in Niger's bordertown of Diffa on Monday hours after Islamic sect Boko Haram attacked a prison there, a military and a local source said.

 

"A violent explosion was heard in Diffa. I have been informed that it was a car bomb," said a military source in Diffa, reached by telephone.

 

A third source, familiar with the situation, said a number of people were injured by the blast, which was followed by shooting in the town. Further details could not immediately be confirmed.

In Niger too...  Hmmm.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING More than 160 Boko Haram suspects arrested in Niger, say police
3:23 PM

[Larry]

Great.  (Hope they got the right ones.) 

[visionary]

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/28/thousands-in-cameroon-protest-against-boko-haram.html?utm_content=nobylines&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Thousands in Cameroon protest against Boko Haram

 

Thousands of people marched in Cameroon's capital Yaounde on Saturday to protest against Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency and support the central African nation's army, which is fighting alongside its neighbors in the region to defeat the armed group.

 

Organizers said the march was aimed at informing the public, especially in the southern part of Cameroon, about the threat posed by Boko Haram, which has carried out regular cross-border raids in the far north. Yaounde is located in the central region of the country.

 

"It was important to tell Cameroonians that we are at war and a part of the country is suffering," said Gubai Gatama, a newspaper editor, who was among the march's organizers. "About 150,000 people have been displaced by the conflict."

 

In addition to its own citizens forced to flee the violence, thousands of refugees have poured into Cameroon from northeastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram is seeking to carve out a separate state. "Some 170 schools in Cameroon's northern region have been closed," Gatama said.

 

Boko Haram's six-year insurgency in Nigeria has spread to neighboring countries, where the group has launched attacks over the past year, burning villages and kidnapping residents.

 

The other Lake Chad region nations threatened by Boko Haram — Cameroon, Niger and Chad — have launched a joint offensive to quell the rebellion and claim to have retaken territory from group in recent weeks.

 

Muhamadou Labara Awal, 27, was among those who marched in Yaounde, chanting and waving the flags of the regional coalition. "It was important for me to be here because I'm not a soldier to be deployed to Fotokol,” Awal said, referring to a northern town regularly targeted by Boko Haram. “The only way I could pay homage to our troops was to be here."

 

Organizers estimated the march attracted about 5,000 people.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/03/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKBN0LZ0QE20150303?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Nigeria's Boko Haram releases beheading video echoing Islamic State

 

Nigeria's Islamist sect Boko Haram released a video purporting to show it beheading two men, its first online posting using advanced graphics and editing techniques reminiscent of footage from Islamic State.

 

The film, released on Monday, shows militants standing behind the two men who are on their knees, their hands tied behind their backs, with one man standing over them, holding a knife.

 

One of the men is made to tell the camera that they had been paid by authorities to spy on the militant group, before the film moves to another scene showing their decapitated bodies. It was not possible to confirm the film's authenticity or date.

 

The footage will stoke concerns that Boko Haram, which evolved out of a clerical movement focused on northeast Nigeria, is expanding its scope and seeking inspiration from global militant networks including al Qaeda and Islamic State.

 

The militants who have killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in their bid to carve out an Islamist state in their homeland, have in recent months stepped up cross-border raids into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

 

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has said Boko Haram is allied to both al Qaeda and its offshoot Islamic State, though that has not been confirmed by the group itself.

 

The Boko Haram film's use of graphics, the footage of black-clad militants with a black flag, and the editing to show only the aftermath of the beheading, were particularly reminiscent of footage from Islamic state, which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria and killed several hostages.

[visionary]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/08/intl_world/boko-haram-chad-niger-offensive/index.html

Chad, Niger launch ground and air offensive against Boko Haram

 

Hundreds of troops from Chad and Niger launched a ground and aerial offensive against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, according to residents and Nigerien military sources.

 

The sweeping offensive is taking place along the Niger-Nigeria border, sources said, effectively opening a new front in the fight against the Islamist terror group.

 

This comes a day after Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS in an audio message purported to be from leader Abubakar Shekau.

 

"Early this morning, troops from Niger and Chad launched ground and air raids against Boko Haram into Nigeria, and the operation is still continuing," said a military official in the border town of Diffa, Niger.

 

"It is an intensive operation that is aimed at pulverizing Boko Haram and crippling their capability," according to the source. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly about the operation.

 

‎Residents said artillery fire and fighter jets pushed Boko Haram fighters into the Damasak district of Nigeria, which is a Boko Haram enclave.

 

"Around 6 a.m., soldiers from Niger and Chad in huge numbers confronted Boko Haram around the Doutchi area outside Diffa and later crossed the bridge into Nigeria," said Diffa resident Ari Boubakarna.

 

"We heard huge explosions from artillery fire and fighter jets, but the explosions receded ‎as the troops moved further into Nigeria," Boubakarna continued.

A journalist working in Diffa saw ‎troops headed toward the border with Nigeria, where Boko Haram fighters had taken up positions.

 

‎"They left in a huge convoy of over 200 vehicles, some of them fitted with machine guns, including armored tanks, ambulances, water tankers and cargo trucks, which indicate they were going for a prolonged operation," the journalist said.

 

‎Residents lined up the streets to offer water and tea as the troops drove out of Diffa, residents said, adding that soldiers promised to capture Shekau alive.‎

‎Another contingent of troops, backed by air support, moved out from the town of Bosso, Niger, according to residents.

[Slateman]

Oh, in other news, Boko has formally joined ISIS.

[thebluefood]

Oh, in other news, Boko has formally joined ISIS.

Huh...zah.

 

Yeah, that's just what we need. ISIS and Boko Haran teaming up.

[Special K]

Yeah, that's just what we need. ISIS and Boko Haran teaming up.

Actually, they just put a bigger target on the back of their organization.

[Slateman]

Actually, they just put a bigger target on the back of their organization.

Indeed. On top of that, now the US has to care.

[Dan T.]

Boko Haram 'slaughter wives' in NE Nigeria: witnesses

 

Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their "husbands" before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama, multiple witnesses said Thursday.

Five witnesses who recounted the massacres to AFP said the Islamist militants feared they would be killed by advancing soldiers or separated from their wives when they fled the town.

 

They killed the women to prevent them from subsequently marrying soldiers or other so-called non-believers, they added.

"The terrorists said they will not allow their wives to be married to infidels," said Sharifatu Bakura, 39, a mother of three.

Nigeria's military along with forces from neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger have claimed huge victories over the insurgents in recent weeks but defenceless civilians still face serious threats.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/boko-haram-slaughter-wives-ne-nigeria-witnesses-140826758.html

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/24/us-violence-nigeria-kidnapping-idUSKBN0MK22Y20150324

Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds in northern Nigeria town: residents

 

Boko Haram militants have kidnapped more than 400 women and children from the northern Nigerian town of Damasak that was freed this month by troops from Niger and Chad, residents said on Tuesday.

 

There was no immediate official confirmation of the figure, but the Islamist group has previously carried out mass kidnappings. Boko Haram's abduction last April of nearly 300 schoolgirls in the region stirred international outrage and drew global attention to the group's six-year insurgency.

 

"They took 506 young women and children (in Damasak). They killed about 50 of them before leaving," a trader called Souleymane Ali told Reuters in the town. "We don’t know if they killed others after leaving, but they took the rest with them."

 

Troops from Niger and Chad last week found the bodies of at least 70 people in an apparent execution site under a bridge leading out of Damasak, where the streets remain strewn with debris and burnt-out cars after the fighting.

 

Ali said his wife and three of his daughters were among those seized.

 

"Two of them were supposed to get married this year. (Boko Haram) said 'They are slaves so we’re taking them because they belong to us'," he said.

 

https://twitter.com/nickschifrin

Nigerian army liberates Pulka, major supply hub in nigeria's northeast Borno state, from BokoHaram, says @GENOlukolade
5:09 PM

 

At this rate, Nigerian military expected to announce liberation of all of Borno state from BokoHaram within weeks.
5:10 PM

[boobiemiles]

People in extremes situations do extreme things to find a sense of normal.  These guys fill a void.  All these problem could be solved if people re-educate, and spread wealth evenly based on merits.  What a shock!

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/nigeria-military-claims-major-gains-boko-haram-150327134750667.html

Nigeria military claims major gains against Boko Haram

 

Nigeria's military says it has destroyed the headquarters of Boko Haram in Gwoza and expelled fighters from all three northeastern states that had formed the group's stronghold.

 

The country's armed forces have claimed a number of successes against the group in recent weeks but It was not possible to verify Friday's claim that comes the day before presidential elections.

 

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from the capital, Abuja, said opposition figures were sceptical of the claim Boko Haram had been expelled from Gwoza.

 

"The opposition say there have been restrictions placed on civil society, human rights organisations, and the media, in terms of accessing Gwoza and other towns the Nigerian military says they have liberated," she said.

 

"They say the timing of this announcement is way too suspicious."

 

Defence spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade said several fighters were killed, many captured, and a "massive cordon and search'' operation has started to hunt down fleeing fighters and any hostages, the Associated Press news agency reported.

 

Defeated fighters are believed to be heading to the borders, where troops from a multinational force are preparing to engage them, he said.

 

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared Gwoza the capital of a new "Islamic caliphate" after the group seized the town in August.

 

There was no mention in the defence ministry's statement of the Sambisa Forest, where Boko Haram is believed to have several camps. Warplanes have been bombing the area for weeks.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AP

BREAKING: Witnesses: Boko Haram kills 39 people, legislator, to disrupt Nigerian elections in northeast.
5:46 PM

[SteveFromYellowstone]

Yup lets just continue to pretend if we just give them more money and distribute it better this will all go away eventually. You are really telling me that say if the dutch were in charge of south africa they wouldn't be doing a much better job? yes some bad things happened in the colonial days but africa was awful before the europeans came anyway. the europeans brought roads, schools, hospitals, etc. This isn't the 1800s. Modern western values and social mores would prevent many of the atrocities that went on and many  modern Africans are living in conditions much much much worse than the europeans ever brought on them.

 

How has zimbabwe been doing since the minority government was pushed out? they went from the breadbasket of africa to a country where they cant even feed their own people. I get that's its a popular to say colonialism is to blame for everything but lets get real here.

 

South Africa goes from the only african country with nukes to a country with a president that says AIDS can be washed off in the shower. Unemployment is much worse. They go from the shining jewel of africa to the murder and rape capital of the world. Life expectancy has dropped by nearly a decade. 

 

Africa is much worse off than they would have been if Europeans were still ruling today bottom line. 

[jpyaks3]

Yup lets just continue to pretend if we just give them more money and distribute it better this will all go away eventually. You are really telling me that say if the dutch were in charge of south africa they wouldn't be doing a much better job? yes some bad things happened in the colonial days but africa was awful before the europeans came anyway. the europeans brought roads, schools, hospitals, etc. This isn't the 1800s. Modern western values and social mores would prevent many of the atrocities that went on and many  modern Africans are living in conditions much much much worse than the europeans ever brought on them.

 

How has zimbabwe been doing since the minority government was pushed out? they went from the breadbasket of africa to a country where they cant even feed their own people. I get that's its a popular to say colonialism is to blame for everything but lets get real here.

 

South Africa goes from the only african country with nukes to a country with a president that says AIDS can be washed off in the shower. Unemployment is much worse. They go from the shining jewel of africa to the murder and rape capital of the world. Life expectancy has dropped by nearly a decade. 

 

Africa is much worse off than they would have been if Europeans were still ruling today bottom line. 

You can't be serious, right? Either you are just very ignorant of the colonial system or you are openly advocating for a system that killed tens of millions of people. 

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/us-nigeria-election-idUSKBN0MR0VN20150401?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Nigeria's Buhari wins historic election landslide

 

Three decades after seizing power in a military coup, Muhammadu Buhari became the first Nigerian to oust a president through the ballot box, putting him in charge of Africa's biggest economy and one of its most turbulent democracies.

 

As the scale of this weekend's electoral landslide became clear, President Goodluck Jonathan called Buhari on Tuesday to concede defeat to the opposition leader, an unprecedented step that should help to defuse anger among Jonathan's supporters.

 

In the religiously mixed northern city of Kaduna, where 800 people were killed in violence after the last elections in 2011, Buhari supporters streamed onto the streets, waving flags and dancing and singing in celebration.

 

In a short concessional statement, Jonathan wished his opponent well and urged his supporters to keep their cool, saying nobody's political ambition was "worth the blood of any Nigerian".

 

"The unity, stability and progress of our dear country is more important than anything else," he said.

 

Yet his supporters in the volatile Niger Delta, his home region and the heart of Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, were despondent.

 

"Goodluck is a stupid man for conceding, a disappointment for Nigeria," one waitress in the oil city of Port Harcourt said, throwing a beer bottle top at a fridge.

 

Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has been in charge since the end of army rule in 1999 but had been losing popularity due to a string of corruption scandals and the rise of Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency in the northeast.

As the results trickled in, Buhari, dressed in a white khaftan and prayer cap, sat calmly in a front a television at a house in the capital.

 

Buhari seized power in a 1983 coup only to be ousted 18 months later by another general. Since then he has declared himself a convert to democracy, running and losing several elections but always coming back for more on a ticket of cleaning up Nigeria's dirty politics.

 

Before Jonathan conceded defeat, Buhari received a tacit endorsement from Washington, with a U.S. official acknowledging his role in building a "new" Nigeria, a pillar of a rapidly modernizing and growing continent.

 

"His leadership of the opposition over these years has demonstrated a commitment to democracy that would seem to suggest he is participating in Nigeria's new era that began in 1999," the U.S. official said.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/02/us-nigeria-election-idUSKBN0MR0VN20150402?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Nigeria's Buhari says to 'spare no effort' in squashing Boko Haram

 

A day after becoming the first politician in Nigerian history to succeed a sitting leader by ballot, president-elect Muhammadu Buhari promised on Wednesday to "spare no effort" to defeat Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

 

The 72-year-old general, who first came to power three decades ago via a military coup and campaigned as a born-again democrat, also promised to tackle graft in Africa's largest economy.

 

"Boko Haram will soon know the strength of our collective will. We should spare no effort," Buhari said in his first formal speech since winning the election. "In tackling the insurgency, we have a tough and urgent job to do."

 

The group has killed thousands in its push to carve out a caliphate in northeastern Nigeria.

 

Despite the killing of more than a dozen voters by Boko Haram gunmen - who had pledged to derail the poll - the election was one of the most orderly in Nigeria's history.

 

Buhari won the election with 15.4 million votes to outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan's 13.3 million, a margin wide enough to prevent any challenge.

 

In an unprecedented step, Jonathan phoned Buhari to concede defeat and urged his supporters to accept the result, a signal of deepening democracy that few had expected in Africa's most populous nation.

 

Buhari congratulated Jonathan for peacefully relinquishing power on Wednesday.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/16/us-niger-violence-idUSKCN0PQ2FM20150716?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Boko Haram militants kill a dozen villagers in Niger: sources

 

Suspected Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents killed at least a dozen villagers and wounded several others in an attack in southeastern Niger on Wednesday night, security sources said.

The attack on Gamgara, near the town of Bosso some 1,500 km (930 miles) east of the capital Niamey, follows a spate of attacks by the resurgent Islamist group whose six-year-old insurgency has killed thousands in the Lake Chad region.

 

The assailants left their vehicles in the outskirts of the village and came on foot. They killed at least a dozen civilians before leaving, one security source told Reuters.

Boko Haram insurgents who are fighting to carve out an Islamist emirate in northeast Nigeria have stepped up attacks including raids and suicide bombings in Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria in recent weeks.

 

The countries have formed an multinational force to tackle the group which now calls itself the Islamic State's "West Africa Province" since pledging allegiance in March to the hardline militant group which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.

 

However, delays in getting the force operational and the withdrawal by Niger and Chadian troops from certain areas they had previously seized has allowed the militants to recapture some towns.

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/blasts-rock-market-northern-nigeria-150716174203845.html

'Twin blasts' kill dozens in northern Nigeria

 

Twin blasts have rocked a market in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe, leaving 30 people dead, witnesses said.

 

"I have 30 bodies in bags and I am sure there are more out there," said the Red Cross official, who was involved in the evacuation and wanted to remain anonymous.

 

An official from the National Emergency Management Agency also confirmed that the attacks had taken place and many people were hurt.

 

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which went off around 1630 GMT, but they bore the hallmarks of attacks by Boko Haram.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/30/us-nigeria-violence-chad-idUSKCN0Q42J320150730?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Chad says killed 117 Boko Haram fighters in two-week campaign

 

Chad said on Thursday its forces had killed 117 Boko Haram insurgents during a two-week military campaign aimed at clearing islands on Lake Chad used by the militants as hideouts and bases to launch attacks.

 

Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from neighbors Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to tackle the militant group whose six-year insurgency has killed thousands.

 

"We killed 117 Boko Haram fighters during the two-week operation. We lost two men and several wounded," Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for the Chadian army, said.

 

"We destroyed their boats and seized various weapons during the operation," he said.

 

Boko Haram, which calls itself the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) since pledging allegiance to the militant group that controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has stepped up attacks in countries around the lake in recent months in response to a regional offensive.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/02/us-nigeria-violence-idUSKCN0Q70WG20150802?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Nigeria's army says rescued 178 captives of Boko Haram

 

Nigeria's army said late on Sunday that it rescued 178 people held by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria's Borno state, the heartland of the insurgency.

 

Spokesman Colonel Tukur Gusau said in an emailed statement that 101 of the those freed were children, 67 were women and the rest were men. He added that a Boko Haram commander had also been captured and several militant camps were cleared around the town of Bama, about 70 km southeast of the state capital Maiduguri.

 

Boko Haram has been waging a six-year insurgency in the northeast of Africa's biggest economy in an attempt to establish an Islamist state adhering to strict sharia law.

 

Nigeria's airforce also said that it helped ground troops repel an attack by Boko Haram around the village of Bitta on the southern edge of the Sambisa forest reserve, a stronghold of the militant group. Bitta is also west of Gwoza, a town near the Cameroonian border that was believed to be the militants' headquarters until a major offensive was launched earlier this year by combined Nigeria, Nigerien and Chadian forces.

 

Boko Haram was pushed out of most of the vast swathes of territory it controlled at the start of the year but they have dispersed and returned to their guerrilla tactics of hitting soft targets with bombs and raiding towns.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to crush the group and a multi-national joint taskforce made of 8,700 troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin is being set up in the Chadian capital N'Djamena to tackle Boko Haram.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/22/us-nigeria-violence-taskforce-idUSKCN0QR0OR20150822?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Regional military chiefs finalize plans for Boko Haram force

 

N'DJAMENA Military chiefs from the Lake Chad region have finalised details of the deployment of a joint force to fight Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, designating three command posts in Nigeria and Cameroon, military sources said on Saturday.

 

At a two-day meeting in N'Djamena, which concluded late on Friday, military commanders from Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin agreed to accelerate the deployment of the 8,700-strong force, which will have its overall command center in the Chadian capital.

 

A disjointed campaign by Nigeria, Chad and Niger swept Boko Haram out of the towns of northeast Nigeria earlier this year but the group, which has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, has killed hundreds of people in the last three months in those three countries, as well as neighboring Cameroon.

 

Regional governments have since dragged their heels in establishing the integrated taskforce, supposed to start operations on July 31.

 

"We have finalised the details of the deployment of troops," said one officer who took part in the meeting. "The force commanders will inspect the sites of the barracks in the coming days."

 

The military sources said the two command posts for the joint force in Nigeria would be in Baga, on the shores of Lake Chad, and in Gambaru, on the border with Cameroon.

 

The third command post would be established further south in the Cameroonian town of Mora, on the other side of the border from the Nigerian settlement of Gwoza, where Boko Haram formerly had its headquarters.

 

The chiefs of staff also ordered officers seconded to the headquarters of the force in N'Djamena to report immediately to their posts, as it was almost ready to become operational.