KANO - Nigeria’s military said Thursday that it was
ready to launch air strikes against Boko Haram
Islamists as several thousand troops moved to the
remote northeast to retake territory seized by the
insurgents.
“The entire Nigerian military is involved in this
operation, including the air force,” defence
spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade told
AFP.
“Definitely, air strikes will be used when
necessary,” he said.
A force of “several thousand” soldiers along with
fighter jets and helicopter gunships have been
deployed for the offensive in Borno, Yobe and
Adamawa state, he added.
The operation follows President Goodluck
Jonathan’s decision to a impose a state of
emergency in all three areas as he admitted that
Boko Haram had “taken over” territory in the
northeast and declared war against the government.
The Islamists, who have said they are fighting to
create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim
north, have become emboldened and better armed
in recent months.
The military spokesman said operations had begun
in all three states, but declined to provide specifics.
The operation is the largest against Boko Haram
since 2009, when soldiers flooded Borno’s capital
Maiduguri, killing more than 800 people and forcing
the insurgents underground for a year.
A military source who requested anonymity told
AFP that Nigerian forces “raided some terrorist
camps in the Sambisa Game Reserve,” in northern
Borno, early on Wednesday.
Zangina Kyarimi, who lives in the remote town of
Marti in northern Borno towards the border with
Chad, said that “large military teams” arrived late
Wednesday.
“I saw dozens of military vans and trucks
accompanied by tanks,” he said by phone from the
town, which is considered a Boko Haram
stronghold.
“We are afraid of what might happen in the coming
days. We are thinking of leaving,” he said.
In Adamawa, a dusk-to-dawn curfew has been
imposed, with all residents forced to stay indoors
after sundown, the area’s military spokesman
Lieutenant Ja-afar Mohammed Nuhu told AFP.
In Yobe state in the town of Gashua, scene of a
deadly Boko Haram attack on April 26, a convoy of
military personnel rolled through heading north to
the Niger border, resident Musa Saminu said.
“Some of them went to the banks and asked them to
close down as a precaution,” he told AFP.
While the military has vowed that the operation will
“rid the nation’s border territories of terrorist
bases,” there are doubts as to whether the security
forces have the capacity to end the insurgency.
“The military is already overstretched,” former US
ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell said
Wednesday in an article for the Council on Foreign
Relations.
The northeastern borders with Cameroon, Chad and
Niger are porous, with criminal groups and
weapons moving freely between countries.
Analysts warn that despite the military buildup,
Boko Haram could scatter and find new safe
havens.
Many have urged Nigeria to address the social
causes fuelling the insurgency, including acute
poverty and frustration over excessive government
corruption.
Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, but most of its
estimated 160 million people still live on less than
two dollars a day.
Source: vanguardngr.com
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