Troops forced to retreat from Boko Haram stronghold.

Nigerian troops were forced to retreat from
Boko Haram’s Sambisa Forest stronghold in
the restive northeast after a landmine blast
killed one soldier and three vigilantes, security
sources said Thursday.
Military top brass said on Wednesday that
soldiers were conducting offensives “in some
forest locations” in the area after it was
announced last week that operations were
imminent.
Nigerian army soldeirs patrol along a road in
Chibok, northeastern Nigeria, on March 5,
2015. Nigeria’s government said that work had
begun to rebuild a school in the northeastern
town of Chibok from where Boko Haram
gunmen kidnapped more than 200 girls last
year. Finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
laid the foundation stone at the Government
Secondary School on Thursday on behalf of
President Goodluck Jonathan, a statement
from her office said. AFP PHOTO
The Sambisa Forest is located in the state of
Borno, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the
town of Chibok, from where more than 200
schoolgirls were kidnapped in April last year.
It has been claimed the 219 schoolgirls still
being held were initially kept in the former
game reserve, although others have said they
may have been split up and moved to Chad or
Cameroon.
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said in a
statement that a senior Boko Haram
commander was killed, as well as a number of
militants who attacked a patrol.
“The operations especially in forest locations
are progressing in defiance of obstacles and
landmines emplaced by the terrorists,” he
added.
But progress has been severely hindered
because of improvised explosive devices, a
civilian vigilante involved in the operation told
AFP in an account backed by a security
source.
“Boko Haram have buried landmines all over
the routes leading to their camps in the forest,
which is no doubt a huge obstacle retarding
the military offensive against them,” he told
AFP.
Troops withdrew just five kilometres from Boko
Haram’s main camp in the densely forested
area because of landmines.
“We decided to turn back since the route was
unsafe. As we were driving back, one of the
vehicles carrying CJTF (Civilian Joint Task
Force) hit a mine,” he added.
“A soldier and three CJTF were killed while
another soldier was injured. We trudged along
and made it back to Bama yesterday
(Wednesday).”
The vigilante added: “There are no soldiers in
Sambisa right now. We all returned to Bama
after the horrifying experience of manoeuvring
through minefields.”
– Persistent threat –
There was no immediate response from the
military, which with its military coalition
partners Chad, Niger and Cameroon has
driven out Boko Haram from captured towns
in recent weeks.
“Boko Haram are in large numbers in
Sambisa,” said the vigilante, who requested
anonymity for security reasons.
“All their fighters who were pushed out of
Bama, Dikwa, Gwoza and Damboa (in Borno
state) all moved to Boko Haram camps in
Sambisa,” he added.
Details of the offensive came as a series of
photographs circulated on social media
accounts linked to the Islamic State group of
heavily armed fighters, purportedly from Boko
Haram.
No independent verification was possible but
some of the accounts said the images were
released under the name “The Islamic State in
West Africa”.
Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau pledged
allegiance to IS group leader Abu Bakr al-
Baghdadi in March. The Middle Eastern
militants responded by urging Muslims to
support the rebels in Nigeria.
Experts have seen the formal tie-up as a sign
of weakness by the Nigerian Islamists but
warned not to write off the group, which
continues to mount smaller-scale attacks in
the region.
According to residents of Kalabalge, who fled
to the Cameroon town of Fotokol, Boko Haram
fighters have taken over the Borno state town,
which is near Nigeria’s border with Chad.
Thousands of Shuwa Arabs — who are from
the same ethnic group as many Chadian
soldiers — have been pushed out of villages in
the area since the Nigerian army seized the
group’s headquarters in Gwoza last month.
Resident Grema Gana said there were “light-
skinned fighters of north African extraction” in
the militant ranks, adding that Chadian forces
operating in the area had detained some of
them.
Another resident, who asked not to be named
for his own safety, said Chadian troops
conducted an operation in the Kalabalge area
on Monday as Boko Haram had returned after
being driven out.
He also said “some foreign fighters from north
Africa” were detained.


Vanguard News.