Troops Recovered eight more towns in Yobe, Adamawa

L-R: Terrorists’ vehicle destroyed by troops and another vehicle mounted with anti- aircraft gun recovered by the Nigerian



The Director of Defence
Information, Maj.-Gen
Chris Olukolade, has said that troops have
recaptured more towns from the members of
the Boko Haram sect.
Olukolade said in a statement on Friday that
the troops handed out a crushing defeat to the
insurgents and recovered the headquarters of
Gulani Local Government Area of Yobe State,
Bara, and the headquarters of Madagali Local
Government area, Gulag, from them in the
early hours of Friday.
He said that the troops also flushed out
terrorists from other locations such as Shikah,
Fikayel, Tetebah, Buza, Kamla and Bumsa,
during the two-day operation.
According to Olukolade, many insurgents were
killed in the fierce fighting that preceded the
liberation of the communities.
The Defence spokesman said that the troops
recovered and destroyed several arms and
ammunition, vehicles and other equipment.
According to him, the items recovered
included anti-air craft guns, general purpose
machine guns, barrel grenade launchers, rifles
and mortar guns.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan
expressed confidence that troops would
sustain the gains they have been recording in
the fight against the Boko Haram sect.
He assured that the military would recover
more territories seized by the terrorist group.
Jonathan gave the assurance when the
outgoing French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr.
Jacques Champagne De Labriolle, visited him
at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to a statement by his Special
Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben
Abati, the President said the officers and men
of the Nigerian Army he met on the frontline in
Borno and Adamawa states on Thursday were
in high spirits, well prepared and determined
to successfully complete their operations
against the terrorist group.
“We have already recovered much territory
and very soon our troops will clear the
terrorists out of other areas not presently
under our control.”
Accepting a congratulatory message from
President Francois Hollande to Nigeria for
recent successes of its armed forces against
Boko Haram, Jonathan restated Nigeria’s
appreciation of France’s support for Nigeria
and its neighbours in the fight against
terrorism.
He commended Hollande for organising the
Paris Summit of Heads of State of Nigeria,
Benin Republic, Cameroon, Niger and Chad in
May 2014 to foster greater regional
cooperation against terrorism and insurgency.
The President pledged that beyond the
ongoing military campaign in the North-East,
Nigeria would continue to implement all
agreements reached at the summit to ensure
lasting peace and security within its borders
and in neighbouring countries.
Jonathan, however, reassured the international
community of his commitment to free, fair and
credible polls in the country next month.
The President wished the outgoing
ambassador well in his future endeavours and
urged him to always be a “good ambassador
of Nigeria’’.
In his remarks, Labriolle said that France was
“confident in the future of Nigeria and its
ability to continue playing a huge role in Africa
and world affairs.”
The ambassador also expressed delight at
improved trade and economic ties between
Nigeria and France in the last three years,
noting that over 250 French companies are
currently operating in Nigeria.

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17 dead, 27 injured in Yobe Bus Blast- Witness, Rescuers

At least 17 people were killed on Tuesday
when a blast ripped through a bus in
Potiskum, northeast Nigeria, witnesses and
rescue workers said, in the latest violence to
hit the troubled region.
The explosion happened at the Tashar Dan-
Borno motor park on the outskirts of the city
immediately after a man put a bag in the boot
of the bus and then tried to board.
“The bus had just loaded with passengers on
its way to Kano when a huge explosion
happened inside the bus at exactly 11:40 am
(1040 GMT),” said a driver’s union official at
the bus station.
Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe
state, has been hit repeatedly by bombings,
including on Sunday, when a young girl with
explosives strapped to her body blew up at a
crowded market.
Thirteen dead and 31 injured were initially
brought to Potiskum General Hospital after
Tuesday’s blast, according to a nurse at the
facility, but she added: “Four more died here.
“So, we have 17 dead and 27 people with
injuries.”
The drivers’ union official said it was not
immediately clear whether the man who placed
the bag in the boot was a suicide bomber or
whether the explosives were hidden inside it.
– ‘Bus engulfed in flames’ –
Rescue workers at the scene said that all 12
people on board the bus were killed.
The girl in Sunday’s attack which left seven
people dead in Potiskum was thought to be as
young as seven, according to multiple
witnesses.
Boko Haram Islamists have increasingly used
young girls and women as human bombs,
with so-called “soft targets” such as markets
and bus stations hit regularly.
Both bombings again underlined the severe
security challenges facing Nigeria in the run-up
to presidential and parliamentary elections on
March 28.
The elections were initially scheduled for
February 14 but were delayed by six weeks to
give the military and its allies more time to
secure and stabilise the northeast to allow
people to vote.
Waziri Danu, who lives in the area, said of the
latest bombing: “I was at a car wash nearby
when I heard a huge explosion and saw
volleys of fire and smoke coming from the
motor park.
“I and people around rushed to the place and
we saw a bus engulfed in flames… It is not
likely if anyone in the vehicle has survived.”
Another driver, who also asked not to be
identified, said: “We were taking turns to load
when this man came. He appeared to be in a
hurry.
“He asked if the bus was going to Kano. I said
yes. But before he could be screened he
dropped his bag in the boot among other
luggage and just made to enter the bus.
“Some people tried to restrain him for the
screening but then there was an explosion.”


Vanguard.

IS Jihadists kidnapped 90 Christians in Syria: Monitor

Jihadists from the Islamic State group have
kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians in
northeast Syria, after overrunning two villages,
a monitor said Tuesday.
The abductions appeared to be the first time
the group has kidnapped Christians en masse
in Syria, though the jihadists have taken
thousands of prisoners as they have advanced
in the country and neighbouring Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
Britain-based monitor, said IS kidnapped the
90 Assyrians on Monday after seizing two
villages in Hassakeh province.
The group had no immediate details on those
kidnapped, including whether women and
children were among them, or where they
were being held.
There were just 30,000 Assyrians in Syria
before the country’s conflict erupted in March
2011, with most of them living throughout
Hassakeh province.
They represent a tiny percentage of the
country’s overall Christian population, which
numbered around 1.2 million people before
the war.
The 90 Assyrians were kidnapped after IS
fighters overran the villages of Tal Shamiram
and Tal Hermuz, which had been under the
control of Kurdish People’s Protection Unit
(YPG) fighters.
Fierce clashes broke out on Monday between
IS and YPG forces for control of the two
villages as well as the nearby town of Tal
Tamr, which remains under Kurdish control.
After the clashes, IS forces set fire to part of a
church near Tal Tamr, before installing some
of their fighters in the remains of the building,
the Syrian Revolution General Commission
activist network reported.
The US-led coalition fighting IS, which has
backed Kurdish forces battling the group, then
bombed the building on Monday, destroying it
and killing IS forces inside, the SRGC said.
Control of Hassakeh province is largely
divided between Kurdish forces, who in some
places patrol with regime troops, and IS
fighters.
YPG fighters have since last week been
advancing in the province, expanding on their
gains further west in Raqa and Aleppo
provinces.
Since recapturing the strategic border town of
Kobane in Aleppo from IS fighters on January
26, YPG forces have taken dozens of nearby
villages.
They have also seized 19 villages from IS in
Raqa, where the jihadist group has its de facto
capital, and another 30 villages and hamlets in
Hassakeh.
The Kurdish advances have been aided by the
US-led air strikes, including a series in
Hassakeh on Monday that killed at least 14 IS
fighters, the Observatory said.


- Christian churches destroyed -


The mass IS abduction of Assyrians appeared
to be the first of its kind in Syria, but the
group has become infamous for its abuses,
including the mass kidnapping of minority
Kurdish Yazidis in Iraq.
It also abducted dozens of Kurdish students in
Syria last year, freeing them only after months
in captivity.
The group has destroyed Christian shrines
and churches in the territory it controls in Syria
and Iraq, and demanded a tax known as jizya
from Christians who remain in its self-declared
Islamic “caliphate”.
It regularly refers to Christians as “crusaders,”
and has carried out brutal executions of
foreigners held hostage in Syria.
Last week, the group’s Libyan branch released
a video showing the gruesome beheading of
21 mostly Egyptian Coptic Christians.
Those killings prompted “extreme sadness”
from Pope Francis, who has frequently warned
of the plight of the dwindling number of
Christians in the Middle East.

The Monitor.

Troops recapture Baga from Boko Haram.

Nigerian forces backed by air strikes have
seized the northeastern border town of Baga
from Boko Haram , the military says.
Retaking the town – at Nigeria’s border with
Chad, Niger, and Cameroon – is particularly
important as Baga was the headquarters of
a multinational force of troops from all four
countries.
Boko Haram, an armed group which wants
to form an Islamic state, had claimed a
January 3 attack that killed scores, possibly
hundreds, and left its fighters in control.
“We have secured Baga. We are now in full
control. There are only mopping up
exercises left to do,” Major-General Chris
Olukolade, an Nigerian defence
spokesperson, told Reuters news agency by
telephone on Saturday.
In a statement minutes earlier Olukolade
had said that “a large number of terrorists
had drowned in Lake Chad” as troops
advanced on Baga.
Al Jazeera could not independently confirm
the government’s report.
The fighters appear to be on the run in many
parts of Nigeria and regions near its
borders, after being subjected to a major
offensive on all sides, reported Reuters,
adding that although they have come close
to being defeated in the past, they have
bounced back deadlier than ever.
“Not even the strategy of mining over 1,500
spots with landmines on the routes leading
to the town could save the terrorists from
the aggressive move of advancing troops,”
Olukolade had said in a statement earlier in
the day.
Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, reporting from
the Nigerian capital Abuja, said the military
has confirmed the report.
“This is a significant moment, a symbolic
victory,” she said. “But it is very difficult to
know precisely how successful the
operation was.”
Successes in pushing back Boko Haram are
welcome news for Nigeria’s President
Goodluck Jonathan as he faces an election
on March 28 that was delayed by six weeks
on the grounds that more time was needed
to fight the campaign.
The poll, however, also provides a strong
motive for the government and military to
talk up successes.


Punch.