Nigeria air force is to take delivery of 12 fighter jets this week as the military steps up its fightback against Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram that has been waging an insurgency in the northeast of the country.
Over the last few years, Boko Haram’s insurgency has gained ground across north-eastern Nigeria as it has successfully taken control of large swathes of territory. Over recent weeks, the sect has managed to take complete control of certain towns in Borno State, forcing local residents to flee to neighbouring Cameroon.
Armed with sophisticated weapons like rocket launchers, armoured personnel carriers and machines guns mounted on the back of jeeps, Boko Haram has proved more than a match for the Nigerian Army. So well armed are the insurgents that Nigeria’s poorly equipped soldiers have to flee when they attack, prompting the government to change tact.
In a desperate bid to regain control of the situation, the Nigerian Air Force has decided to purchase the jets, which are capable of bombing in the night. According to one military source, the Nigerian Army will also be taking delivery of modern equipment such as Shilka guns too soon.
Senior military figures believe that the arrival of the new equipment this month would see a new phase in the war against terrorism in the country. They add that towns such as Gwoza, being held by terrorists, would soon be liberated, as more troops were now being deployed to take the insurgents head on.
Last week, 14 people were killed in Jibwhiwhui village in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State and its surrounding villages, when Boko Haram gunmen invaded the area. In a bid to turn the tide, President Goodluck Jonathan is ready to accept outside help and this week, he travels to Kenya to participate in a meeting of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, scheduled to hold tomorrow.
Deliberations at the Nairobi summit and the adoption of the report by President Jonathan, his Kenyan counterpart, President Uhuru Kenyatta and other participating heads of state, are expected to result in more collaborative actions to rid the African continent of terrorism and violent extremism. President Jonathan will be accompanied to the summit by the minister of state for foreign affairs, Dr Nurudeen Mohammed and the national security adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
Airstrike to end Occupation of Gwoza, Limankara Military Commenced
The military on friday carried out airstrikes against Boko Haram positions in Limankara and Gwoza in Borno State while hundreds of troops mobilized to the frontline in Gulak, Adamawa State against the insurgents.
Residents said several armoured vehicles were deployed in Gulak between Wednesday and yesterday while military trucks conveyed soldiers to the town.
Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, had claimed setting up an Islamic caliphate in Gwoza which has been under the group’s control for weeks. The insurgents have captured Limankara and some areas under Madagali LGA of Adamawa State after assaults on security formations.
A Gwoza resident, Mamman Madobi, said a few minutes after three military planes hovered, they heard sounds of 15 explosions in the direction of Madagali, Limankara and Gwoza. Army Public Relations Officer, Captain Jafaru Nuhu could not comment on the issue.
The attack on Boko Haram Islamist strongholds across the northeast included a massive launch of deadly air strikes on insurgent camps, the military said, while residents reported that forces had deployed in border areas to block the militants from fleeing.
Several thousand soldiers have spread across three northeastern states where President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency after Boko Haram seized territory and declared war against the government.
…“There have been air strikes since Wednesday,” defence spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade told AFP, specifying that they were continuing Friday.
“Every one of their strongholds is under attack,” he said, adding that he believed “there are a lot of casualties,” without providing a figure.
The offensive is ongoing in all three states put under emergency decree, including Adamawa and Yobe, but Borno state is expected to see the most intense fighting.
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.
In the town of Gamburu Ngala on the border with Cameroon in northern Borno, residents said that heavily armed troops and tanks arrived on Wednesday, sealing off previously unmanned border posts.
Northeast Nigeria, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency, has porous borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger, with criminal groups and militants flowing freely between the countries.
“Since January the border posts have been abandoned…but now these posts have been taken over by soldiers,” said resident Haruna Garba.
Olukolade confirmed that forces had been sent to the region, but would not say whether the borders had been sealed.
Soldiers have surrounded the town of Krenuwa in Marte district, also in northern Borno and one of the areas where Boko Haram has taken power, chased away all government officials and removed Nigerian flags, residents said.
Abur Kullima told AFP Friday that he fled his home in Krenuwa in fear of the coming assault.
He said that after the state of emergency was declared in a national broadcast late Tuesday, Islamist gunmen began moving through the district trying to mobilise people “in preparation to face Nigerian troops.”
“I was so scared for my life and my family’s, which led me to decide to leave,” he told AFP from Gamburu Ngala, where he is staying with a friend.
Anyone who tries to leave Krenuwa is screened by the soldiers who have encircled the town, he said.
Boko Haram has become notorious for blending in with the local population, both in towns and major cities where they have carried out suicide bombings as well as gun and bomb assaults.
