With T-72 Tanks, Military Routs Boko Haram, Kills 300

Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade

With the help of newly acquired military hardware including Russian made T-72 battle tanks, the Nigerian military has inflicted more misery on retreating Boko Haram terrorists, killing 300 of them and capturing more territories in the process.

The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, saying that the Nigerian forces inflicted heavy casualties on the depleted terrorists.

He also dismissed the new threat by the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, to stop the elections, stating the Nigerian military has the capacity to defend the country before, during and after the elections.

Olukolade said mop up operations of some of the communities where terrorists have been cleared in the course of the ongoing air and land operations against the terrorists had indicated massive casualties on the terror group within the last two days of counter-terrorist operations.

“Over 300 terrorists were killed while a few were also captured.  Several weapons and equipment were also captured and some destroyed,” he revealed.
The defence spokesman also confirmed that five different types of armoured fighting vehicles, an anti-aircraft gun, about 50 cases of packed bombs and eight different types of machine guns, five rocket-propelled grenades, 49 boxes of various types and calibre of ammunition, as well as 300 motorcycles, were destroyed in the fighting.

In addition, he said a total of six Hilux vehicles, including those mounted with anti-aircraft guns were destroyed.

However, two soldiers lost their lives while 10 others were wounded in the course of the operation.

Olukolade stated that the cordon and search operation was continuing, with aggressive patrols by troops who now dominate 11 cleared communities, including Monguno, Gabchari, Abba Jabari, Zuntur, Gajigana, Gajiram, Damakar, Kumaliwa, Bosso Wanti, Jeram and Kabrisungul.

He said: “Various phases of the highly coordinated air and land operations are also ongoing in the designated theaters being handled by contingents involved in the renewed counter-terrorism campaign in and outside Nigeria.”

A military source attributed the successes recorded by the military in recent days to the new hardware that has been procured by the armed forces to prosecute the war against terrorism in the North-east.

“We have built up our arsenal, giving us more air and ground power. In comparison to our older armoured tanks, our new T-72 battle tanks have proved very useful, as they are impenetrable when the terrorists use projectiles such as rocket-propelled grenades to attack us.

“This enables us attack from a vantage position and at close range, resulting in many casualties on the side of the terrorists,” he explained.

He said the new battle tanks and other military hardware are manned by Special Forces deployed from Jaji in Kaduna State for the assignment and have lifted the morale of troops.

But as Nigerian forces make advances in the North-east, the threat of Boko Haram unleashing more attacks was heightened Tuesday when in a new video from the leader of the Islamist group, he vowed to disrupt the general election starting on March 28.

“This election will not hold even if we are dead,” Shekau said in the video posted on Twitter, which couldn’t be independently verified.

“Allah will not leave you to proceed with these elections even after us, because you are saying that authority is from people to people, which means that people should rule each other, but Allah says that the authority is only to him. Only his rule is the one which applies on this land,” he said.

“And finally, we say that these elections that you are planning to do, will not happen in peace, even if that costs us our lives.”

In the video, Shekau also directed a message at the regional countries coordinating a new offensive against his group.

“You are claiming that we don’t know how to fight, but we forced your forces to flee from their bases and we freed our imprisoned brothers from the prisons that you oppressed them in. Only praise be to Allah,” he said.

Shekau also claimed responsibility for the Febuary 14 attack on Gombe State.
Analysts suggest that Boko Haram is stepping up its game after the order of Islamic State (ISIL).

Despite Shekau’s threat, the noose keeps being tightened around the neck of the group he heads, as heads of states from ten Central African countries this week met and pledged 80 million euros in the fight against Boko Haram.

The countries are Chad, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Angola, and the Central African Republic (CAR), and all members of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

The president’s from the ECCAS countries had by an invitation from the organisation’s chairman and President of Chad, Idriss Deby, held an emergency summit in Cameroun to create an 80 million euro fund to fight the terrorists.
At the meeting, both the President of Cameroun, Paul Biya and Deby, in their opening speeches, noted the seriousness of the threat posed by Boko Haram on the stability of Cameroun and Chad, as well as that of the entire sub-region of Central Africa.

According to a communiqué issued at the end of the summit and posted on ECCAS website, “They strongly condemned the repeated and unjustifiable attacks of Boko Haram terrorist group against Cameroun and Chad, as well as abuses against civilians.”

To combat Boko Haram, the heads of states agreed on the need to work together to provide a common and coordinated response, and also pledged to improve logistic and diplomatic ties and boost humanitarian assistance.

The multidimensional support fund created will be used in the areas of logistics, humanitarian assistance, communication and political and diplomatic actions.
According to the communique, this is aside “using emergency financial resources in the amount of fifty (50) billion CFA Francs in troops, human support, engineering support, supporting health, various military equipment and air support”.

Part of the agreements during the meeting was for the ECCAS to develop active cooperation with the Economic Community of African States of West (ECOWAS) to eliminate Boko Haram”.

As a follow-up, the presidents of Equatorial Guinea and Congo will approach the President of ECOWAS so as to explore the possibilities of holding a bipartisan summit between ECCAS and ECOWAS to adopt a common strategy against Boko Haram.

Also, the ECCAS decided on involving the cooperation of Nigeria and President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

“Convinced of the crucial role to be played by the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram, the heads of state decided to conduct political and diplomatic actions in his direction in order to increase cooperation between the country and the two states of ECCAS members with which it shares borders.
“They instructed the Heads of State of Equatorial Guinea and Congo to approach the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for this purpose.”

Boko Haram has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in a five-year rebellion in the North-east, and have recently intensified cross-border raids on neighbouring countries in the Lake Chad area, especially Chad and Cameroun.
This was evident when between 20 and 30 mourners at a funeral ceremony were killed after an unidentified plane bombarded a village in Niger Republic near the Nigerian border, local officials and humanitarian sources said on Wednesday.

The strike on Tuesday came with Niger involved in the regional offensive in the area against Boko Haram fighters.

A humanitarian source put the death toll at between 20 and 30, while two local officials told AFP there were 31 or 32 dead and 20 wounded.


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