On Wednesday, Boko Haram insurgents attacked his convoy in Baga, while on his way to some internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Kukawa local government area of the state.

After donating 12 patrol vehicles to security operatives in the area, Zulum also flagged off the reopening of the Monguno-Baga highway after a two-year closure.

Zulum, who had earlier been briefed by the troops that Baga was free of Boko Haram insurgents, returned to ask what led to the attack on his convoy.

“We have over 1,181 soldiers in Baga; 72 officers, 107 solders, 400 soldiers in mile 4 and 1,900 soldiers in Monguno. I see no reason why Boko Haram will stop operate in Baga town,” he said.

“The troops have been in mile 4 for over one year, there is complete sabotage, the problem is not with President Buhari, or General Burutai but the command and control structures. There is need to look into command structure.

“We have over 80,000 IDPs in Monguno, they cannot continue to depend on NGOs and others for food, we have created opportunity for them to go back to their communities and continue with their business and farming activities.

“After Sallah, we will go back to Kukawa. We will give time to the military; but if they will not clear Baga, we will mobilise our hunters and vigilantes to recapture Baga… we can’t continue like this. People have take their destiny in their hands.”

Reacting to the attack, Sagir Musa, army spokesman, said details of the incident are sketchy and efforts are ongoing to comb the scene of the attack.

“An investigation is also in progress to identify the circumstances that led to the attack. Regrettably, this is an isolated and most unfortunate incident that occurred in a territory where normalcy has since been restored with socio-economic activities picking up. The Nigerian army wants to reassure the general public that this will be interrogated with a view to forestalling future recurrence.”

Over the months, the governor has had face-offs with the troops in the state.

In January, he accused troops of extorting road users and the following month.

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The troops made up of Nigerian Army Special Forces, the Nigerian Navy Special Forces as well as the Nigerian Air Force Special Forces however lost an officer and a soldier during the clearance operations.

According to the Nigerian Army Spokesman, Brig. Gen Sani Usman, the operations which commenced on December 28, cleared several towns and villages of Boko Haram remnants.

Usman, in a statement, listed towns cleared as Zare, Gudumbali, Kukawa, and Cross Kauwa while troops have also taken control of Baga and are clearing the fringes of Lake Chad.

He lauded the troops for their gallantry in giving the terrorists a bloody nose, saying the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole also gave maximum air support in dealing a devastating blow on the terrorists.

Brig Gen. Usman said: “In the determined efforts to wipe out remnants of Boko Haram terrorists that now goes by the appellation of Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), the gallant troops of the newly formed Nigerian Army Special Forces Command (NASFC), Operation LAFIYA DOLE, have given the terrorists that attacked troops location in Baga a bloody nose.

“The triumphant troops, particularly the highly revered 707 Special Forces Brigade which is the vanguard of the great exploit, dealt the decisive blow that neutralised several terrorists along that axis despite prior warning to them by some unpatriotic elements.

“The Special Forces commenced clearance operations on 28th December 2018, where they cleared Zare, Gudumbali, Kukawa and Cross Kauwa without any resistance from suspected terrorists. However, at Cross Kauwa, the unfortunate ISWAP terrorists made a costly mistake of raising their ugly heads.

“In professional fashion the troops exploited the situation to instantly and decisively neutralise the insurgents and captured some equipment.

“Though some of the terrorists attempted to infiltrate troops camp at Monguno, the gallant troops lured them and neutralised many of them and recovered some arms and ammunition.

“The troops who are in high spirit had since linked up with other forces in Baga where they cleared the Naval Base and the surrounding areas.

“Unfortunately, in the process, the Special Forces lost one officer and a soldier, while five other soldiers sustained injuries.

“The remains of the two fallen heroes and the wounded have since been evacuated. The injured soldiers are in stable condition and receiving medical attention.

“The troops are busy consolidating and clearing vestiges of the terrorists within the northern Borno State axis with special emphasis on the Lake Chad region.”

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Sources said there were no more military presence in Baga as they were forced to retreat by the rampaging Boko Haram insurgents who attacked their bases on Wednesday, December 26.

Some of the residents of Baga who fled to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, after last Wednesday’s attack told our correspondents that the insurgents drove into the area in a large convoy and after several hours of gunfire drove the military away.

Abba Masta, one of the fleeing residents of Baga said: “The insurgents, driving in a convoy of more than ten fighter vehicles, used the main road from Kros Kawwa to launch coordinated attacks on the military on Wednesday, December 26.

“They overran the Multinational Joint Task Force ‎Headquarters at the outskirts of Baga, a naval fighting base and a Marine Police base in the area.”

According to him, the first point of call of the insurgents was the heavily fortified base of the multinational forces located at Mile Four (an area outside Baga town). The attack was in the early evening.

He said they met a stiff opposition as the exchange of fire lasted until midnight when the military retreated and the insurgents moved into the base which was in ruins.

Buba Ibrahim, another fleeing resident, said the military returned the next day, Thursday, with fighter jets which bombed the multinational force’s base and killed many insurgents who were still celebrating their perceived victory.

A Nigerian soldier who is with the multinational force, said the bombardment of the Base was to destroy the ammunition so that they won’t be of use to the insurgents.

He confirmed on Monday that the base and the rest of Baga is still in the hands (control) of the insurgents.

The insurgents on Thursday according to the fleeing residents, turned their searchlight on Mile Three, where the Navy had a fighting base, close to the military. They attacked the Navy who put up a stiff resistance but eventually lost control after hours of gun fight. They (Naval officers) were said to have escaped to Monguno.

The insurgents were said to have continued to maraud the area and on Friday, moved to another naval base located about three kilometres north of Baga, an area called Fish Dam on shores of the Lake Chad.

They took over the base after a fierce battle with about 40 naval men fleeing to Kaiga, a riverine community in the Republic of Chad.

The insurgents finally entered Baga town and attacked a marine police station, which fell easily.

Abba Mohammed said they told the already fear-stricken residents of the town that they were not after them but rather the military, security, and members of the armed civilian JTF.

They told us that: “You have a choice to stay or to freely leave the town,” but the majority of us sensing that the military may come back to engage them took the option of leaving.

He said about 2,000 residents trekked 60 kilometres to Monguno through a bush path.

He said some soldiers including the Commander of the Multinational force, some of his troops, and members of the civilian JTF joined them in the journey to Monguno.

He said, “Our knowledge of the terrain was useful to the military to get safe to Monguno.”

He lamented, “As I am talking to you, Boko Haram has seized Baga, Doron-Baga, Kross Kawwa, Bunduran, Kekeno and Kukawa towns of Borno State.”

The attack and perhaps takeover of the town was confirmed in a statement by the military.

The military had in a statement on Sunday said there was an ongoing plan to relocate the residents of Baga.

The military said the planned relocation is to give room for a massive bombardment of the terrorist group and to prevent civilian casualties.

The military revealed the plan in a signed statement by the Deputy Director of Public Relations in charge of the counter-insurgency operations in the North East ( Operation Lafiya Dole), Col. Onyema Nwachukwu.

The statement said: “Operation LAFIYA DOLE troops in conjunction with Borno State Government are working towards relocating the residents of Baga, to safer locations in view of the ongoing military operations in the area.”

The statement, however, said that there was no basis for the people of Bama, Dikwa, and Monguno to vacate their respective communities as there was no immediate threat to them.

It said: It has been observed that some unscrupulous individuals with likely sinister motives within and outside Borno State are trying to create panic and unnecessary humanitarian problems for undisclosed reasons.

“It has come to our attention that these people are plotting to instigate the inhabitants of Bama, Dikwa and Monguno communities to abandon their communities and relocate to Internally Displaced Persons Camps for undisclosed reasons.”

The statement advised: The inhabitants of these towns and the general public to discountenance such calls and remain calm.

It promised that: “Theatre Command, Operation LAFIYA DOLE and other Security Agencies will shed more light on the issue in a Security Council meeting with the Borno State Government, scheduled to hold on Monday 31st December 2018.”

It urged the members of the public to remain calm, stating that “the military is in firm control to guarantee their safety and security.”

The statement, however, warned that any attempt to cause further panic through this false alarm would be viewed very seriously.

The military further revealed on Monday that though there is ongoing military operation in Baga, the Maiduguri-Monguno road remains opened.

Courtesy The Punch

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It was learnt that NAF scrambled its fighter-aircrafts including Alpha jets, Mi 25 attack helicopters for the decisive bombardments.

A top military intelligence officer told PRNigeria that the Nigerian Airforce sustained the aerial bombardments after a tactical withdrawal of troops from the military base.

The source said: “The Nigerian Air Force in response to distress call quickly mobilized military aircraft and flew over 20 sorties Wednesday night and throughout Thursday. Some Boko Haram insurgents had earlier launched an attack at the military formation after tactical withdrawal of our troops.

“The NAF also launched a coordinated missile raid on the routes as the terrorists fled towards Doro-Baga and other axes

“After the ground troops had withdrawn from the base, some of the insurgents moved in and pretended to be soldiers, before they were bombarded.

“Meanwhile the Nigerian Airforce has continued to provide Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) functions needed by troops in the ongoing reinforcements to fully recapture and occupy the areas.”

PRNigeria further gathered that there are reinforcements from the ground troops in Damasak and Mongonu axis in North-Eastern Nigeria.

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Boko Haram’s bloody uprising to carve out a breakaway Islamic caliphate has taken much of Nigeria’s northeast and poses the worst threat to Africa’s most populous state and biggest energy producer and at least three of its neighbours.

Boko Haram claimed a Jan. 3 attack on the town of Baga that killed scores, possibly hundreds, of civilians and left the jihadists in control of the headquarters of a regional multinational force including troops from Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Nigerian soldiers fled the area after Baga was overrun. It was the latest in a recent series of Boko Haram successes that has cast doubt on the commitment of some in the Nigerian military, and 22 officers including a brigadier general are on trial over alleged sabotage in the war effort.

“Unfortunately we have a lot of cowards. We have people who use every excuse in this world not to fight,” Sambo Dasuki, the top security adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, told an audience at the Chatham House think-tank in London.

But, he stressed, “there is no high-level conspiracy within the army not to end the insurgency.”

It is highly unusual for senior Nigerian security officials to comment on the counter-insurgency campaign, especially at the level of Dasuki, but it pointed to discontent within the security establishment with the conduct of the fight.

Dasuki denied that the army was under-equipped, as critics have asserted, calling this an “excuse.” He said reinforcements had been sent in to retake Baga, something he hoped would be completed soon.

But he said of the international troops stationed there: “That wasn’t that much of a multinational task force, it was by name (only), because they were all supposed to be physically there,” when in fact most were not.

Dasuki added that the headquarters was being moved to the nearby Chadian capital N’Djamena, but that “Nigerians don’t see what the use is” of the regional force.

Analysts say regional mistrust has stalled efforts to fight Boko Haram, whose insurgency now transcends weakly policed borders.

Dasuki also said Nigerian authorities should delay the Feb, 14 presidential election to give organisers more time to distribute millions of biometric ID cards to voters.

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The man said to be Abubakar Shekau said people were killed “as our Lord instructed us”, threatening more raids and taunted nearby countries’ leaders.

Some reports said that as many as 2,000 people died in the Baga raid but Nigeria’s government has disputed this, putting the toll at just 150.

“We killed the people of Baga,” the man claiming to be Shekau said in the 35-minute video, quoted by AFP news agency.

He also issued a challenge to Nigerian and regional forces to attack his group.

The video displayed an array of weapons believed to have been taken from a military base in neighbouring Doron Baga.

Boko Haram has seized control of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria and has begun threatening neighbouring countries.

The video has not been verified but correspondents say it was in typical Boko Haram style, with the group’s leader in combat fatigues and surrounded by masked fighters.

Satellite images released by Amnesty International showed widespread destruction in Baga and Doron Baga in the far north-east of Nigeria, with some 3,700 buildings damaged or destroyed.

Amnesty cited witnesses saying that militants had killed indiscriminately and described the damage was “catastrophic”.

The rights group said the attack was the largest and deadliest by Boko Haram that it had analysed.

A businessman from Baga told the BBC people were being killed like animals. He said he fled the town along with some 5,000 others.

Hundreds of women and children were reported to have been taken captive.

The upsurge in violence has alarmed Nigeria’s neighbours, particularly in Cameroon.

Cameroonian soldiers patrolling in Amchide, northern Cameroon, near Nigerian border.

In the latest reports of fighting, “heavy clashes” were said to have taken place in Bonderi in the far north of Cameroon, near the Nigerian border on Tuesday night.

Suspected Boko Haram militants were believed to have kidnapped dozens of people in a cross-border raid near Mokolo city in Cameroon’s Far North region last Sunday. Some were later freed as Cameroon’s forces pursued the attackers who were fleeing back to Nigeria.

Thousands of Cameroonian troops have been deployed to the north to try to stem the raids and President Idriss Deby of Chad has also sent a contingent of troops.

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AI said it reached such conclusion using credible satellite images in its possession. It said while 620 structures were razed in Baga, 3,100 others were affected in Doron Baga. The also explained that one of the two towns that were attacked by Boko Haram was also wiped out.

Amnesty international’s Nigerian researcher Daniel Eyre, said “The Satellite images released by Amnesty International on Wednesday provide indisputable and shocking evidence of the scale of last week’s attack on the towns of Baga and Doron Baga by Boko Haram militants.

“Before and after images of two neighbouring towns, Baga (160 kilometres from Maiduguri) and Doron Baga (also known as Doro Gowon, 2.5 km from Baga), taken on 2 and 7 January show the devastating effect of the attacks which left over 3,700 structures damaged or completely destroyed. Other nearby towns and villages were also attacked over this period.

“These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two towns, one of which was almost wiped off the map in the space of four days.

“Of all Boko Haram assaults analyzed by Amnesty International, this is the largest and most destructive yet. It represents a deliberate attack on civilians whose homes, clinics and schools are now burnt out ruins.”

The AI gave the details of how the two towns were attacked by Boko Haram.

“The analysis shows just two of the many towns and villages that fell victim to a series of Boko Haram attacks which began on 3 January 2015,” AI said.

“In Baga, a densely populated town less than two square kilometres in size, approximately 620 structures were damaged or completely destroyed by fire.

“In Doron Baga over 3,100 structures were damaged or destroyed by fire affecting most of the four square kilometre town.

“Many of the wooden fishing boats along the shoreline, visible in the images taken on the 2 January, are no longer present in the 7 January images tallying with eye witnesses’ testimony that desperate residents fled by boat across Lake Chad.

“Thousands of people have fled the violence across the border to Chad and to other parts of Nigeria including Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

“These people are adding to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees, who have already stretched the capacity of host communities and government authorities.

Apart from appealing to Boko Haram to stop the killings, the AI also pleaded with Chad to protect Nigerians who have taken refuge in the country.

It said: “Amnesty International is calling on the governments of Nigeria and Chad to ensure these displaced people are protected and provided with adequate humanitarian assistance.

“The destruction shown in these images matches the horrific testimonies that Amnesty International has gathered.
“Interviews with eyewitnesses as well as with local government officials and local human rights activists suggest that Boko Haram militants shot hundreds of civilians.”

A man in his fifties told Amnesty International what happened in Baga during the attack: “They killed so many people. I saw maybe around 100 killed at that time in Baga. I ran to the bush. As we were running, they were shooting and killing.”

He hid in the bush and was later discovered by Boko Haram fighters, who detained him in Doron Baga for four days.
“Those who fled claimed seeing many more corpses in the bush. “I don’t know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked,” one woman told Amnesty International.

Another witness described how Boko Haram members were shooting indiscriminately, killing even small children and a woman who was in labour.

“Half of the baby boy is out and she died like this,” he said.

The AI claimed that after the attack on Baga, witnesses described how Boko Haram drove into the bush rounding up women, children and the elderly who had escaped.

The statement reads: “According to one woman who was detained for four days ‘Boko Haram took around 300 women and kept us in a school in Baga. They released the older women, mothers and most of the children after four days but are still keeping the younger women.’

“Amnesty International is calling on Boko Haram to stop killing civilians. The deliberate killing of civilians and destruction of their property by Boko Haram are war crimes and crimes against humanity and must be duly investigated.

“The government should take all possible legal steps to restore security in the Northeast and ensure protections of civilians.

“Up till now, the isolation of the Baga combined with the fact that Boko Haram remains in control of the area has meant that it has been very difficult to verify what happened there. Residents have not been able to return to bury the dead, let alone count their number. But through these satellite images combined with graphic testimonies, a picture of what is likely to be Boko Haram’s deadliest attack ever is becoming clearer,” said Daniel Eyre.

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“Since the first attack last weekend on Baga, security forces have been actively pursuing the militants,” Mike Omeri said in a statement. “Security forces have responded rapidly, and have deployed significant military assets and conducted air strikes.”

At least 100 people were killed when Boko Haram attacked Baga last weekend, according to the district head.

Witnesses who escaped to neighbouring towns and Borno state capital Maiduguri said the insurgents had razed many buildings and homes and killed dozens of civilians in subsequent raids this week.

Soldiers had fled the area after the nearby army base, which is the headquarters of a multinational force comprising troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, by Lake Chad was overrun.

Some 300 km (200 miles) away, on Friday evening, gunfire, explosions and heavy artillery fire were heard on the outskirts of Yobe state capital Damaturu.

“We can hear the artillery fire and then the ground shaking,” a Reuters cameraman said.

Boko Haram has been waging a 5-year insurgency to carve out an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.

Government spokesman Omeri said the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), working with the Red Cross, was providing humanitarian assistance to 2,000 people who had fled Baga.

Some 2,000 more people crossed the border to Chad over the last week, prompting the country to call for international aid. Cameroon has also appealed for aid to help fight the militants.

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