Soldiers take on Boko Haram in Damaturu

There weresporadic gunshots and multiple explosions in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital on Tuesday evening.

Vanguard reports that terrorists had apparently concluded plans to attack the city on Tuesday but troops were on alert to confront them.

Earlier on Tuesday, 11 Boko Haram militants were killed in clashes with the army in a village in Borno state. Three militiamen were also killed in the battle, a local resident and a member of the militia fighting alongside the army said.

“On Monday afternoon around 2:00 pm, Boko Haram gunmen on motorcycles attacked our village,” said Markus Yohana, a local militia member fighting the Islamists in the village of Dille.

Yohana said that soldiers ambushed the raiders as they tried to flee, killing 11. Another local, Bitrus Damina, confirmed the account.

“Soldiers went after them and killed 11 of them in the bush,” Damina said.

Boko Haram has stepped up attacks since President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in.

On Tuesday, Nigeria’s military spokesman General Chris Olukolade told AFP a new regional force tasked with fighting the jihadists will go into action soon.

The 8,700-strong Multi-National Joint Task Force, drawing in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin, is expected to be more effective than the current alliance in the battle to end Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency that has claimed some 15,000 lives.

“Any moment‎ from now, the operations or the Task Force will be manifest. In other words, we may not tell you (when it will commence), you will just see it,” Olukolade said.

The force will have its headquarters in Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

Comments (2)

  1. We need police salary to be increased

  2. wondering when terrorism will be a thing of the past in nigeria 🙁

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