Soldiers Capture Wounded Boko Haram Militants in Lake Chad

The Defence Headquarters on Tuesday said soldiers of the Multi-National
Joint Task Force have arrested unspecified number of Boko Haram attackers
who had been wounded in the course of the renewed bombardments of their
camps by the military.

A statement on Tuesday by the Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen.
Chris Olukolade, said the “captured terrorists” had also made useful
information concerning their involvements in the insurgency in the
North-East of the country while equally pleading for forgiveness.

The statement read in part, “Scores of wounded terrorists who escaped from
various camps under the fire of security forces have been captured in the
fringes of Lake Chad. The captured terrorists some of whom are fatally
wounded are already making useful statements to interrogators of the
Multi-National Joint Task Force. Others were captured by troops in
locations around Dikwa, Cross Kauwa, Kukawa and Alargarmo.

“In their confessions, it was revealed that some of the camps have been
disbanded following the directive of their clerics who declared that the
operation of the sect had come to an end as the mission could no longer be
sustained. The terrorists who are giving useful information as to the
locations of their remnant forces, are full of apologies and pleas for
their lives to be spared promising to cooperate.”

The statement added that the captured terrorists said starvation had made
their violent campaigns difficult while the wounded members of the sect
could no longer access medical attention.

It said, “They confirmed that starvation was a major problem in addition
to ceaseless bombardments on the camp locations even when they kept
relocating. They also confirm that several members of the group have been
wounded and no treatment was forth coming. Troops have continued their
assault on other locations across the states covered by the state of
emergency.”

The Defence Headquarters warned members of the public, who had cultivated
the habit of sight-seeing in the camps, where the insurgents had recently
been dislodged, to desist from such act.

“Members of the public, who have started visiting to engage in sight
seeing in some dislodged camps and fringes of forests such as Sambisa and
others have been warned to desist from doing so as the tendency will no
more be condoned where operations are still ongoing,” it added.