Boko Haram Kills Army Battalion Commander, loot armoury

It has emerged that Commanding Officer of 101 Reserve Battalion, Damboa, Borno State, Colonel Abubakar Shonba was among the soldiers killed in the weekend attack on the battalion by Boko Haram insurgents.

The Battalion is just about a year old, and reports directly to the Army headquarters in Abuja.

Boko Haram terrorists had in an attack which began on Friday, spilling to Saturday, bombarded Damboa, home to the elite 101 Battalion, destroying everything in their path.

Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade at the weekend confirmed that five soldiers and a senior officer died while repelling the attack.

Olukolade, who didn’t disclose the identity of the “senior officer”, however said the attack was successfully repelled by the troops.

He said the attack happened when most of the soldiers were out on patrol, but that a large cache of arms and ammunition were recovered by an army patrol team.

Wounded soldiers, explained the Defence spokesman, were responding to treatment.

Top military sources revealed that the weekend attack was a huge setback to the campaign against the terrorists.

We further gathered that very critical military gear donated by the United States Army were to have been deployed to Damboa from where attacks would have been launched on the notorious Sambisa forest.

Besides, added another source, the terrorists carted away a huge cache of sophisticated explosives, arms and ammunition.

It  could not readily confirm if the arms and ammunition reportedly looted by the terrorists were the same recovered by the army patrol team.