Military Recaptures Bama as More Insurgents are Killed in Adamawa

The Nigerian military recorded a major victory yesterday with the recapture of Bama, a historic Kanuri town and the second largest city in Borno State after Maiduguri, that has been under Boko Haram occupation since September last year.

The military has made several unsuccessful attempts in the past to recapture the strategic town from the insurgents.

But with yesterday’s recovery of Bama, the military added a major notch to its string of recent victories against the insurgents.
A military source who spoke to THISDAY, disclosed that the battle to uproot the insurgents from the town was led by the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Division, General Lamidi Adeosun.

The GOC, an infantry general, took his team to the town on Monday and had uprooted the insurgents by yesterday.
A military source said the Nigerian troops did not meet any serious resistance from the sect in Konduga and Bama towns, confirming the view that the strength of the terrorist group might have been whittled down since the commencement of the current campaign.

The military source attributed the victory to the renewed motivation of the troops, the bravery of the GOC and the supply of new equipment.

The source said: “We are happy that our Commander-in-Chief has been able to upgrade our equipment and as we speak, we have the right equipment to end the war in the next one week.

“The GOC himself is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that we meet the deadline for the elections.
“The general did not even utilise our crack boys in Konduga. He just took his team from our supply of new boys here and drove straight into Bama leaving the Konduga guys to rest and continue watching his back till he took over Bama, chased the insurgents out and removed their flags and installed our authority.”

Another military source said: “This latest feat can be attributed to the support from Abuja – we now have the right kind of equipment to fight the insurgency to a standstill.”

He revealed that with the recapture of Bama, the foreign soldiers who had been restricted to the border towns could now come in for the final push against the insurgents.

With the latest recovery of Bama, hopes were high that the remaining towns still under the control of the insurgents would be freed.
Despite the push back by the Nigerian military and their regional partners, Boko Haram continued with its guerilla tactics yesterday when a female suicide bomb detonated her explosives at a market in Maiduguri, resulting in the death of 12 persons.

A member of the youth vigilante group, who did not want to be named, said the explosion occurred from a planted bomb in the Monday market, which led to the death of the bomber and 11 other persons, while 21 were injured.

He said: “The explosion was from a bomb planted by the bomber at the crowded market.”
He said the incident happened at 4.30 pm and led to panic in the market.

The injured, he said, were taken to the State Specialist Hospital and Mamman Shuwa Memorial Hospital for treatment.
However, a hospital source said 28 persons were brought in dead from the bomb attack at the market while six others gave up the ghost at the hospital, bringing the death toll to 34.

The Monday market has witnessed about five attacks this year alone. The last was on Sunday where the troubled market was attacked alongside another market and a bus park in the city.
There was also apprehension in another section of Maiduguri when another bomb, which had not gone off, was found at the Baban-Layin electronics market.

Just as Maiduguri residents were coming to terms with more bomb attacks in the city, eight persons were also killed and 15 others injured in a Boko Haram ambush on the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway yesterday.

THISDAY learnt that the terrorists had laid ambush at Ngamdu village along the Maiduguri-Damaturu road at 9.30 am.
A passenger, who narrowly escaped the ambush, told journalists in Maiduguri that the insurgents laid siege to the highway and shot sporadically at motorists using the road.

He said one of the terrorists pretended to be crossing the road on a horse in order to slow down the vehicles on the highway and moments later, other insurgents who had taken position in the surrounding bushes opened fire on the unsuspecting motorists.

The lucky traveller, who swiftly reversed his car, said the insurgents brought out the occupants of a black sports utility vehicle (SUV) and a red Honda saloon car, shot at them before carting away their cars.

He said: “On seeing them, our driver quickly made a U-turn, but the insurgents continued opening fire on our vehicle and a bullet hit one of our passengers at the back of his head.

“One of the buses behind us also made a U-turn, but while trying to escape the attack, the terrorists shot the driver in the eye.”
He said both the driver and the passenger hit were receiving treatment at the Umaru Shehu General Hospital, Maiduguri.

“No fewer than eight persons were killed in the incident. All the occupants of the two vehicles snatched by the terrorists were killed,” he revealed.

A motorist, Mallam Garba Mohammed, who travelled through Ngamdu a few minutes after the attack, said at the time he passed through the scene of the incident at about 10 am, several cars and trucks were still burning while the entire town was deserted.
A resident of the village who fled to Maiduguri, Alhaji Yusuf Gimba, said in recent times the insurgents have attacked, killed and snatched cars at that same spot.

The latest attacks in Borno occurred less than a day after Nigerian troops slaughtered more insurgents when they attempted to invade Gombi in Adamawa State on Monday.

A statement by the Nigerian Army spokesman, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, said: “Boko Haram terrorists fleeing from the onslaught of troops met their waterloo in their attempt to enter Gombi town, Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State yesterday (Monday) evening.
“The terrorists were engaged by troops of 23 Brigade Nigerian Army in a gun battle that led to the killing of quite a number of them, destruction and recovery of vehicles, motorcycles, various calibre of weapons and ammunition.
“These included four Hilux vehicles, three anti-aircraft guns and one 0.50-inch Browning machine gun. Others included 5,000 rounds of 12.7 milimetre ammunition, two boxes of 0.50-inch ammunition, 1,000 rounds of light machine gun ammunition and one rocket-propelled grenade 7 tube, as well as one general purpose machine gun.”

However, one soldier was wounded in the encounter, but is responding to treatment, Usman added.
He said Nigerian troops were mopping up the area to prevent further incursions by the terrorists.

Also, residents from Gombi reported that the insurgents attempted to storm the town at about 8 pm on Monday but encountered the stiff resistance of the Nigerian troops in a crossfire at Grakida town, entrance to Gombi from Sambisa forest.

The residents said the crossfire between the troops and the insurgents lasted for more than four hours, adding that at the end of the battle, the troops reportedly killed several insurgents, burnt two vehicles and seized three others belonging to the sect.
One of the residents, Mallam Musa Danuba, who confirmed the attack in a telephone interview, said the troops did not only repel the insurgents but killed almost all of them that besieged the town.

“I am sure that soldiers killed almost all of those who came for the attack. The troops have proved to be on top of the situation,” he said.
He said no resident from the affected area was hurt because the troops battled the insurgents at the entrance of the town.

“The end of Boko Haram has come, because they are on the run and confused and thank God for President Goodluck Jonathan for equipping the soldiers with new equipment and for boosting the morale of the military.

“Also, the recent visit of the president has had a great impact on the fight against the insurgents and the collaborative efforts of other countries,” he said.

Gombi town, headquarters of Gombi Local Government Area, was one of seven local councils of the state that was recaptured from the insurgents late last year.

Their attempt to invade the town was the second this year. The insurgents have been trying to take control of the area which shares a border with Borno State, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency.

In another development, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Division, Major-General Fatai Alli, said yesterday that Nigerian troops have recaptured almost all towns in Adamawa earlier held by the insurgents except Madagali, headquarters of Madagali Local Government Area.

Alli disclosed this when some journalists were taken on a guided tour of liberated towns in Hong, Mubi and Michika Local Government Areas of the state.

Major-General Chris Olukolade, the Director, Defence Information, who led the tour, said it was to give the journalists the opportunity to see the situation on ground.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that some of the recaptured towns included Hong, Kaala, Makera, Mararraba Mubi, Maiha, Mubi North, Mubi South, Uba, Kudzum, Bazza, Michika and Shuwa.

The GOC said operations to recapture Madagali were ongoing, and vowed that all territories in Adamawa held by the terrorists would be liberated soon.

Alli attributed the successes recorded by troops in the war against the insurgents to the recent acquisition of weapons, better coordination, motivation and training of personnel.

“Boko Haram has been substantially degraded, the flow of arms and ammunition to them has reduced drastically, their financial support has been blocked by financial measures adopted by the international community,” he said.

Also, Brigadier-General Victor Ezeugwu, the Commanding Officer, 28 Task Force Brigade, Hong, described the recapture of Mararraba Mubi as a “watershed” in the fight against Boko Haram in Adamawa.

Ezeugwu said the town was a strategic supply route for the insurgents.
He said the brigade had also captured over 100 insurgents and handed them over to the relevant security agencies for further investigation.

NAN reported that of the three towns visited, Michika was the worst hit, as most structures in the town had been destroyed.
Some of the structures destroyed included the divisional police office, local government secretariat, the emir’s palace, mosques, churches, banks, market and the general hospital.

It was reliably gathered that the insurgents destroyed the structures while fleeing from the onslaught by the military to recapture the town.
Residents of the affected areas had not returned at the time of the visit.
During the visit to the Emir of Mubi, Alhaji Abubakar Ahmadu, he restated his call on his subjects to return, saying that the area had been secured by the military.

Ahmadu told the journalists at his palace that it was important for the residents to return so as to help in the rebuilding process.
“I will plead with the people of Mubi to come home so that we can develop Mubi.
“Mubi is now peaceful, so everybody should come; I have come back to Mubi. I am not going anywhere except on official assignment,” he said.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) has been described as a sign of weakness and a result of pressure on the jihadist militants by Nigeria and its allies.

The Chairman of the National Information Centre, Mike Omeri, was quoted by AFP as stating that the pledge by Boko Haram was “an act of desperation and comes at a time when Boko Haram is suffering heavy losses”.

The Islamists’ leader Abubakar Shekau made the announcement in an audio message on Saturday night after months of indication that Boko Haram was seeking a formal tie-up.

Troops from Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad and Niger have recorded a series of successes against the militants since last month, pushing them out of captured territory in North-east Nigeria.

The operation is designed to secure and stabilise the region in time for Nigerian general election, which was postponed by six weeks from February 14 to March 28.

Omeri said in a statement that the four-nation coalition force was “rooting out Boko Haram out of its strongholds and degrading its combat abilities”.

“Boko Haram is on the way to being eliminated,” he added.
“No foreign extremists can or will change this fact –- as long as the Nigerian military continues to receive cooperation and commitment from its citizens and allies.”

Boko Haram’s seizure of the territory in three North-east states from mid-2014 — a tactic also seen by IS in Syria and Iraq — raised fears of a loss of government control in the remote region.

Security analysts have said the pledge of allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may only have propaganda value in the short term but in the future could lead to closer links.

But Omeri said tuesday: “There will be no Islamic State in Nigeria, the only state that will exist is the united Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Source: THISDAY