Up to 150 more women and children have been rescued from Boko Haram
extremists in the remote Sambisa Forest, Nigeria’s military said – amid
reports that some of the women fought their rescuers fiercely.
A community leader from the area of northeast Nigeria
said on Thursday that a senior army officer who was at the scene
described the women opening fire on shocked troops in the village of
Nobita a week ago, with Boko Haram Islamist insurgents using the women
to shield their main fighting force.
He said he was told that 12 women fighters and seven soldiers died in
a fierce firefight. The community leader spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue and personal security
risks.
The Nigerian military first reported rescuing almost 300 women and
children in the Sambisa Forest on Tuesday after deploying ground troops
into the forest.
The army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman, told Associated Press on
Thursday that more than 100 additional girls and 50 more women have also
been rescued.
He said in a statement that several lives were lost, including that
of a soldier and a woman, during shootouts in nine separate extremist
camps in the forest.
He said eight women sustained gunshot wounds and four soldiers were seriously injured. It was not clear who shot the women.
All the women and children were being evacuated to a safety zone for further processing, Usman said.
It remains unclear if some of the women had willingly joined Boko Haram, or are family members of fighters.
Also
killed were several Boko Haram field commanders and foot soldiers.
Combat tanks and munitions of high calibre used by Boko Haram were also
recovered, the army spokesman said.
The military was flying in medical and intelligence teams to evaluate
the former captives, many of whom were severely traumatised.
It remained unclear if any of the schoolgirls kidnapped from the
northeastern town of Chibok a year ago were among those rescued.
The plight of the pupils, known as the Chibok girls, aroused
international outrage and a campaign for their release using the Twitter
hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
Their kidnapping brought Boko Haram, whose name means western
education is forbidden in the local Hausa language, to the world’s
attention. Of the 276 Chibok girls kidnapped, 219 remain missing.
Nigerian military and counter-insurgency spokesmen said they believe
some of the Chibok girls still are being held in the Sambisa Forest.
Some captives have reportedly become indoctrinated into believing the group’s Islamic extremist ideology, while others established strong emotional attachments to militants they had been forced to marry.
The failure of Nigeria’s government and military to quickly rescue the girls brought international condemnation.
The military initially appeared incapable of curbing Boko Haram as
the insurgents took control of a large swath of northeast Nigeria last
year and declared it an Islamic caliphate.
That changed when the military received much-needed helicopter
gunships and heavy arms and a multinational force launched an offensive
at the end of January.
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said on Thursday only the Sambisa Forest remains a refuge for the militants.
Jonathan, who will step down as president on 29 May, pledged to “hand
over a Nigeria completely free of terrorist strongholds,” at a regional
meeting of customs officials on Thursday.
He lost the country’s election on 28 March, in part because of the
military failures and a perceived uncaring attitude to the plight of
victims of Boko Haram.
Former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari will take over as president on 29 May.
Culled from:
The Guardian
Photo Credit: Reuters
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