The heavy explosions from Rocket Propelled Launchers and grenade with sporadic gunfire that rocked the city of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, left four residents dead, several others injured and houses destroyed.
The attack, coming barely 12 hours after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari when he ordered the Army Command Centre to relocate to Maiduguri, was carried out by suspected terrorists at about 12:30am, Saturday in an attempt to invade the town,leading to exchange of fire between them and troops of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.
Sources said, “the terrorists after realising the heavy fire power from troops, started firing their rocket Launchers into the city, which led to the killing of a taxi driver, Mallam Bukar around Borehole area of Gomari airport of Maiduguri metropolis, while the three other residents died at different locations”.
Source:
Vanguard Newspaper
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The Nigerian defence headquarters has said a cordon and search operation conducted by Nigerian troops in Gombe state has led to the arrest of three bomb making experts. Chris Olukolade, director, defence information, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday. Olukolade said the arrested persons were suspected to be members of Boko Haram, in search of soft targets for attack after being dislodged from the stronghold in Sambisa forest and other enclaves.
He listed the Items recovered from them to include a tricycle and materials for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He said the suspects were currently undergoing interrogation. “Cordon and search is continuing in certain localities and will be intensified along with mopping up operations in locations where offensive operations are being conducted,” he said. “The essence is to apprehend the terrorists who have been dislodged from their sanctuaries and are in search of escape routes or resorting to attacking soft targets.”
Olukolade said in line with the development, the public should be extra vigilant and report suspicious movements or activities within their environs. He said the military was poised to ensure the ongoing operations were duly aligned with security arrangements aimed at forestalling attempts by any group to breach security or disrupt the inauguration of a new government in the country.
Source:
thecable.ng
Niamey - Niger has detained and charged 643 people since February for their links to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, Security Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou told parliament.
Niger has deployed 3 000 soldiers to a joint regional force formed with Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria in order to quash the Boko Haram insurgency, in which thousands have been killed.
Several Boko Haram networks and sleeper cells have been dismantled in Niger's southern Diffa region, which is on the border with Nigeria, since a state of emergency was declared there in February and troops deployed, Massaoudou said.
"If this measure had not been taken, we could have had an uprising in the very interior of Diffa," the minister told parliament late on Tuesday.
Those arrested and detained have been charged with acts of terrorism and criminal conspiracy, he said.
Diffa came under heavy attack in February when Boko Haram, which wants to establish an emirate in northern Nigeria carried out attacks in neighbouring countries.
Boko Haram, which loosely translates as "Western education is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, began an insurgency in 2009 to establish a state adhering to strict sharia law.
Source:
news24.com
The Nigerian Army has sacked at least 200 soldiers for cowardice and failure to fight against Boko Haram militants, several soldiers have told the BBC.
Up to 4,500 other rank and file soldiers could be dismissed, they say.
A Nigerian military source confirmed the dismissals to the BBC, but would not give an exact figure.
The army was widely criticised when the Islamist group Boko Haram captured vast areas in the country's North-east last year, despite a military emergency.
Nigerian troops, with military backing from Chad, Cameroun and Niger, has now recaptured most of the areas in the North-east which the group had seized, but sporadic attacks and violence have continued.
Many of the dismissals are thought to be connected to the fall of Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa State, one of three states worst hit by the insurgency.
Boko Haram insurgents captured the town in October after clashes with government forces.
One of the soldiers who has been dismissed, and was present at the fall of Mubi, told the BBC Hausa service that soldiers were simply following orders from their commanders, who had told them to retreat from the town because they lacked adequate weapons to take on the militants.
“We weren't given an opportunity to defend ourselves. I've spent 20 years in the service of the Nigerian Army, I've never been accused of any offence,” said the soldier, who did not want to be named.
It is expected that the soldiers who have been dismissed will not receive any extra payment or pensions because of their low rank and are not entitled to defend themselves in a military court, reported the BBC.
A military official, who did not want to be named, said that video footage taken during the fall of Mubi showed soldiers fleeing Boko Haram, providing proof of their cowardice.
Nigeria's incoming President, Muhammadu Buhari, may review the death sentences of the 66 soldiers separately convicted for refusing to fight Boko Haram, according to their lawyer.
About 1.5 million people have been displaced and hundreds more abducted since the group launched their violent uprising in 2009. More than 15,500 people have been killed in the fighting.
The group is still holding many women, girls and children captives including 219 schools girls it kidnapped from a school in Chibok in April last year.
Source:
ThisDay Newspaper
