Nigeria’s military has uncovered a major Boko Haram bombmaking factory and arrested two leading members of the militant group, military spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman said. Usman said the operation resulted in the seizure of a vehicle and bomb materials, including gas cylinders and fertilizer. He described the discovery as “an unprecedented feat,” which he says demonstrates the military’s determination to defeat the terrorist group. “When troops of 25 Task Force Brigade did cordon and search operation along the Sandia, Kokakowa and Nyaleri villages in Borno State, they discovered an improvised explosive devicemaking factory, along the Maiduguri-Bulabulin-Damboa road,” Usman said. “Alongside, quite a number of other equipment and other weaponry were recovered from the factory. In addition to that the troops were able to capture two key Boko Haram terrorists including an emir- a local community leader in the militant group,” he added. Usman said the captures help with the military’s intelligence gathering operations in the effort to combat and defeat Boko Haram. He said there has been an increase in troop deployment in areas often attacked by Boko Haram militants. This, he said, forms part of the new strategy to increase pressure on the militants in the effort to end their violent campaigns. Usman also said the military is making progress toward meeting a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari to defeat the Islamic militant group within the next three months. He said the joint multinational force based in neighboring Chad is fully operational and adding the military pressure on Boko Haram militants who often carryout out cross border attacks
Factfile
- Boko Haram is originally known as Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah
- Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad
- The group started in and around Maiduguri as a peaceful
- movement, but became a radical group at the Ndimi
- Mosque in Maiduguri in about 2002
- The founder of the group was one Mohammed Ali, who
- when he was murdered by the Nigerian army following a
- clash, was succeeded by Mohammed Yusuf. Yusuf too was
- killed by the Nigerian police and Abubakar Shekau took
- over the group, and leads it till today
- Estimates of the group’s membership varies between
- 7,000 and 10,000
- The Islamist extremist group has killed more than 10,000
- people since 2009, including 1,000 dead in northeast
- Nigeria since Buhari was inaugurated in May.
- Since 2009 Boko Haram have abducted more than 500
- men, women and children, including the kidnapping of 276
- schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014
- Some of the group’s daring attacks a mass prison break in
- September 2010, suicide bombings of police buildings
- and the United Nations office in Abuja
- By the end of August 2014, over 1.5 million people had
- fled the conflict zone’s in the North-east, and Northcentral
- Nigeria where Boko Haram largely operates
- In the early part of March 2015, Boko Haram pledged its
- allegiance to the Islamic State via a video posted to the
- groups’ twitter handle.
