Boko Haram has embarked on poisoning water sources in some communities in Borno State where they were either dislodged or threatened by a military offensive, the army has said.
Deputy Director Army Public Relations and spokesman of the 7th Division Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Colonel Tukur Gusau, in a statement today in Maiduguri said the insurgents “have now resorted to poisoning water sources like wells and streams” in some villages especially in the northern part of the state where some cattle were found dead by troops after drinking water from the poisoned streams and wells.
“Some cattle were killed after drinking water from some poisoned sources. The latest being the poisoning of the cattle water ponds in Kangallam village along Marte and Abadam axis in Borno State where a large number of cattle died after drinking water from the ponds,” Col. Gusau said.
He said that no human life has been lost as a result of the “terrorists barbaric act”, adding that the Theatre Command of the counter-insurgency operation in the northeast has “credible information” that Boko Haram had “resorted to poisoning water sources like wells and streams in areas they were dislodged by gallant troops in areas threatened by offensive operations.”
The army spokesman said the insurgents’ action was aimed at “taking their own pound of flesh on innocent citizens and livestock as a result of the unbearable offensive operations through the combined effort of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force to rout them completely from their enclaves and hide-outs all over the northeast.”
He urged the people in the affected areas to “avoid as much as possible drinking water from unverified sources especially in locations that troops routed out Boko Haram terrorists.”
