BOKO Haram insurgents have attacked military base at the northern town of Kareto in Borno State.
The attack which occurred in the early hours of yesterday lasted for about three hours, sources said. Scores of insurgents were killed while some soldiers were wounded. It is coming on the heels of many other attacks in military and police formations in the North East.
Army spokesman, Col Sani Usman who confirmed the attack in a statement, said troops of 113 Battalion at Kareto attacked by the terrorists “have been battling the insurgents since the early hours of yesterday.”
Multiple military sources claimed the insurgents attacked troops with three suicide bombers.
Similar attack on troops occurred mid last year in the area as military troops moved to retake Damasak in Mobbar Local Government Area from Boko Haram. Some residents of the area who are currently taking refuge in Maiduguri said hundreds of the insurgents are still hiding in the area, a reason which informed the military’s efforts to move into the area to clear the terrorists.
Nigerian troops have in recent months succeeded in pushing out the terror group from most of its bases across the restive north-east.
On Sunday, the Army announced the seizure of a large cache of arms and ammunitions after taking over Boko Haram’s underground armoury and food storage facilities.
Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, had on Sunday, alongside prominent politicians from Borno supervised the reopening of a major highway linking Borno and neighbouring Yobe State which was blocked by Boko Haram for over three years.
Residents of Buni Yadi, a town held captive by Boko Haram also returned to their town enmasse on Sunday following its liberation by Nigerian troops.
Boko Haram had raided a government-owned secondary school in the town early in 2014 and reportedly killed a number of students while they slept in their dormitories.
Boko Haram has increasingly used suicide bombers in its almost seven-year rebellion, seeking to carve out an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.
An estimated 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million people have fled their homes since the start of the violence.
On Dec. 24, President Muhammadu Buhari told the world press that Boko Haram, the militant sect which has led an insurgency since 2009, had been ‘technically’ defeated. According to Buhari, Boko Haram, as an ‘organized fighting force’, could no longer carry out ‘articulated conventional attacks on centers of communication and populations’.
