adminAbuja – The Nigerian army said on Tuesday it had repelled Boko Haram from all but three local government districts in the northeast, claiming victory for its offensive against the Islamist insurgents less than two weeks before a presidential election. At the start of this year, Boko Haram controlled around 20 local government areas, a territory the size of Belgium, in its bloody six-year-old campaign to carve out an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria.
But a concerted push by Nigeria’s military and neighbours Chad, Cameroon and Niger has regained considerable ground. At the weekend, Nigerian government forces recaptured the city of Bama, the second biggest in north-easterly Borno state.
“We have three local governments remaining, Abadam, Kala-Balge and Gwoza, and we are optimistic that with time we will liberate those,” Lieutenant-General Tobiah Minimah, the army chief of staff, said.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running for re-election, had been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the insurgency. His challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, has been campaigning on his reputation for being tough on security matters when he was military ruler of Nigeria in the 1980s.
It is not clear how much impact the military advances will boost Jonathan’s election chances in the tightly fought race.
The militants were progressively chased out of Adamawa and Yobe states since the start of the year, and cornered into an ever shrinking area of Borno, the heartland of their insurgency.
The elections were postponed in February until March 28, with the military citing Boko Haram as warranting the delay. The electoral commission plans to set up polling booths in camps for the more than a million Nigerians displaced by the fighting, but there are fears that potentially millions of people may be unable to vote in areas affected by the violence.
Asked whether the vote could hold in the recaptured areas, Minimah said that would be up to the electoral commission. “The areas have been liberated, but structures of governance . . . will need to be reinstated so citizens can go back to their areas and vote. How soon? I don’t know.”
Boko Haram’s worsening atrocities against civilians hit international headlines in April last year, when the militants kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok, triggering a search for them that has been fruitless thus far.
Minimah said there was no news on the whereabouts of the Chibok girls for now, but that the military was optimistic they would be able to get more information on it soon.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian military, battling insurgency in the north-east, has had no news of more than 200 girls abducted 11 months ago by Boko Haram Islamists, the army chief said on Tuesday.
Responding to a question from reporters on the fate of the missing 219 schoolgirls, Lieutenant General Kenneth Minimah said “no news for now”.
“In all the liberated areas we have also made inquiries,” but when the Boko Haram fighters flee they take their dependants with them, he told reporters after a security council meeting.
“Those we have come in contact with have not made any comment suggesting that the Chibok girls were there and were taken away,” he added.
Nevertheless Minimah said he remained optimistic that details of the girls’ whereabouts would become known as the size of the territory under Boko Haram control continues to shrink.
Boko Haram insurgents abducted a total of 276 school girls from Chibok, in north-eastern Borno state, in April 2014.
Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape while the 219 are still being held by Boko Haram.
Their abduction triggered international condemnation and outcry.
Critics have accused the government of not doing enough to ensure the rescue of the girls. A top military officer said last year that they knew where they were being held.
Minimah confirmed that Yobe and Adamawa states “have been liberated completely” from the control of Boko Haram.
In Borno state, only three local governments – Abadam, Gwoza and Kala-Balge – are still under the control of Boko Haram, the army chief said.
Nigeria has begun the “final onslaught” against Boko Haram, the country’s national security spokesperson said on Tuesday in London.
On a visit to London, Mike Omeri told AFP that “significant strategic military successes and gains” had been made against the Islamists in recent weeks.
Omeri had announced in Abuja last week that 36 towns had been recaptured from Boko Haram.
Troops on Monday recaptured Bama, Borno’s second main city, the military claimed.
The insurgency has left more than 13 000 people dead since 2009 and forced some 1.5 million others to flee their homes. – AFP/ Reuters
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