Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Nigerian Army has extricated 42 women, 51 children and two men during clearance operations on Boko Haram camps on Saturday, June 22, 2019.
Three Boko Haram terrorists were killed in clearance operations by troops in Borno.
Nigerian Army troops in collaboration with Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and vigilante groups have rescued 95 people being used as farm labourers by Boko Haram terrorists.
Troops of 112 Task Force Battalion and 22 Brigade carried out clearance operations in Kobe and Boboshe villages in Borno State on Saturday, June 22, 2019.
They destroyed newly established camps discovered at Dubula village and killed one terrorist who was trying to escape.
About 13 women and 26 children were rescued during the operation, with items such as two flags, two copies of the Quran, one generator set, and two bicycles also recovered.
The Acting Commanding Officer of 202 Battalion in conjunction with CJTF, vigilante and hunters groups similarly conducted clearance operations in Tafana 1 and Tafana 2 villages, killing two terrorists.
During the operation, two men, 29 women and 25 children were also rescued, according to a statement signed by the Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa.
He disclosed that the women and children were being used as farm slaves on farmlands used by the terrorists to sustain themselves.
“In all the operations and victims so far rescued, it was observed that with the coming of the rainy season, farmers are preparing for the farming season, while the terrorists are also using women and children as farm slaves (labourers) in their farmlands to meet up with daily feeding challenges due to food drought in the forest sustained by the nobly ferocious operations of Nigerian Army troops,” the statement read.
24 of the children rescued were administered with polio vaccines by Nigerian Army Regimental Medical Officers.
The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has commended troops for their successful clearance operations and urged them to continue to dominate from all flanks to ensure defeat of the terrorist insurgency in the northeast.
Since Boko Haram’s insurgency escalated in 2009, it has killed around 30,000 people and displaced millions in the northeast region, with its operations also extending to border countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Even though the powers of the Abubakar Shekau-led main faction of Boko Haram has been on the wane in the past couple of years, another faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has grown in influence and carried out several savage attacks on military bases since last year.