Between last Thursday night and early Friday morning, insurgents launched a violent siege on selected security formations in the state. During the confrontation, the insurgents killed some soldiers, their wives and their children at a mini army barracks along Maiduguri Road, Damaturu, the state capital. The heavily armed insurgents also bombed the mini barracks; the Police Area Command; the Criminal Investigation Department; the Mobile Police Base; and an office in charge of environment along Guija Road, in the city. The bloody confrontation erupted following the arrest of two trucks belonging to a foremost industrialist from the northern part of the country at a military checkpoint. The drivers of the trucks were said to have told the security agents that a big bag in one of the trucks belonged to a very senior military officer and should not be searched. The drivers and their colleagues backed up their claim with a display of a memo purportedly from Defence Headquarters and signed by the said military officer that the bag should not be searched for whatever reason. But rather than being cowed by the drivers’ claim and the memo, the soldiers became more suspicious and emboldened. When the bags were later searched by the security agents, a large quantity of military camouflage uniforms, arms and ammunition were discovered in them. The trucks, with their lethal cargos, were subsequently impounded and taken to the Police Area Command, Guija Road, Damaturu, while the drivers and their passengers were also detained. The Boko Haram insurgents reacted by launching attacks on security formations in the state. Security operatives who were drafted to the scene succeeded in killing more than 50 of the insurgents. The military authorities immediately suspended movement throughout the state. Thereafter, the Special Force killed 13 other insurgents on their way to Maiduguri. All the 13 insurgents were believed to be Chadian nationals. This has indeed confirmed earlier speculations that terrorists from other African countries may have aligned forces with the Boko Haram terrorists to wage war on Nigeria. For some time now, there have been strong indications that Islamic terrorists from some North African countries are coordinating attacks against the military in the North-east. Security operatives were said to have come to this conclusion when they discovered that many Arabs of Shuwa descent and fair-skinned people from Mali, Sudan, Mauritania, Algeria, Somalia and Niger were among those whose bodies were found after some of the recent encounters with the terrorists. The general feeling is that the terrorists, who still have several cells in the thick forests of the north-eastern part of the country, were among those chased out of Mali by the French and West African troops led by Nigeria. Their level of preparedness and the calibre of arms in their possession may have been responsible for the usual high casualty on the side of security agents.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 20:48:27 +0000
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