Nigerian Army Repels Boko Haram Assault on Key City

Local Editor

Nigeria's military on Sunday repelled a Boko Haram assault on the key city of Maiduguri as violence raged across the country's northeast just two weeks before national elections.

The hours-long attack on the strategic capital of Borno state was the second attempt to take Maiduguri in a week.

As government forces were holding them off, the air force of neighboring Chad was pounding the militants' positions in Gamboru, a town on Nigeria's border with Cameroon 140 kilometers to the northeast.

But hundreds of thousands of voters in the northeast, an APC stronghold, could be disenfranchised by the unrest if the election goes ahead in two weeks.
Repelled in the south by troops backed by vigilantes, they regrouped and tried to take the city from the east, where they again met stiff resistance.

Defense ministry spokesman Chris Olukolade said the assault on the town, where the extremist group was founded more than a decade ago, was "contained" and that "the terrorists incurred massive casualties".

"The situation is calm as mopping up operation in the affected area is ongoing," he wrote in a text message, a claim consistent with witness reports.

Despite being under fire in recent months, Maiduguri has become a place of refuge for people forced to flee other areas in Borno that have been taken over by the extremist rebels.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team