Nigeria Recaptures Bama City from Boko Haram
Local Editor
Nigerian government forces recaptured the northeastern city of Bama from Takfir Boko Haram insurgents, a significant victory for the government just two weeks before a national election.
But counter-strikes launched by the armed forces of Chad and Niger over the frontier into Nigerian territory, particularly around Lake Chad, as well as the engagement of hundreds of mercenaries might have begun to turn the tides of the conflict.
The arrival of new equipment had also helped boost morale among hard-pressed Nigerian soldiers.
Africa's biggest economy and top energy producer had been plagued by the insurgency launched in 2009. Boko Haram managed to take control of territory the size of Belgium by the beginning of 2015.
The inability of the army to dislodge the militants, who had killed thousands of people and kidnapped hundreds, had been an embarrassment for President Goodluck Jonathan.
"Nigerian troops have these afternoon routed terrorists from Bama in Borno state. Mopping up operation is ongoing," the Nigerian Defence Headquarters mentioned.
Bama is about 60 km [40 miles] southeast of the state capital Maiduguri. The army had been fighting for Bama since last week and began making headway over the weekend, security sources said.
Furthermore, the militants were progressively pushed out of neighboring Adamawa and Yobe states since the start of the year, and cornered into an ever shrinking area of Borno, the heartland of the insurgency, where they appear to be suffering heavy losses.
But the Nigerian government had warned that the splintered militants would regroup and increase attacks on "soft" targets, something that had already occurred with a string of deadly bombings across the north and middle of Nigeria.
Hence, the elections were postponed in February by six weeks, with the military citing Boko Haram as warranting the delay.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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