Skinny men and women. Frail old people and ailing young boys and girls. They were all excited to be free — thanks to troops who subdued two Boko Haram camps in Chuogori and Shantumari, Borno State.
The seizure of the camps was spearheaded by troops from 21 Brigade and Nigerian Army Engineers.
In Kashingeri, Wale, Kushingari and other camps, 151 Task Force Battalion troops rescued 71 civilians from the terrorists’ camps.
Amid the success, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, yesterday listed why the war had been tough.
He said:
the military’s equipment was not enough;
some fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies were leaking operational plans to the insurgents; and
when the insurgency broke out in the Northeast, the military had been overstretched.
The Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman, said troops dislodged insurgents from two camps yesterday and rescued 59 from three others.
In a statement last night, Col. Usman said: “As part of efforts to rid Nigeria of Boko Haram terrorists, troops of 21 Brigade and elements of Nigerian Army Engineers yesterday cleared a notorious terrorists’ camp at Chuogori and Shantumari, Borno State.
“During the offensive operations, the fleeing terrorists left underground silos.
“In addition, troops of 151 Task Force Battalion conducted operations on Kashingeri, Wale and Kushingari Boko Haram terrorists camps today.
During the raids, quite a number of the terrorists were killed; a Landrover vehicle and a tipper were recovered.
“The troops also rescued 59 civilians that were held captive by the terrorists and cleared the camps.”
Some of the captives told The Associated Press that they were in the clutches of the extremists for as long as a year.
“I was waiting for death … they often threatened to kill us,” said Yagana Kyari, a woman in her 20s, who said she had been kidnapped from her village of Kawuri and taken to a militant camp in Walimberi, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Maiduguri.
Kyari said they often went hungry because the extremists never provided enough food.
“Our gallant troops have rescued 59 civilians in two camps of the terrorist group,” army spokesman Col. I.T. Gusau said. “Many of the terrorists were killed in the course of the operations, but mop-up is still going on.”
The 59, all women and children except for five elderly men, were freed on Thursday, he said. Another 12 women and girls were rescued Wednesday from Kilakisa, 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of Maiduguri, he said.
Air Chief Marshal Badeh was delivering his valedictory address at his Pulling-Out from the Nigerian Armed Forces.
He said: “Notwithstanding the modest successes we recorded in the fight against terror, I must say that the task of co-ordinating the military and other security agencies in the fight against the insurgents is perhaps the most complex and challenging assignment I have had in my over 38 years in service.
“For the first time, I was head of a military that lacked the relevant equipment and motivation to fight an enemy that was invisible and embedded with the local populace.
“Added to this was the exploitation of a serious national security issue by a section of the press and the political class to gain political mileage.
“Furthermore, the activities of fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to the terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult.
“The activities of these unpatriotic members of the military not only blunted the effectiveness of the fight, but also led to the needless deaths of numerous officers and men who unwittingly fell into ambushes prepared by terrorists who had advance warnings of the approach of such troops.
“The decision by certain countries to deny us weapons to prosecute the war also added to the challenges we faced.”
He sai
