Over 600 Boko Haram fighters have been killed in the last one month while other insurgents are finding life extremely difficult as the war against terrorism rages in Nigeria’s North-East, military sources have disclosed.
A top security officer quoted by PRNigeria said: “While the terrorists have engaged in guerrilla tactics of using vulnerable girls and young men for suicide attacks on soft targets, we ensure that their fighters do not escape as they continue to meet their waterloos in the hand of the troops.”
In their desperation to create fear among the citizens, the terrorists are now deliberately targeting remote villages where their former members who had renounced the sect membership were taking refuge.
On the guerrilla tactics employed by the terrorists, the security source said: “The major challenges we face is that of suicide bombers who might be operating with insiders within the communities. There is no way we can identify potential terrorists or suicide bombers from their faces or movements. Some of them look as innocent as newborn babies.”
The officer therefore urged the residents to muster the courage and expose suspects, strange objects or movements to the relevant authorities from prompt actions.
The source added that since the emergence of new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari no single territory in Nigeria is being occupied or proclaimed by the terrorists as their ‘caliphate’ even as their leaders are either being killed, captured or on the run.
According to another senior military officer, “both the army and air force personnel are not relenting in the battle to rid the region of terrorism and are daily dealing ruthlessly with the enemies by killing them and destroying their vehicles, especially in recent operations.”
The sources, however, lamented that the relentless campaign against the Nigerian military by Amnesty International (AI) “is a serious nuisance as it has dampened troops’ morale.”
“Nonetheless, very senior officers and military psychologists have revved up their efforts in assuring combatants that AI reports were meant exactly to achieve that same negative objective of dampening morale and so, they must never allow the enemies of Nigeria to win,” a source disclosed.
He said that the Nigerian air force continues to conduct their regular missions while soldiers conduct raids on suspected terrorist’s hideouts.