Casualties as military launch air strikes on Boko Haram strongholds

*Army on display

Nigeria’s military on Friday attacked Boko Haram Islamist strongholds across the northeast, launching deadly air strikes on insurgent camps, the military said, while residents reported that forces had deployed in border areas to block the militants from fleeing.

Several thousand soldiers have spread across three northeastern states where President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency after Boko Haram seized territory and declared war against the government.


“There have been air strikes since Wednesday,” defence spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade told AFP, specifying that they were continuing Friday.

“Every one of their strongholds is under attack,” he said, adding that he believed “there are a lot of casualties,” without providing a figure.

The offensive is ongoing in all three states put under emergency decree, including Adamawa and Yobe, but Borno state is expected to see the most intense fighting.

Many have warned that there is a risk of high civilian deaths and Nigeria’s military has been accused of massive rights violations in the past, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

The operation is the largest against Boko Haram since 2009, when soldiers flooded Borno’s capital Maiduguri, killing more than 800 people and forcing the insurgents underground for a year.

In the town of Gamburu Ngala on the border with Cameroon in northern Borno, residents said that heavily armed troops and tanks arrived on Wednesday, sealing off previously unmanned border posts.

Source: Vanguard