Air Force intensifies attacks on Boko Haram

A disjointed campaign by Nigeria, Chad and Niger swept Boko Haram out of the towns of northeast Nigeria earlier this year but the group, which has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, has killed hundreds of people in the last three months in those three countries, as well as neighbouring Cameroon.

“We arrested 22 of them yesterday (Wednesday) who were actually planning an attack, they were identified with a mark inscribed on their backs with hot iron in form of tattoos”, he added.

Further evidence of Boko Haram’s links with IS is the arrest on August . 15 by Lebanese authorities of hard-line IS cleric Ahmad al-Assir at Beirut airport.

Soldiers moving in a convoy of about 20 vehicles had to stop from time to town to sniff for possible land mines on bridges and areas that are questionable. They said he planned to fly to Nigeria on a forged Palestinian passport with a Nigerian visa.

The convoy of the Army Chief had to slow down when radio messages blared in that an advance team moving ahead of his had ran into an ambush.

An estimated 80 to 200 Boko Haram fighters are in the Libyan city of Sirte, according to Nigeria analyst Jacob Zenn, in The Sentinel magazine of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.

The soldiers freed the herdsmen who narrated that they were being forced to move with their cattle to give some kind of disguise for the fleeing Boko Haram terrorists.

Also, a family of four with a sick mother riding on a donkey were also investigated by soldiers. The convoy moved on to Dikwa, 85km away from Maiduguri, where Tukur Buratai addressed some 4000 refugees protected by troops, assuring them that their plights would soon come to an end due to tireless efforts of the Nigerian military.

Speaking at an audience with Mr Mousa Faki Mahamat, Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Envoy of President Idris Deby of Chad, President Buhari said that with higher morale among troops in the frontline against Boko Haram and their improved logistics, equipment and training, a rapid end to the insurgency could be expected.