American Troops Sent To Cameroon

He said: “The Nigerian Army and indeed the military as the symbol of our nationhood is being challenged”.

An uptick in violence is expected in the coming weeks with the end of the rainy season and amid growing resistance to a nascent multi-national joint task force bringing together countries in the region to fight Boko Haram. Further reports have revealed that the Islamist militant group “has shown itself resilient in the face of military operations by the combined armies of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria”.

“We started running up and down, motorists drived and rushed out of the area including keke NAPEP riders with their families, everywhere was confused and panic took over the entire place”.

The bombers slipped into the mosque disguised as worshippers, witnesses said. “We said it and we meant it. If we are satisfied that the girls are alive”.

Yesterday’s attack in Umarari, a village of mainly poor farmers and labourers a few 4.5 miles west of Maiduguri, also happened at a mosque shortly after 5am.

“I have chosen for now to pray at home especially at nights and in the mornings; it seems to be the time the suicide bombers are on the prowl”, said Yunus. You can not kill innocent people and shout “Allahu Akbar”.

The series of suicide bomb attacks comes even as President Muhammadu Buhari says that he expects the “final routing of Boko Haram as an organised fighting force” by the year’s end.

“They have been degraded to the extent that they can no longer fight collectively”, said military spokesman Sani Kukasheka Usman.

He said that the recent suicide bombings in Maiduguri were as a result of the pressure on the Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East. Providing basic security for a tired Maiduguri has proven to be out of Burhari’s reach.

The development came only two days after triple bombings killed at least seven people in the Ajilari Cross area of Maiduguri.

That incident may have helped precipitate the US government announcement that it would deploy up to 300 military personnel to Cameroon for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations against the insurgents.

When pressed on whether Nigeria would offer money or prisoners to the armed group, which aims to establish a state based on its own extreme interpretation of Islam in the country’s northeast, Buhari said “it depends on negotiations with the leadership of Boko Haram”.