Over 70 villagers killed as Cameroon army pursues Boko Haram

“Boko Haram has reverted to using improvised explosive devices (IEDs)”, Buhari reportedly said.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday that Boko Haram has been kicked out of Yobe and Adamawa States, but still remains a force in Borno State.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Wednesday that the war against the sect had been “largely won”.

Boko Haram has also broadened its threat to neighboring countries, around the Lake Chad region.

“We didn’t know what was going on but the Cameroonian troops suddenly appeared and began to ask us for Boko Haram terrorists”, said Muhammed Abba, a resident of the village and deputy commander of a local group of civilians set up to fight the extremists in Gwoza.

“Now, the entire 70 plus kilometre stretch from Maiduguri to Bama and all the way to Banki (which leads to Cameroon and the Central African Republic) are in the hands of our gallant troops”.

(Vatican Radio) The leader of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, acknowledged on Thursday that the era of Boko Haram as an effective and organized fighting force holding large areas of territory was “now over”. “And I assure you the menace of Boko Haram will soon be over”.

Boko Haram gained world attention past year following the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls-most of whom still have not been found-from their dormitories in the town of Chibok, which sparked the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign championed by Michelle Obama and thousands of others. “Even in countries like Colombia where insurgency was supposed to have ended decades ago, attacks like this still happen”.

Mohammed noted that the jihadists were employing a new style of terror attacks on soft targets such as schools, parking lots and gathering places, looking to instill fear by killing civilians, mostly women and children. The insurgency, which launched military operations in 2009 is said to have killed some 17,000 people and left more than two million homeless.