Boko Haram Insurgency: ICG Recommendations to End the Killings (EXCERPTS)

                          EXCERPTS FROM ICG’S EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Africa Report No. 216 from the Brussels, Belgium-based International Crisis Group, ICG.

Curbing Violence in Nigeria (II): The Boko Haram Insurgency
Boko Haram’s four-year-old insurgency has pitted neighbour against neighbour, cost more than 4,000 lives, displaced close to half a million, destroyed hundreds of schools and government buildings and devastated an already ravaged economy in the North East, one of Nigeria’s poorest regions.

It overstretches federal security services, with no end in sight, spills over to other parts of the north and risks reaching Niger and Cameroon, weak countries poorly equipped to combat a radical Islamist armed group tapping into real governance, corruption, impunity and underdevelopment grievances shared by most people in the region.

Nigeria Army Admits Two Soldiers Killed, Six Missing in Sambisa Forest

Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, who is the The Director of Nigeria Military Defence Information confirmed the death of two troops with six others missing in a clash between the Nigerian military Special Forces and the insurgents between Friday and Saturday in a very fierce encounter in Sambisa forest.

Director of Military Defence Information said that most of the 20 soldiers who were reported missing in the latest battle at the Sambisa forest as a result of communication misunderstanding between the ground troops and the Air force, had returned to military base and were already taking part in the mission.

Olukolade further confirms that a very large number of the Boko Haram insurgents were killed in the combined operation between ground troops and the Nigerian Air Force fighter jets. According to him, the Military Special Forces on the Sambisa forest operation discovered a larger number of Islamist insurgents which made one of the units to call for additional reinforcement to enable them to finish off the assignment.

Military, Boko Haram Encounters: Hundreds of terrorists killed, 20 soldiers missing in Sambisa Forest fight

An estimated 2,000 Boko Haram insurgents were killed in a combined operation by Special Forces and the men of the Nigeria Air Force on Friday and Saturday in the volatile Sambisa Forest of Borno State, which has become a prominent hideout of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Punch reports that that would have been a great victory for the Special Forces was, however, marred by an operational misunderstanding between the ground troops and the officers in the Air Force Alpha Jet. Investigations revealed that 20 soldiers are still missing as a result of the operational misunderstanding.

VIDEO: The Actual Attack by Boko Haram on Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri

Unimaginable: B’Haram camp with 700 vehicles captured by the military?

                                    A ridiculous report

With the reports that the ongoing military campaign against the Boko Haram insurgents have recorded what security sources described as one of the greatest breakthroughs in the  campaign against Boko Haram terrorists  in the North-East.

That the Special Forces, comprising ground troops and the Air Force fighters, had demobilized one of the strongest fortresses of the Boko Haram sect.

Army sources said that the camp was well planned with boreholes, dispensary and other facilities to aid the operations of the insurgents.