2017: ARMY SETS SIGHT ON SAMBISA FOREST FOR TRAINING

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Monday said Sambisa forest would serve as training ground for personnel of the Nigerian Army as from 2017.

Buratai said this in Damasak, Borno, while celebrating Christmas with troops of 145 Battalion after the road leading to the town was reopened by Gov. Kashim Shettima, three years after closure.

He said troops were already conducting a mop up operation in the forest after the last strong hold of the Boko Haram terrorists was captured.

Boko Haram's focus on destroying schools threatens a generation

Extremist group has kidnapped hundreds of children and forced nearly 1 million out of school

In the early morning of Nov. 24, 2014, hundreds of militants from the brutal extremist group Boko Haram poured into the remote Nigerian border town of Damasak.

First, they blocked all four main roads in.

Fighters then went straight to the Zanna Mobarti Primary School and took captive 300 children and teens, ages seven to 17. The gates were locked, and the boys were separated from the girls. It would be their prison for the next four months.