Suspected Boko Haram militants have seized a military base outside the Nigerian town of Baga near Lake Chad after engaging troops in a fierce battle that lasted several hours, witnesses said on Sunday.
“They (the militants) overwhelmed the troops and forced them to abandon the base which the gunmen took over,” local resident Usman Danssubdu told AFP after fleeing to neighbouring Chad following Saturday’s raids.
The base is used by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which was established in 1998 to battle cross-border crime but whose mandate was expanded to fighting Boko Haram when the Islamist group emerged.
The force is made up of troops from Nigeria as well as Niger and Chad.
The Leadership newspaper reported that many soldiers have been killed as they were caught unawares.
“We had a very ugly development in Baga on Saturday morning, when the Boko Haram insurgents went and dislodged the Multinational Joint Task Force there. All we know for now that it was a bad outing for the soldiers, because the base was practically dislodged, but one cannot say specifically the extent of damage caused on the base and the personnel for now,” a senior security officer, who pleaded for anonymity, said.
Hundreds of fear-stricken residents from Baga and five other Nigerian towns and villages have poured into neighbouring Chad to escape Boko Haram raids on their homes on the shores of Lake Chad, witnesses said.
Residents of Kauyen Kuros, Mile 3, Mile 4, Baga, Doron-Baga and Bundaram fled across the lake in fishing boats and canoes into Chad following hours-long attacks on Saturday by hundreds of militants from the Islamist group.
“We are now seeking refuge in Gubuwa, Kangallam and Kaiga villages inside Chad near the border with Nigeria,” Dansubdu told AFP by telephone from Gubuwa.
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen late Saturday also raided the town of Babban Gida, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Damaturu, the capital of neighbouring Yobe state, according to residents, who said they destroyed several buildings.
The seizure of the military base has punctured the confidence building that the Nigerian military has been putting together to calm Nigerians that it is prepared to liberate North east Nigeria from the stranglehold of Boko Haram.
Last Wednesday, the Nigerian Army restated its determination to bring the ongoing counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations to a speedy and decisive end.
New strategies have been introduced in the ongoing war after formations and units involved were evaluated, and have impacted positively on the counter-insurgency operations in the North East, Director of Nigerian Army Public Relations Brig. Gen. Olajide Laleye told reporters in Abuja, the Nigerian capital on Wednesday.
He said all the people involved in the operations in the region would undergo counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency training before being deployed in theater of operations.
According to him, the need to reduce collateral damage has delayed recapture of some towns and villages seized by insurgents in restive Borno state.
“If certain areas have not been recaptured, it is because the Nigerian army is giving such areas very careful plans. The plans are ongoing,” he said.
“At the right time you will see the outcome. We will not tell you, of course, beforehand, of what we intend to do, but you will see the outcome,” Laleye said, adding that Nigerians will be pleased at the end of such operations that collateral damage is reduced to the barest minimum.
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