Nigerian army spokesperson says “the operations denied the terrorists the ability to carry out a major offensive and also diminished their offensive capabilities.”
The Nigerian military said Thursday it had killed more than 850 suspected terrorists in the northeast of the country between April and June, in operations that also resulted in the rescue of more than 590 hostages.
“The operations denied the terrorists the ability to carry out a major offensive and also diminished their offensive capability.”Nigerian Army spokesman General Edward Buba told a news conference in Abuja.
Because of this balance, the source added, the terrorists’ actions are now limited “to skirmishes and low-level attacks, mainly against soft targets.”
Buba further stated that Nigerian soldiers detained 913 terror suspects and more than 4,582 surrendered.
Elsewhere in the country, the army killed another 1,390 “terrorists,” many of whom belonged to groups of “bandits,” as gangs that carry out mass kidnappings for large ransoms are commonly known in Nigeria.
Northeastern Nigeria has been the target of violence by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram since 2009, which intensified in 2016 with the emergence of its splinter group, ISWAP.
Both groups seek to impose an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country with a Muslim majority in the north and predominantly Christian in the south.
Boko Haram and ISWAP will kill no more than 35 thousand people and cause nearly 2.7 million internally displaced persons, especially in Nigeria, but also in neighboring countries such as Camarões, or Chad and Niger, according to the Government and the United Nations. .
Source: Observadora
