Troops quell Boko Haram attack on Maiduguri as Buhari orders defence HQ moved there

MEN of the Nigerian Army have repelled a Boko Haram attack on the Borno State capital Maiduguri just hours after new president Muhammadu Buhari ordered that the defence headquarters be moved to the city until the terrorist sect is eliminated.

 

Since 2009, Boko Haram has been waging a war against the Nigerian state and about two years ago, it moved from bloody bombings to seizing territory. At the start of this year, Boko Haram controlled about 14 local governments in northeastern Nigeria and during his election campaign, President Buhari promised to clamp down hard on the sect.

 

Immediately after he was sworn-in yesterday, President Buhari instructed his defence chiefs to move their headquarters to Maiduguri to enable them combat the Boko Haram threat effectively.  Early this morning, however, Boko Haram attacked the city but were beaten back by government troops.

 

Gunshots from high-calibre weapons could be heard between about 1am and 2am this morning, with one military source saying the shooting took place around Damboa Road, near the small settlement of Mule on the edge of the city. Thousands of people have been killed and about 1.5m displaced during Boko Haram’s six-year-old insurgency to carve out a state adhering strict sharia law in Nigeria.

 

Following the insurgency, about half of the population of Borno State is said to be in Maiduguri, swelling the city's residents to about 2m. Neighbours Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic have all joined a regional campaign against the terrorists, with the US and UK recently promising President Buhari that they were ready to increase military cooperation to defeat Boko Haram.