Information coming in from Borno State in northern Nigeria suggest that the Boko Haram insurgents might be changing their base from the Sambisa forest moving towards southern Borno.
According to a report published by Sahara Reporters today, Wednesday, 27 August, 2014, residents living near Sambisa forest in Borno State have reported seeing a large number of Boko Haram militants leaving the thick forest Tuesday’s morning and moving towards southern Borno.
It was gathered that a security source also confirmed the account of the villagers.
The source informed that Nigeria’s intelligence agents were aware that members of the Islamist sect, who had been holed up in Sambisa forest, seemed to be relocating to the large territories they have captured in their recent attacks.
He added that the insurgents’ relocation is most likely motivated by the sect’s recent successes in capturing several major towns in northern Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States.
According to some villagers, who claimed to witness the militants’ relocation, the insurgents had been moving their families and possibly many of their abductees to safer grounds in towns captured in recent weeks.
A villager in Kirawa, a town on the Cameroonian side, also said he had seen some suspected Boko Haram militants moving through Cameroonian territory to Nigeria with large amounts of cargo in tightly secured convoys.
Many people believe the alleged relocation of the insurgents may be as a result of about 480 Nigerian soldiers who fled to neighboring Cameroon some days ago in order to escape from a fierce contingent of Boko Haram militants that attacked Gamboru-Ngala, a major town near the border with Cameroon.
It was reported after the incident that the militants easily seized the town, and hoisted their flags at a police station and the home of a former governor, Ali Modu Sheriff.
It was reported that the fleeing soldiers, who ran away with civilians, left behind four armored personnel carriers (APCs) and a huge cache of arms that the militants have taken.
Only on Tuesday, the absconding soldiers were repatriated to Nigeria by the Cameroonian authorities.
Meanwhile, many villagers that were displaced because of the heavy fighting Gamboru-Ngala are still trapped in Fotocol, a small town near Ngala.
At least, 10, 000 people have lost their lives while tens of thousands of others have been internally displaced from their communities in northeastern Nigeria due to Boko Haram insurgency since 2009.
The leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, who has been blacklisted as a terrorist by the United Nations, UN, on Monday released a video where he declared Gwoza town, in Borno state as an Islamic Caliphate.
The Nigerian military had since dismissed Shekau’s claim, saying Nigeria remains one indivisible republic.
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