Scores of soldiers feared killed in ambush

FROM TIMOTHY OLANREWAJU, MAIDUGURI

Some troops attached to the Multinational Military Joint Task Force (MMJTF) may have been killed by Boko Haram on Saturday following an ambush on their base at Baga, a Borno State border town. Though details of the attack were sketchy at press time, a security source said some daring insurgents ambushed the soldiers at the Nigeria-Chad border.

This is even as two people were killed following an explosion in Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State yesterday.

Baga, located in Kukawa Local Government, north of Borno, had been under severe attacks by Boko Haram including the killing of over 45 fisher­men in the area on November 21 last year. Sources said the insurgents sacked the community as remnants of residents in the area fled following hours of gun battle between the multinational troops and Boko Haram terrorists.

The MMJTF is a military arrange­ment among Nigeria, Chad and Niger with the deployment of troops to the operation to curtail cross-border crimes. Nigeria shares borders with three Afri­can nations of Niger, Chad and Camer­oon in northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa which were incidentally ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency.

Meanwhile, a blast suspected to be from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) yesterday claimed two lives in Dahlehi Community in the Maiha Local Government Area of Adamawa State. The Council’s Chairman, Alhaji Mohammed Jibrilla, confirmed the development in Yola.

He said the incident occurred when some youths lit fire to warm themselves because of harmattan but mistakenly added a leather object they picked by the roadside containing a strange object. He said the object suspected to be an abandoned IED, exploded, killing two of the youths.

The development was followed by an explosion which killed one person on the spot while the second died shortly before admission at the Yola Specialists Hospital. Two other injured youths are now on admission in the hospital, he said

Jibrilla advised the public to be vigilant and to report any strange object to the authorities. Maiha Local Government was one of the councils recovered from insurgents by the military recently. The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Othman Abubakar, confirmed the incident, but did not give details.




THE SUN