Lagos : Nigeria’s president says the Boko Haram extremist group has finally been crushed, has been driven from its last forest stronghold with fighters on the run and no place to hide, reports AP.
But despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s victorious announcement, Nigeria is unlikely to see an end soon to the deadly suicide bombings, village attacks and assaults on remote military outposts carried out by Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremist group.
Buhari says “gallant troops” on Friday drove the insurgents out of their “Camp Zero” deep in the northeastern Sambisa Forest. The military had said in the last few days that Boko Haram fighters were fleeing into surrounding areas, and locals were told to be vigilant.
The forest is also believed to hold more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014 by Boko Haram from a school in the town of Chibok.
Buhari urges troops to intensify efforts “to locate and free our remaining Chibok girls still in captivity.” Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million during its seven-year insurgency.
