A fresh investigative report has revealed that Boko Haram though badly wounded by Nigeria and allied forces, still remains deadly. The sect is said to have killed no fewer than 1500 people in the past six months.
According to the report by The Associated Press, the sect has seen its territorial ambitions dashed in recent months, but it is reverting back to the kind of asymmetrical warfare that was once its grisly hallmark. As a result, the group poses as much of a danger to civilians now as it did when it fought to control cities and towns. “In the last six months alone, Boko Haram has killed nearly 1,500 people”.
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Less than a year ago, the militant group controlled an area of northeastern Nigeria the size of Belgium.
One unfortunate resident described the area as: “a mortuary for the uncooperative and prison for the conquered”, stressing that it threatened to engulf the entire country.
The jihadist’s escapades reaches across borders, with raids into neighbouring Cameroun, Chad and Niger, all of which eventually joined a five-nation military coalition against it.
The regional military coalition led by Nigeria has recaptured much of the territory Boko Haram once controlled and driven its fighters into remote regions in Nigeria’s northeastern corner.
The coalition however, did not only rout the group from its former strongholds, but follow-on pressure from the Nigerian military has degraded the insurgents’ ability to pull off brazen attacks on high-profile targets — such as the 2011 bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
A special forces unit under Maj Gen Lamidi Adeosun, the commander heading up the battle against Boko Haram, has implemented an aggressive new policy of “relentless pursuit”, which has denied the Islamists the luxury of occupying towns they attack.
More to the tactical assaults launched by the Nigerian military, is the releasing of photos of its most wanted 100 members, 10 of whom have been arrested in the past month alone.
This development experts say has greatly increased pressure on Boko Haram, giving the Nigerian troops an upper-hand in the war.
Some experts argue that the Islamist’s move to take territories was their undoing, however, they have realised it and hence have reverted to deploying child suicide bombers and IEDs against softer targets, like the market in Kano, Nigeria, that was hit by a twin suicide bombing on Wednesday, November 18.
But not all of the group’s behavioural changes reflect tactical decisions. Boko Haram is showing signs of battle fatigue and depressed morale.
New African magazine recently reported that “the average age of Boko Haram’s fighting force keeps dropping” and that “the majority of [its] fighters are teenagers.” With its fighting cadre depleted by recent military setbacks, Boko Haram has reportedly replenished its ranks by kidnapping children and forcing them to fight.
Experts warn that though Boko Haram is on the defensive, it would be a mistake to assume that the group is near defeat.
The fact that the separatist is unable to seize and hold territory is not much of a consolation. If there’s one thing the group has demonstrated over the years, it’s that it can strike even when badly wounded and pushed to the wall.
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The group is more than capable of mounting devastating attacks from its current hideouts in the northeastern Sambisa Forest and the Mandara mountains that are straddled about Nigeria’s borders.
Boko Haram has met with gains and losses after a year of dizzying, the conflict has arrived at a bloody stalemate.
For the sect at least, this is familiar territory: The group has been reduced to the level of capability it enjoyed in 2009, when it carried out sporadic attacks against civilians and routinely gave the army a bloody nose.
It is pertinent to note that the brutal splinter group has risen from the ashes before and can launch such surprise again.
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