Boko Haram fight with Libyan weapons – Army

The Boko Haram group yesterday resisted  attacks of the  troops deployed to flush them out  from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.The Boko Haram group fought back with weapons from Libya.

A renewed military campaign, including aerial bombardments of Boko Haram training camps in the three states declared under emergency rule this month, has led to the capture of almost 200 militants and the death of dozens in a week, according to the military. In one raid, a helicopter gunship was hit by anti-aircraft and anti-tank fire, a military source said.

However, a resident of the besieged states said:“It’s only by the goodwill of soldiers and by virtue of my position that I was able to leave the city. All the entry points to and from Maiduguri are blocked by the military but they let me through.”

Outside the city walls, he said, trucks carrying food and market produce were lined up awaiting entrance.

“We have been used to seeing soldiers and checkpoints for the past two years in Maiduguri, but it is having a real impact on the economic activity,” he added.

In Maiduguri, where militants are deeply enmeshed in the population, soldiers carrying out house-to-house searches after placing a 24-hour curfew in some neighbourhoods discovered stockpiles of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, a defence spokesperson said.