207 Insurgents Killed In Borno

 

 Members of the Borno State youth vigilante known as Civilian-JTF came out as heroes in yesterday’s (March 14, 2014) defeat of Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

JTF members stated that they had counted at least  207 corpses of suspected members of Boko Haram after an early morning attack launched by the insurgents on a military barracks and neighbourhoods of Maiduguri.
The gunmen were said to be on a mission to free their detained members held within the barracks.

One of the leaders at the Sector-5 formation of the Civilian-JTF, Mallam Abdullahi, said “We have counted 207 dead members of Boko Haram in our area, Jiddari-Polo, alone. Many others are being killed in the bush because the fighter jet is still shelling them, and some of our members have accompanied the soldiers in pursuing them.”
The attack, which is the first of its kind since the 2009 episode that led to the death of the Boko Haram spiritual leader, Muhammed Yusuf, started about 7:30am and continued until about noon.


We Must Cooperate, Jonathan Tells Biya, Others
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday made a passionate appeal to President Paul Biya of Cameroon and leaders of other neighbouring countries for greater cooperation between them and Nigeria in the fight against terrorism.
The president who spoke at an audience with a special envoy sent to him by the Cameroonian president at the presidential villa, Abuja, said that Boko Haram and other criminal groups that operate in the countries’ border regions must be seen as a common threat to them all.
According to Jonathan, who arrived in Abuja from Katsina where suspected members of the sect killed over 301 innocent people while he was on a two-day official state visit to the state, Nigeria and its neighbours must take urgent action to harmonise their strategies and efforts to roll back the menace of Boko Haram and other violent criminal gangs that operate between their borders.
“The issue of Boko Haram remains worrisome. If it is not properly handled, it could affect the security of neighbouring countries. We therefore expect maximum cooperation from all countries within our region to rout the sect,” President Jonathan told Cameroon’s minister of interior, Mr Emmanuel Sadi Rene, the convoy who delivered a special message from the Cameroonian leader.
Earlier, Mr Rene conveyed President Biya’s assurance to President Jonathan that Cameroon was committed to cooperating fully with Nigeria to combat all forms of terrorism and cross-border criminality.
He also assured President Jonathan that the Cameroonian government will never allow its territory to become a safe haven for terrorists or a base for the destabilization of Nigeria.
Leadership