Boko Haram Adopt New Tactics, Kill Christians, Cause Confusion – Commander, Nigerian Army 7th Division

It is no longer conquer and possess for Boko Haram like it used to be at the height of which they had total control over several local government areas under their domain, this is because of the sustained attacks which the Nigerian Army have brought against their terrorist activities. The outcome of this new regime is that members of the Boko Haram sect have changed their modus operandi, now they have adopted the guerilla type of warfare, now they just appear, leaving death and sorrow in their wake, disappear without a trace and reappear again at some new unfortunate location.

All this was contained in a telephone interview with Brig Gen Abdul Khalifa Ibrahim, the Commander 7th Division of Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, according to the General, the Boko Haram insurgents have devised a new strategy of taking out mainly Christians to sow the seeds of disunity amongst Nigerians.

The General said that a predominantly Christian village in Kwarangulum was attacked by the terrorists On December 24, 2019, the village which is 10 miles from Chibok was invaded by the Boko Haram sect on trucks and motorcycles, they reportedly killed seven people, they were also said to have burnt churches and houses.

READ ALSO: Nigeria Must Meet The Conditions To Get US Visa Ban Lifted

Recall that recently a video of the gruesome killing and beheading of Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Michika local government area of Adamawa State, by the terrorist sect went viral on social media platforms, also was the case of the young Seminarian, Michael Nnadi, who was first abducted and then killed in Kaduna. These and many more are examples of the terrorist sects “kill Christians” new strategy in recent times.

“Boko Haram used to fight like the conventional military. They attacked and took over some towns. At that time it was very easy for us to simply attack them back, fight them and retrieve the towns from them. Now, they have changed their pattern, they engage in guerrilla attacks. Vehicles can come and pass and nothing will happen especially when the vehicles are many. But on some days when one or two cars come to pass, you will see them coming out. They will stop a vehicle by the roadside, deliberately bring out the Christians in the vehicle and kill them to instigate crises across the country. But by the grace of God, we are taking steps to squash this also”.

According to Brig Gen Abdul Khalifa Ibrahim, in addition to driving the insurgents away from normal society, the Army has also been engaged in bringing order and repairs back to the affected areas; he said that Nigerian Army has so far carried out developmental activities such as repair of roads and construction of bridges bombed by the terrorists, then providing portable drinking water to the arid areas, especially to those villages worse hit by the terrorists.

“Following an assault against the Boko Haram when they were pushed out of Bama and they retreated to areas around Gwoza, where they declared as their headquarters, the Boko Haram destroyed the bridge leading to Banki Junction. They bombed the bridge, and it could not be accessed. It was the Nigerian Army engineers that reconstructed that bridge. The bridge is now used by both the military and civilians.

“More so, that road is an access road not only for Borno State. You can go through it to Gwoza as you are heading to Liman Kara and Madagali in Adamawa State, from where you can get to Michika and other places.”

“There are certain things that we soldier do that a lot of Nigerians are not aware of. I will tell you today that when you leave Maiduguri and arrive Konduga, from Konduga to Bama, our men use bomb scanners along the road to detect possibly planted bombs by the Boko Haram. This is done to avert explosions that might affect both the military and civilians. So we do that every morning to clear the road for use.

“We scan the road from Konduga to Bama to ensure that there are no bombs planted along the road. Also from Bama to Banki Junction and Pulka is taken care of by the Brigade at Bama which does the same. Then from Pulka to Gwoza is taken care of by the Battalion at Pulka and the Brigade does the same all along to Adamawa. It is when we finish that at 9:00 am daily that we allow vehicular movement along the routes. If we had not embarked on this, a lot of lives would have been lost to planted bomb attacks along the roads.

“There is what we call the civil/military relationship or civil/military cooperation in which we work along with civilians to ensure that things are working in order. It is not just an issue of military attacks, is beyond that. For instance, in a place like Gwoza, we have soldiers that teach in their schools. They assist them. We did that because there were not enough teachers in the school and if the children are left unattended they will end up becoming a nuisance to the public. That is why we introduced that. I must say that we are grateful that his Highness the Emir of Goza has expressed his appreciation of this and this is also a boost to us. Because places like Fulka have a problem of portable drinking water, although I have seen boreholes being constructed for them recently, before that, we use to take water to them using water tankers to assist them or we contract NGOs to take water to them. These are some of the things we do apart from the provision of school books. Just of recent, the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Buratai, gave the order in Kaduna that books be provided to schools. We gave out 20,000 copies of text and exercise books to schools.”