** 24-hour curfew in Maiduguri as military intensifies raid

May 18, 2013 | 5:24 pm


KANO – The military on Saturday imposed a 24-hour curfew in parts of a northeastern city as it pressed on with a campaign against Boko Haram Islamists that has sent residents fleeing the region.

Locals in a remote insurgent stronghold near the border with Cameroon have begun fleeing their homes after military fighter jets and helicopters carried out air strikes on Islamist camps.
Nigeria launched the sweeping operation against Boko Haram this week, deploying several thousand troops across three states where President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency after the Islamists seized territory and chased out the government.

The group, which has said it is fighting to create an Islamic Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, has carried outscores of attacks in recent years, and has become emboldened and better armed in recent months.

The military said dozens of insurgents have been killed in the offensive targeting all three states put under emergency decree, including Adamawa and Yobe, but Boko Haram’s traditional base of Borno is expected to see the most bloodshed.

Borno state military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa in a statement listed 12 neighbourhoods in the city of Maiduguri where a “24-hour curfew” was being imposed.

In a separate release, the military said it had arrested 65 suspected Boko Haram members who were trying toenter Maiduguri after fleeing aerial bombardments elsewhere.

In the Marte district of Borno,some residents were fleeing east towards a town on the Cameroon border, 42 kilometres away (26 miles).

“It has been scary in the pastthree days,” said Buba Yawuri, whose home is in the town of Kwalaram in Marte but who has fled to the border town Gomboru Ngala.

“Fighter jets and helicopters kept hovering in the sky and we kept hearing huge explosions from afar,” he told AFP.

He said that as the air assaults began, the security forces told all residents to stay indoors, cutting off his family’s access to food and water.

“I couldn’t hold on any longer. I took the bush path”and reached Gomboru Ngala early Saturday, he said.
Shafi’u Breima, a resident of Gomboru Ngala, told AFP thatthe border town is receiving a continuous flow of people arriving from Marte and neighbouring areas.

The phone network in Borno state has all but collapsed since the emergency measures were imposed but residents in Gomboru Ngala use phone services from Cameroon and have been sporadically reachable.

The remote, thinly populated region has porous borders where criminal groups and weapons have flowed freely for years.

The military has sealed previously unguarded crossings to block Boko Haram fighters from fleeing during the offensive.
The military campaign could prove to be the biggest ever against Boko Haram and is believed to be the first time Nigeria has carried out air strikes within its own territory in more than 25 years.

Aerial support was believed to have been used against rioters in the north in the early 1980s.

Many have warned that there is a risk of high civilian deaths and Nigeria’s military has been accused of massive rights violations in the past, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that he was “deeply concerned about thefighting in northeastern Nigeria” and urged the security forces to “apply disciplined use of force in all operations.”

There are also doubts as to whether the insurgency can be crushed by force, amid concern that the militants will scatter and re-emerge when the offensive eases.

Nigeria has been urged by various camps to tackle the root social causes of the conflict, including acute poverty and excessive government corruption which has helped radicalise many young Muslims in the north.

The conflict is estimated to have cost 3,600 lives since 2009, including killings by the security forces

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/05/boko-haram-24-hour-curfew-in-maiduguri-as-military-intensifies-raid/

Are they not interested in the fictitious 72 virgins any more?

ebucha: Are they not interested in the fictitious 72 virgins any more?

Wherey

Boko Idiots!!

the military
said it had arrested 65 suspected
Boko Haram members who were
trying toenter Maiduguri after
fleeing aerial bombardments
elsewhere.

so these people will rather commit suicide than to die!

Oh what an anti-Patient Jonathan they are!

hahahahahahaahaahaha....so these small small boys are weak...


see as dem dey run like bush pig

Boko are rams

Hopely it will not affect innocent lives

Copy and paste jounalist...

Omo see race. Una no want virgin again abi una don run out of virgin in heaven. Lai lai dat one no go happen una MUST finish dis war. Na now dis war film come dey sweet me after I go buy popcorn credit make I relax enjoy de only season film Wey come out from naija na him una wan run. Dat one no go happen abeg next episode joor!!!

They should thank their stars JTF didn't present only 6.5 of them alive and the rest dead.

The jtf should carry on. We need material support from isreal and america

fire on the mountain........!!!! this is what i call "when chicken mess.........."

I'm just thinking that if civillians could flee via a bush path to safety, the insurgents may well do same. This is guerilla warfare, the enemy wears no uniforms. Kudos to the military tho.

So these kids are weaklins afta all? Hey Boys, Finish dem make i put una beer 4 freezer jare

I no like the way dem dey arrest them o. Please eliminate them. We don't want these murderers in our prisons

Have they exhausted the virgins in Islamic heaven?

dem nor get were dem dey run dey go ooo

Acidosis: hahahahahahaahaahaha....so these small small boys are weak...


see as dem dey run like bush pig

They should come out na, God punish dam. Pls no northern should complain ooo,becos wen they were kill pipo, the northerns kept quite.GEJ na man u be,

Why were they running? Is d jihad over? Or shortage of virgins in their 'heaven'?
Seriously, JTF shld stop arresting them, its a waste of time. Js do d clearing n leveling and come back.

Singing in a music tone
They don dey go one by one
They don dey go one by one
They don dey go one by one
Won ti e le.
Nonsence
I can hear boko haram regreting saying
Shebi we for accept amnesty

[size=18pt]Pictures Please![/size]

Smoke them out,
Hunt them down
and Level the place.

Up Nigeria Military

No arrest please, gun them down. That was the order from Oga at the top

mitey: [size=16pt]Pictures Please[/size]

pictures? I dont wan to ask if u are okay.
This is politics section, not cartoon.
U wan someone to snap a battle n post for u? D person no value e life abi?

Sixty what? Why are they being arrested? Why werent they shot instantly? They want to fill up the prisons again and still organise a jail break. God help us

ebucha: Are they not interested in the fictitious 72 virgins any more?

Ħw does dis shape d topic on d positive side?
Enough of dis 72 whatever.something more pleasing to d eyes n mind would b more appreciated.
@d topic.in as much as I support dis guyz on d field to be ferrocious in dealing with dis misguided entities,I imploy dem to kindly trade wit care so as to avoid high civilian casualities.One Nigeria!