The atmosphere in Maiduguri, the troubled capital of Borno State, was electric as thousands of residents went into wild jubilation following the defeat of the Boko Haram gunmen by soldiers of the Nigerian army in Konduga town, some 35km away. Abdulkareem Haruna reports 

Though the insurgents had up till Friday sustained attacks on Konduga, in their ultraconservative resilience to conquer the town, not less than 1,000 of their members were reportedly killed in the ongoing face-off, while the army continues to haul back to the barracks, caches of arms and ammunition recovered.

Before then, there had been palpable fears amongst residents who had been going to bed with both eyes opened, worrying that they could be attacked by the terrorists any moment soon.

After the fall of major towns like Gwoza, Bama, Gamboru-Ngala and Dhimankara in the past weeks, Maiduguri the capital city became the next possible target of the insurgents.

But before the terrorists would have their way into Maiduguri, they needed to capture one major town near it – Konduga. It is located on the southeast of the state capital on the road to Bama and Gwoza.

The Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau had in his last video message boasted of controlling most of the seized town even as one of his lieutenants, Abu Zinnira, had weeks later, boasted that more major towns and villages would be conquered by his group until Maiduguri falls unto their hands.

Having suffered series of embarrassing outings when its troops had to flee their posts as the rampaging terrorists came attacking and seizing a number of towns as wells as sacking defenseless residents, the army had for once decided to put its acts together to forestall any possible attack on Maiduguri that would cause it to fall under the control of the Boko Haram.

“If Maiduguri should fall, that would be the end of the entire northeast,” said a military officer, whose name cannot be mentioned due to military rules that enforce ban on unassigned officers speaking to the media.

“Maiduguri, whether we like it or not is the heartbeat of the northeast, and we know the target of the terrorists was to capture it just like they did in Bama, Gwoza and the rest; and by doing so, many other surrounding towns and villages may have been weakened, because everyone would be on the run. That was why we decided to do all that is necessary to avert such dreadful occurrence,” said the officer.

While the soldiers continued to hold their forte in Konduga after they had been chased out of Bama, Boko Haram gunmen sustained their offensive campaigns that inched them closer up to Kawuri, a town about 10km south of Konduga.

“We understood their tactics now, so we refused to advance towards Bama because by doing that we would have fallen into their ambush-traps which they had been planning for us”, said the soldier who spoke earlier.

LEADERSHIP Sunday was reliably informed that over 500 diehard soldiers of the Nigerian Army were deployed to Konduga with a special order to forestall all attempts of the insurgents to advance towards Maiduguri.

It was gathered that the acting General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Brigadier General Ibrahim, had personally maintained a direct communication link with the troops in Konduga, which had kept the soldiers in “high morale and combat spirit”. The soldiers also employed the services of some of the courageous operatives of the Civilian- JTF who functioned as scouts while the soldiers waited patiently in ambush. For effective tackling of the situation in Konduga, the 7 Division deployed the troops there to be commanded by a ranked Colonel and three crack Lieutenant Colonels of the Nigeria Army, who also continued to ensure that the troops conquered all perceived fears of the Boko Haram.

Some of the operatives of the Civilian- JTF were armed with binoculars provided by the soldiers and were able to climb elevated structures and installations from where they were able to observe the movement of the terrorists and pass credible information to the soldiers.

With that established synergy between the civilian vigilante and the soldiers, every movement of the advancing Boko Haram terrorists were carefully taken into consideration until they eventually arrived inside Konduga.

“They had been converging at a village near Kawuri; and most of them arrived from north, west and east of Konduga, but the commander of the soldiers said everyone should patiently wait for them to begin advancing”, said a member of the Civilian- JTF who is conversant with such military operation.

LEADERSHIP Sunday was reliably informed that in order not to create a situation of panic, the Commanders of the troops in Konduga had gathered all residents of the village and informed them about the impending attacks, and why they should not panic.

“The commanders asked us to reach out to residents of Konduga, and then directed everyone to move to one side of the town, where they believed the battle would not get to immediately so that innocent civilians are not hurt,” Abbas said.

“Our saving grace was that we had intelligence report two days to the Friday attack indicating that the insurgents would be attack Konduga with the intention of seizing and using the town to launch a major offensive on Maiduguri. We waited patiently for the day and as God will have it, they came as expected”, said one of the soldiers that took part in the Konduga battle.

When they came, in their usual manner, they sent few of their gunmen, including a car suicide bomber to hit at one of the military posts in order to create some kind of diversion, but unknown to them, the troops already had the town encircled.

“As the advance team of the insurgents entered and were firing, our men engaged them; the larger batch of the troops who might have no idea of what was going on inside the town, waited some moments before they drove in a large convoy of trucks and armoured tanks right into our trap. And with them in the centre and ourselves surrounding them, what happened thereafter is now history.

“We counted over 200 of their dead bodies, including one of them that was strapped ready to carry out suicide bombing. We also shot dead their cameraman and recovered his stupid camera. It was a big victory for our soldiers who were disciplined and gallant all through the operation”.

“It was what we can call ‘operation totality’, because we didn’t record one single casualty on our side and we ensured that not a single one of them escaped,” said the top soldier, who wouldn’t want to be named in this report.

The officer, added that the Boko Haram kingpin, that led the Konduga operation was recognised as his features fit the description given by the escaped retired soldier that was abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists some time last month.

“The Amir was alive for some hours before he later died due to serious injuries he sustained, but he was heavily bearded, and huge, just like that escaped old soldier described to the security intelligence operatives while he was being debriefed. But the big news is that he is dead because we gathered he was one of the deadliest leaders in the sect,” the very reliable source gathered.

The all-time defeat that the Boko Haram suffered in Konduga, was a major setback for the insurgents who have stubbornly continued to carry out reprisal attacks on Konduga in a futile attempt to retake the town and perhaps reclaim their obviously waning ‘glory’.

After the Friday encounter, the terrorists remobilised for another onslaught on Konduga town, in spite of the heavy presence of the already charged army there.

On Tuesday night, the insurgents stormed Konduga again, but they were effectively engaged by the soldiers and this time around, killing well over 250 of them and retrieving some cache of arms – mostly those seized earlier from the army in Monguno, Bama, Damboa and Gwoza areas.

“The Tuesday night attack was expected and the soldiers had really mobilised for another ambush attack on the Boko Haram members who divided themselves into three groups”, said Bashir.

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that with the killing of the Amir in Konduga on Friday September 12, Boko Haram appeared to be confused as they continued to send for reinforcements from different camps to storm Konduga.

“On Wednesday morning, some of the reinforcements were mobilised from around Yobe axis with the intention of crossing over to Konduga but were intercepted by soldiers who acted on a tip off confronted them with yet another ambush attack that got about 150 of them killed in Ngamdu village,” the Civilian-JTF chieftain, Bashir said.

At Ngamdu, the military also recovered one Shell Car Armoured tank, several Hilux vehicles mounted with Anti Aircraft and many other ammunitions from the Boko Haram sect. He added that such successful operations had been recorded in the last nine days. They caused the death of many of the insurgents.

Some of the residents of Konduga who managed to arrive Maiduguri were full of praises for the soldiers whom they said had in a rare show of gallantry, succeeded in dealing the Boko Haram a defeating blow.

A resident of the area said that, the insurgents again attempted to attack Konduga on two directions with over 500 fighters while the military fought and defended the town killing unconfirmed numbers of the insurgents.

Despite these defeats, the terrorists did not give up, as they still mobilised again to take yet another attack on Konduga on Wednesday night of which the military still effectively engaged them by killing 65 of them, while others had to abandon their arms and vehicles and fled with various degrees of injuries.

A top SSS official in Maiduguri who confirmed the Wednesday bout to LEADERSHIP Sunday said “more arms and ammunitions as well as vehicles were recovered, and the soldiers are still giving some of the fleeing terrorists a chase”.

Malam Abu’ar Yale, a local farmer said “during the second attack on Konduga, the terrorists came in large number of about 500 but they were successfully repelled by the troops of the Nigerian Army killing scores of them and recovered armoured tanker, vehicles, motorcycles among others.

A bus driver Mallam Isa Garba told journalists that on their way from Damaturu to Maiduguri the previous morning when they were stopped by the military and directed to make u-turn back to Damaturu because the road ahead was under attack.

“But when we were later allowed to proceed with our journey to Maiduguri, we saw several corpses up to about 100, lying on either sides of the road,” said the driver.

Though one would not say it is ‘uhuru’ yet for the soldiers, as the available capacity of the Boko Haram terrorists cannot be under rated, but the insurgents would certainly be leaking their wounds due to the huge losses they may have suffered in the last ten days.

Many Nigerians, especially the residents of Maiduguri have rekindled their respect and admiration for the Nigerian soldiers, even as some said this enviable feat would not have been possible had some of the foot soldiers not decried they alleged as “their being sent to Boko Haram slaughter with faulty weapons.”

 

SOURCE: http://leadership.ng/news/384717/day-military-dealt-blow-insurgents-konduga

hmmm. as in ehn.. very impressive..
how many dem come be sef? cos it would b relieving to know 5 percent or 10 percent of the total number of terrorists died that day

kilokeys: hmmm. as in ehn.. very impressive..
how many dem come be sef? cos it would b relieving to know 5 percent or 10 percent of the total number of terrorists died that day

My dear brother, the "delete" operation continues until these demons are completely wiped out from the surface of the Earth!

God bless our Armed Forces!

This explains why BH and their indefatigable leader Shecow have been very quiet lately,so untypical of them...they sure must be licking their wounds,meanwhile the NA and the CJTF should continue to hold their forte,and reinforce their grounds with solid infantry and mechanized firepower should they decide to go on the offensive to clear remnants of those irritants once and for all. The best days of the terrorist sect are gradually over,but the war is far from over...we shall surely overcome.

Dis BH animals are just too much,I wonder how they manage to recruit such amount of animals into such devilish activities... Too many gullible Nigerians in the north...


Going by the rate at which the Nigeria army is bringing them down, someday, there will be no space to bury the dead in the North..

i was eager to hear the word nigeria airforce but i didnt .any way kudos to our soldiers.

Congrats my military halleluyah; boiz; well done; y'all done so well. Onward 2geda; can't wait to join u guyz; flush out this demons...

Well written article...Kill them all boys

this article sweet my belle die...

Kudos to our gallant military men; continue re-uniting these bastards with their virgins in heaven!

We are seeing the end of book haram very soon

Tears of joy was flowing trough my eyes as I was reading this article! Where did NA kept these type of soldiers that operated in Konduga all this while? If NA had been like this, US and Britain wouldnt have had mouth to call our indifatigable NA "slow learner"

This' the kind of report we wanna read. They should kill them all. Thanks to SaharaReporters who humiliated the Nigerian Military before the world. If not for the humiliation [embarrassment], they would've still been retreating. Thanks once again!

We want the general election to be conducted peacefully in that area come 2015 and PDP sees what becomes of them!

Its only a goat that will behave the way they behaved..your so called boss(shekau) is hiding in the bush enjoying all the luxuries,why he pushes you fools to go and die..They ve seen that this place is a no go area,and they stil tried pushing in..wondering if this people were given birth to just the way normal thinking humans were given birth to..it shows they don't have anyone to cry for them when they are gone,I gess they are made up of association of bastards.kudos to the NA..Sooner bh will be story for the gods,just as they did to maitasine in the 80s..

This is the kind of news you should use to wake Nigerians up...Proud of the NA and CJTF

donphilopus: This' the kind of report we wanna read. They should kill them all. Thanks to SaharaReporters who humiliated the Nigerian Military before the world. If not for the humiliation [embarrassment], they would've still been retreating. Thanks once again!

hehehe these APC guys are funny, so now it's thanks to "Sahara reporters" Were it the other way round, GEJ would have been the "clueless" one.

Kudos to our brave soldiers and the civilian JTF.

Nigeria will definitely win this war against terror!

Shekau and his evil minions will surely meet their imaginary virgins in Hell.

Quite heartwarming news
...


Bravo
...our Gallant Soldiers!!!

Correct news this Sunday morning, In this gallant troops I trust.

NA, sending Bh to romance soil science and kiss 72 virgin okpekesis since 14 market days ago.

I pause, I replay again kill them all the modafuckers, will discuss human right later

So happy for our military and also a big thank you to the CJTF who have shown their hate for terrorism and have decided to help fight these virgin hunters. Last week someone commented that y is our military not offensive. As u can now see we lose some of our gallant men to BH ambush when we tried attack BH. But now we have to sit down and with for them to come to us and our military will go on a killing spree. also note that their's no civilian casualty in some of our military recent operations. Long Live N.A, God Bless Nigeria

i kept smilling while reading this article............. More grease to ur elbow NA

Nigeria Army was able to defend konduga and kill as many terrorist as they did because of the intelligence gathered and the moral instil into them by their supportive commander. Our Army needs to fight more with the mind that with physical strength and our people should support the Army with intelligence gathering.
kudos to the Nigeria Army

Front Page mod!!!!!!!! our gallant soldiers need some praises!!!!

The Amir was alive for some hours before he later died due to serious injuries he sustained, but he was heavily bearded, and huge, just like that escaped old soldier described to the security intelligence operatives while he was being debriefed. But the big news is that he is dead because we gathered he was one of the deadliest leaders in the sect,” the very reliable source gathered.

It must be this guy in blue below . . . . . [size=14pt]Anyone noticed how most of them wore a colour code of blue[/size] . . . .

www.nairaland.com/attachments/1719894_4_jpgd0096ec6c83575373e3a21d129ff8fef

Couldn't be more happier. Defensive approach and intelligent gathering were the two proven factors that had worked so far. With the level morale that is gradually cripping the NA, more of these rag tags will definitely fall.