Boko Haram was on Sunday blamed for an attack
on motorists in northeast Nigeria which left one
person dead and underlined the Islamist group’s
continuing security threat to civilians.
Gunmen on Saturday opened fire on a convoy of
vehicles travelling to the Borno state capital,
Maiduguri, from the garrison town of Monguno, 140
kilometres (about 85 miles) to the northeast.
“They shot dead a driver and injured two women
and a child travelling with him,” said bus driver
Kabir Hassan, who arrived at the scene shortly after
the attack.
The victims were heading to Maiduguri to celebrate
the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha on Monday and
the vehicles included traders in a pick-up truck
packed with rams for the annual ritual sacrifice.
The traders abandoned their animals when the
shooting started and the rams were seized by the
rebels, said driver Abba Gana, who gave a similar
toll of death and injuries.
A car abandoned by fleeing travellers was torched
in the attack and the wounded taken to a hospital
in Maiduguri for treatment, Hassan and Gana said.
– Military escorts –
The scene of the attack — Kulukawuya village, 50
kilometres from Maiduguri — is on a strategic trade
route linking the city to Gamboru on the border with
Cameroon.
In the past two years Boko Haram has carried out
near daily deadly attacks on motorists on the
highway, making the road unsafe for travellers and
forcing the military to later close the road.
But it was declared open again in July and hailed
as an indication of military success in pushing the
insurgents into the semi-desert wilderness of the
Borno countryside.
Nevertheless, passenger vehicles and trucks laden
with goods still typically drive with a military escort
in case of sporadic attacks.
– Regional ops –
Nigeria and a regional military coalition involving its
neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger has put
pressure on the Islamic State group affiliate, whose
insurgency has killed at least 20,000 since 2009.
Supply lines for fuel, food and weapons have been
cut, forcing remaining fighters to launch attacks on
unaccompanied vehicles on the road and remote
villages from their hideouts in the bush.
Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF)
spokesman Colonel Muhammad Dole said in a
statement on Saturday that recent air strikes had hit
12 known Boko Haram camps, which had “greatly
shattered their cohesion”.
There was no independent verification of the claim
but Dole said blockade of supply routes and arrests
of suspected Boko Haram quartermasters had
caused the group “serious hardships”.
Four Boko Haram fighters suspected of having
attacked an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp
in the Diffa area of eastern Niger were killed and
two others arrested, he added.
But two soldiers were killed and six others wounded
in a “clearing operation” after air strikes at Baroua
village. The injured were taken to Niger’s capital,
Niamey, for treatment, he said.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/eid-al-adha-boko-haram-opens-fire-travelers/

hmmm

I thought boko haram was already technically defeated :\

sporadic attacks are inevitable by boko haram in many years to come in as much as Almajiris still roam the streets in beg of alms...the north must emulate the south in human capital development order than misleading their youths on how to recite Quoran and beg for alms which makes them easier to be recruited by terrorist


but for their selfish political gains they won't want them to be liberated