Since last December when the Muhammadu Buhari government declared it has degraded the Boko Haram militants and that ‘technically’ it has won the war, the insurgents kept attacking Nigeria’s ‘soft targets’, by sending suicide bombers to kill Nigerians and embarking on deadly raids of militarily unguarded communities.
The most daring and deadly of the attacks was the one carried out at Dalori, near Maiduguri in Borno State last weekend.. Over 100 people were killed by the insurgents and 300 houses razed. Many of the insurgents escaped before military response came.
President Buhari says the insurgents have been pushed out of Nigeria and are no longer holding any territory, but a recent comment made by him in Addis-Ababa that the insurgents are holed up in Sambisa Forest, located within the country contradicts the assumed homelessness of the insurgents.
From the way and manner the insurgents operate, from the way they launch attacks on neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad, it can only mean they have a foothold somewhere. And it can only be in Nigeria.
Did government declare TKO too soon? Have we really won the Boko Haram war?
Let’s share your ideas.