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Boko Haram seizes key military base on Nigeria border Boko Haram seizes key military base on Nigeria border
(about 1 hour later)
Fleeing civilians say Boko Haram extremists have overpowered a multinational military force and seized their key base on Nigeria’s border with Chad. Boko Haram extremists have overpowered a multinational military force and seized its key base on Nigeria’s border with Chad, according to residents who escaped in canoes.
Nigerians who escaped by canoe from Baga town to Chad say many soldiers and civilians were killed while others drowned trying to escape hundreds of insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed, while others drowned in Lake Chad, Nigerians taking refuge in a Chadian village said in phone calls on Sunday night. They said insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic assault rifles and threw explosives.
They say the troops from Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger fought valiantly on Saturday until they ran out of ammunition and fled, some removing their uniforms. “They came in their hundreds driving several Hilux patrol vehicles, trucks and some were on motorcycles and immediately began to throw explosives and bombs,” fisherman Audu Labbo said.
Baga resident Audu Labbo said on Sunday night by telephone from Chad that many buildings and parts of the military base were razed. He and others reached by phone Sunday night said the troops from Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger fought on Saturday until they ran out of ammunition. Details on the attack were slow getting out of the remote area.
The insurgency has killed over 10,000 people this year, according to a count by the Council on Foreign Relations in November. It is the gravest threat to Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, and a headache for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of an election on 14 February where he is being challenged by opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler seen as tough on security. Some soldiers removed their uniforms and threw away their rifles, Labbo said.
After beginning their fight for an Islamic state five years ago in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the militants have radiated outwards into porous border areas, threatening Nigeria’s neighbours around the Lake Chad basin. A senior security officer in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, confirmed that the military base at Baga was under the control of the insurgents. He said the multinational force fled because it received no reinforcements despite holding out for several hours.
In northern Cameroon at least 15 people died in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on a bus, officials said on Saturday. There are fears the extremists could use Baga as a base to attack Maiduguri, 125 miles to the south-west.
Cameroon’s army has been trying to dislodge the Islamists from its far north region with the help of air strikes. Labbo said the insurgents’ bombs and grenades set alight buildings. Businesses, government offices, homes and part of the military base were burned to the ground.
The Nigerian interior minister, Hassoumi Massaoudou, said last month that his country was ready to negotiate with Boko Haram, but did not even know who in the group to talk to. Boko Haram has been regionalising the conflict with recent attacks on Chadian villages and a military base.
Baga came into the international spotlight early in 2013 when dozens of people, mostly civilians, were killed in fighting between the multinational force and Boko Haram. Many were burned alive in their thatched houses. Thousands of people have died and 1.6 million have been driven from their homes in the five-year-old uprising.
The militants have also kidnapped hundreds of mostly young people in the past year.