Military kills 392 bandits, as Boko Haram suffer more losses

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

– [ ] The Nigerian military yesterday said its troops Of Operation Katsina, killed 392 bandits since the commencement of its operations on 13th May, 2020.

This is as the military revealed that the Boko Haram terrorists operating in the north easts suffer more losses, owing to the fire power of the troops.

Speaking yesterday at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, while giving update on the military operations in the country, Major General, John Enenche,
Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters, said the bandits were killed through land and air offensives.

He added that the bandits and other criminal elements were seriously degraded in the two zones.

“Consequently, those bandits that escaped resorted to reprisal attacks on civilian targets. However, Operation ACCORD was preemptively planned by the High Command of the Armed Forces of Nigeria to handle this situation. In this regard, the Chief of Defence Staff ordered the commencement of Operation ACCORD from 1 June 2020.

“Let me state here that, Operation ACCORD is a joint operation involving the Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies. It is a concomitant operation by all the theatres of operations in the North West and North Central regions of the Country targeted at tackling banditry and other criminal activities. In this regard, all identified hideouts and hibernations of the enemies will be decively cleared through land and air combat actions.”

He said this can easily be achieved through provision of credible information that can translate to actionable intelligence.

“Thus, the general public is hereby requested to avail the various operational out fits in their locations with this highly desirable information, to enable the Nigerian Military and other security agencies achieve the set objective.”

Meanwhile, Enenche said that the Armed Forces and other security agencies have been on the offensive against the terrorists through the Land and Air components of Operation Lafiya Dole.

“The significant feats achieved in this theatre include deletion of key BHT/ISWAP commanders, destruction of their logistics bases and cutting off their supply routes. Equally, their camps have been in disarray as a result of the killing of some of their key commanders through airstrikes and artillery bombardments on their identified locations. This is additional to the aggressive mobile clearance operations and air interdictions. Thus, the terrorists now carry out attacks in depleted strength on soft targets which is being effectively countered by the gallant troops of Operation Lafiya Dole.”