Nigerian soldiers today sustained their string of victories against members of the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram by recapturing the town of Buni Yadi in Borno State.
Soldiers liberated the town this afternoon, according to a statement by Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, the army’s acting director of public relations. The soldiers’ recapture of the town is a significant blow on Boko Haram fighters who have been under attack on several fronts by a multi-national force comprising soldiers from Chad, Niger Republic and Nigeria. Buni Yadi is the headquarters of the Gujba local government area.
The army stated that they also wrested Buni Gari, a town in Yobe State, from the control of Islamist insurgents.
The army spokesman stated that Nigerian soldiers “encountered little resistance as the insurgents were on the run” during the operation to recapture the towns. “Cordon and search and mopping up operations are ongoing in these areas,” he said. He added that Nigerian troops continued to “recover the few areas remaining in the hands of [the] terrorists.”
After two years of adopting a defensive stance against advancing Islamist fighters that captured numerous towns in the three northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, Nigerian troops have for the past two weeks been launching decisive offensive operations that have dislodged Islamist insurgents from some of the key towns they had controlled over the last year.