For the second time in as many weeks, Nigerian troops today routed Boko Haram insurgents at Konduga, Borno State. Two security sources told SaharaReporters that the soldiers killed hundreds of the Islamist insurgents who were attempting to surge towards Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
Citing high-level security sources at Defense Headquarters in Abuja and also in Maiduguri, SaharaReporters had disclosed that the insurgents were planning a daring military campaign to seize the Borno State capital.
The latest fight between soldiers and insurgents began last night and lasted till the early hours of today, one of our military sources disclosed.
The Islamist militants were dealt a decisive defeat after they mobilized a huge number of fighters in a desperate attempt to reverse an earlier crushing blow they suffered last week at the hands of well-armed and determined Nigerian troops. Last week’s deadly fiasco for the terrorist group came after several weeks in which Boko Haram fighters dominated Nigerian soldiers in battle and took several major towns in Borno and Adamawa States.
“After our troops based in Konduga beat them [Boko Haram insurgents] last week, they regrouped and came back yesterday in greater force, but our troops made them pay again,” one senior military source told SaharaReporters.
A resident of Konduga told SaharaReporters that at least 150 militants died in the latest battle in Konduga. A military source disclosed that the troops sustained no casualties at all, adding that six soldiers were injured. He added that the injured soldiers had been taken to the clinic at Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri for treatment.
But even as the insurgents were being pummeled in Konduga, they were installing their emirs in Gwoza, Damboa and Bama, three major towns they had seized in previous encounters with the military. In Bama, the insurgent group installed a notorious Boko Haram commander named Muhammed Danjuma as the “Emir”. The appointee was formerly the district head of Ngurosoye, a smaller town near Bama.
Despite today’s triumph by Nigerian troops over insurgent fighters in Konduga, a security source told SaharaReporters that he believes the sect had not given up on plans to attack Maiduguri. He said intelligence reports available to the military revealed that the sect’s fighters continued to converge at Gajigana, about 15 miles from Maiduguri. Gajigana is located along the Maiduguri/Monguno Road. He added that sect’s fighters had also been seen massing around Mafa, which is about 11 miles from Maiduguri.