Nigerian soldiers claim to have killed 50 insurgents

The Nigerian Army has claimed that it killed 50 members of Boko Haram on Tuesday as the sect attempted to enter Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The soldiers from the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, repelled the expansionist move of the insurgents who attempted to capture Konduga, the closest town to Maiduguri from the eastern axis.

Konduga is about 60 kilometres from Maiduguri, and the insurgents have tried over five times to capture it without success in the last five months.

Nigerian Punch Newspaper which also reported the story, said that, a leader of the youth vigilante group, who spoke anonymously, claimed that the insurgents were repelled in Konduga by a joint team of the military and youth vigilante group, with the sect losing many of their men.

He said the battle raged for about three hours from 10.30pm (Monday) to about 1am on Tuesday.

The source, who spoke on the telephone, said, “Nobody can tell you the exact number of the insurgents killed but we have killed many of them, while others escaped with bullets wounds.”

He added that “scores of insurgents met their waterloo when they attempted to attack Konduga town on Monday,” adding that “the insurgents came in Hilux vehicles and motorcycles.”

The youth vigilante members also told our correspondent that it was not however a success story in another encounter with the terrorists’ group, lamenting that an attempt to dislodge them from Damasak captured a week ago was not successful.

He said, “In an attempt to reclaim Damasak, a soldier and member of the Civilian JTF were killed in an ambush.”

The source, who spoke on Tuesday afternoon, said, “Four members of the Civilian JTF are still missing.”