Suspected Boko Haram militants armed with explosives attacked Bama, a troubled spot in Nigeria’s northeast on Wednesday, sparking a battle with soldiers that killed a large number of insurgents, the military said.
Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that the early morning attack in the town of Bama may have also included multiple suicide blasts.
Bama is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, which is the stronghold of the Islamist rebels who have killed thousands during a four-and-half year insurgency.
“The attackers came from various locations,” Olukolade said. “We believe that there were suicide bombers among them. They used bombs during the operation (and) attacked one of our tanks.”
He said “many” of the attackers were killed when troops repelled the raid, but could not offer a specific figure or comment on casualties among civilians or the security forces.
The bloody clash came a day after presidential spokesman, Dr. Doyin Okupe claimed the army was ‘on top of the situation’ and could not be defeated by the rag-tag militants of Boko Haram. His statement ran contrary to the submission of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state, who said the Boko Haram militants appeared to better armed and better motivated than Nigerian soldiers, on ground in his state.
The mobile phone network in Borno is patchy and calls to Bama area residents were not going through on Wednesday, to confirm today’s development, AFP reported.
A police spokesman said details about the attack had been difficult to obtain because of the poor phone network.
More than 200 people have been killed in 2014 in Borno state alone.
In the village of Izghe on Saturday suspected Boko Haram gunmen went door-to-door, dragging residents outside before slaughtering them.
Borno’s Governor Kashim Shettima said 106 people were killed in Izghe and declared that the military cannot defeat the insurgents unless more troops and military hardware are deployed to the northeast immediately.
The region has been under a state of emergency since May, when the military launched a major offensive to quash the uprising, but the security forces have struggled to contain the violence, which has affected both remote town and state capitals.