Boko Haram terrorists attack northeast Nigeria, battling army at Jidari-Polo
At least four people were killed when Boko Haram suicide bombers attacked northeast Nigeria, near Maiduguri on Thursday night. Maj.-Gen. Rogers Nicholas, the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, said in a statement that the troops fought gallantly and repelled the attack in the Jidari-Polo area of Maiduguri.
Nicholas said: “troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE, in the late hours of Thursday…successfully repelled Boko Haram terrorists’ incursion in the outskirt of Jidari Polo area of Maiduguri.
“Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE with the support of the Air Task Force, Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) quickly mobilised to the area and cleared the terrorists incursion.
“The troops are currently in pursuit of the Boko Haram terrorists and dominated the area while also patrolling the general area of Jidari”.
In Maiduguri, Bashir Garga, from the National Emergency Management Agency, said: “There were innocent citizens, four of them, who died.
“Very few people were injured and none of them seriously.”
Five suicide bombers also died trying to detonate their explosives, he added.
Police spokesman Edet Okon said the extremists attacked the Jidari Polo area on Thursday near the Federal High Court. He says security forces repelled many of the attackers in a gun battle after they marched through the neighborhood.
He says two female suicide attackers also were killed. Civilian defense forces head Muhammed Babagoni says one detonated her explosives after knocking on the door of a house.
Boko Haram logo photo/Arnold Platon via wikimedia commons
“The victims and corpses have been evacuated to the state specialist hospital in Maiduguri,” said police chief Damian Chukwu.
“Normalcy has been restored in the area.”
Other reports confirmed residents were returning home.
Nigeria has been fighting Boko Haram in northern Borno around the shores of Lake Chad, which forms the border with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Troops from all four countries, and Nigeria’s western neighbour Benin, have combined in a regional force to combat the cross-border threat from the Islamic militant group.
