Boko Haram captives rescued in Nigeria

It may be too early for Nigeria to assume the Boko Haram war to have been ‘largely won’, or the insurgents to have been ‘technically defeated’, as the deadly insurgency group bared their fangs again on Christmas day in Kimba Village, Borno State.

At least 14 people were reportedly killed and several others injured by Boko Haram gunmen, vigilantes said Saturday.

Attacking astride bicycles, the jihadists invaded Kimba village around 10 pm on Friday, opening fire on residents and torching their homes.

“The gunmen killed 14 people and burnt the whole village before they fled,” Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian assisting the military in fighting Boko Haram, told AFP.

Hundreds of Kimba residents fled to Biu nearby, where they were put up in a refugee camp already brimming with people running from Boko Haram.

The attack comes just days before Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s self-imposed deadline to stamp out the group expires on December 31, and in the same week that he said Nigeria has “technically” defeated the jihadists.

Buhari took office in May vowing to end the six-year insurgency that has killed over 17,000 people and spooked much-needed investors in Africa’s largest economy and foremost oil producer.

Nigerian troops have won back territory from Boko Haram, but in response the jihadists have increasingly resorted to suicide bombers — many of them young children — to wage war for an independent Islamic state.

The militants have damaged what little infrastructure existed in the country’s underdeveloped north at a time when the government is facing a cash crunch as a result of the free-falling oil price.

According to the Global Terrorism Index, a report released by the New York-based Institute for Economics and Peace, Boko Haram “has become the most deadly terrorist group in the world”. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the six year old conflict and over two million people uprooted from their homes.

*Reported by AFP