Civilian population in northeast turns against Boko Haram and start helping military

NIGERIA'S military chiefs have attributed the recent success against Boko Haram to the growing amount of cooperation they are receiving from the local population who appear to have ditched the terrorist group in favour of the authorities. 

 Operational since 2009, Boko Haram has been able to train itself into a fully fledged insurgent army thanks to the support it has been receiving from local communities across northeast Nigeria. Apart from the fact that locals provided it with food and shelter, they also allowed the sect to train in its hills and offered it intelligence information.  

This enabled the terrorist sect to build up its forces while evading the Nigerian military because it had better information on the local terrain. Over the last year, Boko Haram was thus able to step up its activities, seizing large swathes of territory as the beleaguered Nigerian Army fled in the wake of its attacks.   However, since establishing its self-styled caliphate, Boko Haram has unleashed untold brutality in areas it occupies, with beheadings and torture, forcing the local population to turn against it. Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu, Nigeria's chief of air staff, said intelligence reports by the public had boosted military prowess to effectively engage the Boko Haram insurgents.

 He added that the reports had assisted the military and other stakeholders tremendously at ensuring the return of normalcy to the areas ravaged by insurgents. According to Air Vice Marshal Amosu, the cooperation received from Nigerians had contributed immensely to the current victory recorded against Boko Haram.   

“So far, we are happy and satisfied with what is going on and the cooperation from our citizens. We are getting valuable intelligence from our civilian population and we want them to keep it up because this is our country, we have no other country to go to," Air Vice Marshall Amosu added.  

He also expressed delight on steps taken by the government to fight the menace headlong, thanking the presidents of Nigeria, Niger Republic, Cameroon and Chad for their support.  According to the chief of air staff, Boko Haram's command and control operations have been substantially damaged and the military has been able to disrupt their training sessions, so they are unable to regenerate as they had done before.

SOURCE-Nigerianwatch