News Update: Deadly air strikes on Boko Haram strongholds in all three states… all borders have been sealed!

Nigeria’s military has today attacked Boko Haram strongholds across the northeast, launching deadly air strikes on insurgent camps, the military said, while residents reported that forces had deployed in border areas to block the militants from fleeing.

Several thousand soldiers have spread across three northeastern states where President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency after Boko Haram seized territory and declared war against the government.

Nigerian soldier, part of the “Operation Flush” patrolling in the remote northeast town of Baga, Borno State.
“There have been air strikes since Wednesday,” defence spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade told journalists, specifying that they were continuing today.

“Every one of their strongholds is under attack,” he said, adding that he believed “there are a lot of casualties,” without providing a figure.

The offensive is ongoing in all three states put under emergency decree, including Adamawa and Yobe, but Borno state is expected to see the most intense fighting.

The operation is the largest against Boko Haram since 2009, when soldiers flooded Borno’s capital Maiduguri, killing more than 800 people and forcing the insurgents underground for a year.

In the town of Gamburu Ngala on the border with Cameroon in northern Borno, residents said that heavily armed troops and tanks arrived on Wednesday, sealing off previously unmanned border posts.

Northeast Nigeria, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency, has porous borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger, with criminal groups and militants flowing freely between the countries.

“Since January the border posts have been abandoned…but now these posts have been taken over by soldiers,” said resident Haruna Garba.