Boko Haram Attacks Military Base, Kills Soldiers in Yobe

• Shekau’s wife feared dead in NAF air strikes

Paul Obi in Abuja

Boko Haram terrorists have attacked a military base in Sasawa town of Damaturu Local Government Area in Yobe State.
A top security source, who preferred to be unnamed, confirmed to Channels Television on Wednesday via phone that eight soldiers including an officer and a civilian were killed, while several others were injured in the attack which took place on Tuesday.

“I can authoritatively confirm to you that there was an attack at dawn yesterday at Sasawa and eight military personnel, including an officer as well as a civilian, were killed during the raid,” he said.
“The insurgents overran the military base having come with seven gun trucks and took the soldiers on guard unawares.”

The soured further revealed that several soldiers were still missing at the time of taking stock of the destruction.

The spokesman for 3 Division, Nigerian Army base in Damaturu, Colonel Kayode Ogunsanya, who also confirmed the attack, said casualty was recorded on both sides.

He said although details were still sketchy, the troops on ground were prompt as the attack was successfully repelled.

A Sasawa resident, Lawan Adamu, however, claimed that many security personnel may have been killed during the incident which he said was a coordinated attack on the military base.

He called on the military authorities to urgently make a move to bust the terrorists’ hideouts, saying they are not far from the town.

Sasawa is a rural community located in the northern part of Damaturu and has remained without the services of the mobile communication networks vandalised by the insurgents for over five years.

The area was long under the control of the insurgents before it was recaptured by the security forces who established a base in the town since it was regained.

The base has continued to experienced attack by the insurgents as Tuesday’s attack was the fourth in the year 2017.
Meanwhile, following intense bombing of Boko Haram locations in the North-east by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), indications emerged yesterday that the wife of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, Mallama Fitdasi, might have been killed by air strikes.

According to NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanaya, “human intelligence indicates that the wife of the Boko Haram group, Mallama Fitdasi, appeared to have been killed in recent successful air strikes on Durwawa settlement on the outskirts of Urga, near Konduga.

“Fitdasi was reported to have been representing her husband in a coordinating meeting with other terrorists at the location of the air strikes.

“It might be recalled that the NAF had reported the successful aerial attack of a large number of Boko Haram at Durwawa on 19 October 2017.”

Adesanya explained that “battle damage assessment had indeed revealed that the aerial attack set off a fire, causing damage to the Boko Haram structures within the settlement and neutralised most of the terrorists with a few of them fleeing the location.

“Efforts are ongoing to confirm the reported killing of Shekau’s wife, alongside other terrorists,” he said.