Troops, Boko Haram Resume Fight in Konduga

The battle to return the north eastern region of Nigeria back to normalcy saw its hottest battle on Friday in Konduga. Information indicates that both the Nigerian military and the Jihadist group sustained heavy casualty in the battle to regain the town. Available information suggests the Jihadist group launched a night attack on Konduga town on Thursday, but they were surprised by a more patriotic Nigerian force than they were used to.  A heated battle between the Nigerian forces and the Jihadist group ensued – resulting in the loss of lives from both camps in significant numbers.

The Jihadist group who were thought to have been repelled by the superior fire power of the Nigerian forces on Thursday were said to have regrouped on Friday morning to launch an even stiffer attack on the same town. The Nigerian soldier were reportedly caught unexpected.

Details of the Friday morning attack remain sketchy. But cursory inquiry into the clash revealed that the Jihadist group returned to Konduga on Friday at minutes after 8am in a large convoy of 4×4 pickup trucks [Hilux] along with an armored tank.

A top military officer station in Borno had this to say concerning the operation of Friday morning, “many of them were killed and I believe half of those that escape ran with bullet injuries. We lost some soldiers on Thursday night, but our troops had been able to gun down many of them and repelled the attacks. I don’t have much detail on the Friday morning attack yet”.

Meanwhile, soldiers of the 7 Division had on Thursday repelled what could have been a major terrorists’ attack on Benesheik town of Borno state 70km away from Maiduguri.

The insurgents, according to witnesses account, had barricaded the Kano-Maiduguri highway near Benisheik town with the deadly intent of attacking early morning commuters plying the road, but soldiers patrolling the highway came on time to engage them in a shootout.

Hussaini Musa, a traveller who was driving along the highway told journalists that  he saw five corpses dumped by the roadside and he asked questions, some of the witnesses in Benisheik said they were slain Boko Haram insurgents.

“From what I leant, soldiers from the outskirt of Beneshiek and others from Auno intervened and averted what would have been a major onslaught,” he said.