Boko Haram Video Shows Terrorists’ Activities in Sambisa Forest
A new video reportedly released by Boko Haram, the terror group making life difficult for the people of the North-east of the country, is in circulation, showing renewed activities of the terrorists in the Sambisa Forest.
The sect vowed in the video to sustain the battle with the Nigeria.
According to an online news portal, The Cable, the 29-minute video believed to have been shot in Sambisa forest, showed the terrorists going about their normal business.
Some of them were seen in a local bakery, a few on their farmlands, while others engaged in trading activities.
Items such as foodstuff, books, cement, automobile spare parts were displayed in shops. Armed members of the sect rode on motorcycles, while some were seen operating computers.
The video seeks to contradict the claim of the Nigerian military that it had defeated the sect and cleared it from the vast forest that served as the terror group’s operational base.
To demonstrate its hold on the forest, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai, had conducted a civil society tour of the area and boasted that the Nigerian Army Small Arms Championship would hold there to consolidate the army’s grip on the area.
He said: “We have been in the North East, fighting the Boko Haram terrorists, and you know the significance of the Sambisa forest to them,” adding: “It used to be one of their centres; in fact, we suspect that their command and control centre was located there before its eventual capture.”
According to The Cable, an old man who spoke in Kanuri dialect disputed the claim of the military that the group had been defeated. He said the militants had been living well in the forest.
“You can see that we are doing well and living fine. Look at our crops, they are growing well,” he said.
The video showed some fighters in a training session.
One of the trainees, who spoke in Hausa, said: “We are ready to do everything to protect our territory… we won’t allow an inch of our territory to be penetrated by the infidels.”
It is unclear which factions of the groups released the video as Abubakar Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi were not seen.
Recently, a faction led by al-Barnawi released a video of three staff of the University of Maiduguri who were abducted last Tuesday.
At least 48 persons were killed in that attack, which occurred in Maiduguri as the Chad Basin oil exploration team made their way back to the town from their assignment.