Boko Haram is crushed, forced out of last enclave

Nigeria: ‘Terrorists on run, no longer have place to hide.’

LAGOS, NIGERIA — The Boko Ha r a m e x t r e mi s t g r o u p has finally been c rushed — driven from its last fore st enclave with fighters on the run and no place to hide, Nigeria’s president declared Saturday.

His victorious statement came as the Islamic State, wi t h wh i c h o n e f a c t i o n of B oko Haram i s a l l i e d, claimed that a successful attack on an army barracks in northeast Nigeria’s Yobe state “killed and wounded many.”

T h e c o m mu n i q u e o n social media said the attack took place Thursday, the same day President Muhammadu Buhari said troops defeated Boko Haram in its Sambisa Forest stronghold in neighboring Borno state.

It was an indicator that despite Buhari’s announcement, Nigeria i s unlikely to see an end soon to the deadly suicide bombings, village attacks and assaults on remote military outposts in northeastern Nigeria carried out by the country ’s homegrown Islamic extremist group.

Already, there are reports that the insurgents have been regrouping in Taraba and Bauchi states, south of their northeastern stronghold in Borno state, and taking advantage of a decadesold conflflict in central Nigeria between mainly Muslim nomadic cattle herders and sedentary Christian farmers.

In a st atement, Buhari commended Nigerian troops for “f i nally enter ing and crushing the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents at Camp Zero,” which i s l o c a t e d d e e p wi t hi n t he heart of Sambisa Forest.

He announced the “longawaited and most gratifying news of the fifinal crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave” and declared “the terrorists are on the run, and no longer have a place to hide.”

The Sambisa Forest was whe re B o ko Ha r a m was believed to be holding some of more than 200 schoolg i rl s k i dnapped i n Apr i l 2014 from a school in the town of Chibok — a mass abduction that brought the Islamic extremists world attention and sparked an international social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls.

“Further efffffffffffforts should be intensifified to locate and free our remaining Chibok girls still in captivit y. May God be with them,” Buhari said.

Nigerian troops have freed thousands of Boko Haram captives this year, but none of the Chibok girls among 276 seized from a government boarding school.

Dozens of girls escaped within hours of their abduction. Some 197 remain missing.