from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – SOME 14 teenage boys and three health workers are among 20 individuals the military has rescued from the Boko Haram insurgents in northeastern Nigeria this past weekend.
They have been rescued in the town of Tarmuwa in the Yobe State.
The boys are aged between 13 and 16 years.
Medical workers liberated alongside them from the Islamist insurgents comprise a medical doctor, nurse and ambulance driver.
Additionally, an ambulance belonging to the Yobe State Primary Healthcare Board, earlier hijacked by the insurgents, was recovered.
Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, the Nigerian Army commander, commended the troops for their display of gallantry.
“He (Buratai) has further enjoined troops to keep the pressure on the criminal Boko Haram elements until they are completely neutralised,” Colonel Aminu Iliyasu, army spokesman, said.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army reported the killing of 13 suspected Boko Haram members in the Borno State, also in the northeast.
Iliyasu said the suspected terrorists had ambushed the soldiers in the Duguri Island in the extreme north of the state that lies close to the border with Cameroon
“The dogged troops immediately responded with superior firepower, outmanoeuvred the criminal insurgents and handed them a well deserved defeat in the process.”
Nonetheless, four soldiers were wounded during the exchange of gunfire.
Boko Haram is engaged in a decade-long violent campaign to overthrow the Nigerian government.
More than 30 000 civilians have been killed, hundreds kidnapped and over 2 million displaced during the crisis.
– CAJ News