Boko Haram: Troops reclaim Baga, survive land mines- DHQ

After surviving 1,500 spots with land mines, troops on Saturday reclaimed Baga town from Boko Haram insurgents.

Many insurgents died in the encounters and sizable number got drown in Lake Chad while trying to flee from heavy air strikes by the troops.

Besides the destruction of five anti-aircraft guns, 34 motorcycles and five vehicles were recovered from the terrorists.

These disclosures were contained in a statement by the Director of Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade on the reclaiming of Baga which was seized by Boko Haram in January.

The statement said: 

“A large number of terrorists have drowned in the Lake Chad as they fled the heavy bombardment by Nigerian Air force heralding the advance of Nigerian troops on mission to flush them out of Baga.

“Not even the strategy of mining over 1500 spots with land mines on the routes leading to the town could save the terrorists from the aggressive move of advancing troops.

“All the land mines were skillfully cleared one after the other. Eventually, the resistance of the terrorists collapsed and the land forces finally stormed the town in the early hours of Friday.

“Many of the terrorists died while an unknown but substantial number of them fled with various degrees of injury, in the series of encounter along the routes of advance as troops headed for Baga.”

The DHQ gave a breakdown of equipment recovered from the insurgents, including five anti-aircraft guns.

The statement added: “Apart from the five (5) anti-aircraft guns and the rifles captured from the terrorists, over 34 motorcycles and five (5) vehicles including trucks being used for operations by the terrorists were destroyed in the course of the fighting as troops headed for Baga.

” The troops finally began clearing the terrorists from Baga on arrival in the town early Saturday morning.