TheCable

Nigerian soldiers are retreating from Sambisa Forest after three civilian JTF members were killed by a land mine believed to have been set by Boko Haram members.

Reuters quoted a vigilante and a security source as confirming the pullback from the forest, a day after an offensive aimed at rooting out the insurgents.

“The soldiers have retreated to Bama because of mines,” it quoted a soldier as saying.

“They had been on the road but that made them vulnerable, so they moved to the bush but there are mines planted there (too).”

One of Boko Haram’s most popular strongholds, Sambisa is always in the radar of the anti-insurgency activities of the Nigerian military.

On April 3, TheCable was told that Nigerian troops were preparing to advance to Sambisa to scour the forest for the schoolgirls abducted by the sect in April 2014.

That was two months after Chris Olukolade, a major-general and director of defence information, said the military was currently carrying out an air raid on the forest,  as well as Gwoza, both in Borno state.

In mid-April, Mike Omeri, director-general of the national orientation agency and coordinator of the national information centre, said operations were “presently ongoing” in Sambisa and the areas where the girls are believed to be held.

Around the same time, Sambo Dasuki, the national security adviser, assured Nigerians that security agencies would liberate Sambisa before May 29, 2015, when Goodluck Jonathan would hand over to Muhammadu Buhari as president of the country.

“Right now, all Boko Haram camps, except Sambisa Forest, have been destroyed,” he said.

“Every movement of the terrorists is being monitored and every necessary detail is being taken care of to rid the country of the last bastion of terrorists’ infestation.”