Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
No fewer than nine soldiers were killed and over 12 others injured in an attack on a new military camp in Borno State. Several soldiers were also missing after the attack.
Among the items allegedly carried away by the insurgents are military petroleum tanker, an armoured vehicle and eight other operational vehicles.
The insurgents attacked the new military base at Granda near Gudumbali in Guzamala Local Government Area of Borno State at about 9.30pm on Tuesday, security sources said.
The troops were deployed from Damboa to Gudumbali last week, and they had barely settled down when the insurgents struck, sources told Daily Sun, pleading anonymity. Troops battled the insurgents for over an hour but lost nine soldiers in the crossfire.
Support from the air force for the fighting soldiers could not, however, yield much impact as troops were reportedly close in battle with Boko Haram terrorists, making it difficult for the military fighter jet to shell the insurgents, a source familiar with the operation told Daily Sun.
“Nine soldiers died. Some of them were actually slaughtered,” a military source said, but did not give further details.
Daily Sun gathered that bodies of the slain soldiers have already been evacuated and brought to the army mortuary at the Maimalari cantonment in Maiduguri.
The incident of last Tuesday was one in a series of attacks on military base at Gudumbali by Boko Haram in a decade of insurgency in the northeast.
About 145 soldiers were killed in an attack on the military location in the town on November 18, 2015.
The incident was regarded as one of the deadliest Boko Haram attacks in the state since 2011 when insurgency heightened.
The military recently withdrew troops from many of its smaller locations in Borno State to bigger bases called Super Camps following the introduction of a new operational concept. The new concept was condemned by scores of Borno people, expressing fears that the new approach could make many communities vulnerable to Boko Haram attacks.
The Minister of Defence, Maj Gen Bashir Magashi (retd), and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, held talks with Borno elders few days after a similar meeting was organised by the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj Gen Olusegun Adeniyi, at Maimalari Cantonment, 7 Division Maiduguri, Nigerian Army.
There was no immediate reaction or confirmation from the military.Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj Gen Olusegun Adeniyi, could not be reached on his phone as it was switched off.
Spokesman of the theatre, Col Ado Isa, also said he did not have the detail of the attack as at press time.
When contacted, the acting director army public relations Colonel Saghir Musa did not pick his call.
A response to text message sent to his mobile phone on the matter reads: “I’m in the villa for a function.”