The Boko Haram sect has launched a rocket attack on an army vehicle in the northeast Nigerian town of Baga, killing two soldiers.
Two soldiers lost their lives and six other sustained serious injuries when their vehicle hit a mine implanted by the insurgents just outside the town in Borno state on Sunday, April 20.
The raid and the mine blast occurred as the army accompanied some 1,200 people from Baga on a short return visit to their native town from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
Boko Haram capturedthe town on the shores of Lake Chad on January 3 and is supposed of killing hundreds in what was feared to have been the worst massacre in the six-year of terrorism.
Nigeria’s army claimed it had retaken the town in late February, as an operation also involving Chad, Niger and Cameroon stepped up to drive out the insurgents from seized territory.
Karimbe Maina from the area said: “Boko Haram fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a military van in an ambush in Baga which killed two soldiers and destroyed the vehicle.”
The troops were coming back to their base outside Baga to rally more soldiers to help drag an armoured vehicle stuck in the mud across town on the shores of Lake Chad, he continued.
“Following the attack which killed two soldiers there was a prolonged gun battle between soldiers and the Boko Haram gunmen, which forced the gunmen to flee,” said vigilante Haruna Shuaibu.
The attack interrupted the tour, making the locals to leave their badly damaged and plundered town as quickly as possible, said Musa Bulama who was on the visit.
The visit was firstly planned for Sunday but was temporarily stalled after a military vehicle set off a mine in Kauyen Kuros village, six kilometres (four miles) from Baga.
Bulama said: “We had to spend the night in Kauyen Kuros as a result of the explosion which injured six soldiers and a member of the civilian vigilantes giving security cover to the convoy.”
Chris Olukolade, the army spokesperson said on February 21 that troops had to clear landmines planted by Boko Haram before being able to enter Baga.
Nigeria says to have Boko Haram on the run and that troops are supposed to storm the terrorists Sambisa Forest stronghold by the handover of power to the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.
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