By Inusa Ndahi, Maiduguri
Ni fewer than 1,250 fleeing Boko Haram fighters and their families have surrendered to Nigerian troops in the country’s North-East in the last seven days, following a deadly clash with the rival Islamic State of the West African Province, ISWAP, that claimed over 200 lives.
Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency expert and security analyst in the Lake Chad Basin had reported how ISWAP terrorists carried out reprisal attacks on Boko Haram fighters on February 26 and 27, 2023 in Gaizuwa, Mantari, Gabchari, Kashimiri and Maimusari in Bama, North-East Borno State.
The ISWAP group successfully dislodged the Boko Haram insurgents, killing many of them and forcing survivors to flee their camps together with their families.
A top military sources told Makama on Sunday that the ISWAP group intercepted the fleeing terrorists in Yale in Konduga and Choliye in Gudumbali Local Government Area and nutrialized more than 200 of them.
The ISWAP stormed another hideout in Asinari, Ashanari and Masarmari area in Konduga on March 1, 2023 and killed another scores of Boko Haram fighters.
The sources explained that the sustained inter-rivalry clash of the groups, triggered massive surrendering of the militants in Mafa, Konduga and Bama local government areas.
He said, “The militants surrendered because of the fear that they will be nutrialised by either the Super Tukanos or the ISWAP rival faction. There was no hiding place anymore.
“So far, we have received 1,250 fighters and their families within one week. This number was the highest we have recieved at a very short period of time in different parts of the theatre.
“The surrendered suspects, who also came out with about 1,000 livestock, confessed that the ISWAP were after their lives as they do not spare women and children.
“Among those who surrendered were women who had been enslaved by, conscripted by, or minors born to the insurgents.”
The military sources said that profiling of the surrendered terrorists is ongoing, after which the individuals will be handed over to the appropriate agencies for further rehabilitation.
Recall that the military authority said as many as 100,000 fighters and family members, along with their captives, have left Boko Haram, the largest wave of defections by terror group was attributed to the death of Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader, who blew himself up in May 2021, during a rival clash with ISWAP.
