Maiduguri (Nigeria):
A Chadian warplane and ground troops drove Boko Haram fighters from a Nigerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists, witnesses said today.
The African Union moved to send ground forces to Nigeria and the US said it would assist yesterday’s fighting marked the first such action by foreign troops on Nigerian soil to fight the Islamic extremists.
The African Union chairwoman, at an AU summit in Ethiopia, called for deployment of 7,500 African troops to fight the spreading Islamic uprising by Nigeria’s home-grown extremists.
A senior US official told reporters that the United States government will take a role in the fight against Boko Haram.
“We are prepared to provide technical support, training and equipment to fight the Boko Haram group. The group’s activity in the region has clearly affected our attention in Africa away from development,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.
Abari Modu said he witnessed the Chadian offensive on Malumfatori village in Nigeria’s Borno state.
“We saw the fighter jet when it started shelling and bombarding the insurgents who were lodging mostly inside the local government secretariat and the district head’s palace,” he told The Associated Press.
He said the bodies of many Boko Haram fighters were still in the town today morning. Modu spoke by telephone after crossing the border from a Chadian village where he had sought refuge after Boko Haram seized Malumfatori at the end of October.
He said the Chadian jet had pursued fleeing fighters to the border, and that the bombardment was coordinated with Chadian ground troops, offering the fighters no escape.
A Nigerian military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the account. There was no immediate official word from Nigerian authorities about the Chadian offensive.
Boko Haram’s five-year Islamic uprising has killed about 10,000 people in the last year and displaced 1 million people. AU Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma called for the deployment of 7,500 troops to combat Boko Haram.
