Nigerian soldiers on Thursday announced the rescue of 59 people held hostage in camps by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno state.
In addition to freeing the hostages, the soldiers also cleared three camps of the insurgents and killed “quite a number” of them.
“As part of efforts to rid Nigeria of Boko Haram terrorists, troops of 21 Brigade and elements of Nigerian army engineers yesterday cleared a notorious terrorists camp at Chuogori and Shantumari, Borno State,” Sani Usman, a colonel and army spokesman, said.
“During the offensive operations, the fleeing terrorists left underground silos. In addition, troops of 151 Task Force Battalion conducted operations on Kashingeri, Wale and Kushingari Boko Haram terrorists camps today.
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“During the raids, quite a number of the terrorists were killed, a Landrover vehicle and a tipper were recovered. The troops also rescued 59 civilians that were held captive by the terrorists and cleared the camps.”
Although, details of the rescued civilians were not stated, Boko Haram is notorious for kidnapping young girls and women.
In April 2014, it abducted 276 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno state. This is in addition to other girls and women it had abducted in raids on towns and villages across the northeast states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
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In April 2015, Nigerian soldiers rescued about 200 girls and 93 women (some pictured) during a raid on Sambisa forest. The rescued women and girls were moved to Yola in Adamawa state afterwards for rehabilitation.
More people have been rescued by the Nigeria military since that time.
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