Boko Haram Survivor Reveals Why Its So Hard For Army To Defeat Insurgents

One of the survivors of Boko Haram insurgency, Zahra Umoru says the terrorists were receiving the information of the movements of the military.

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The girl was abducted in November and rescued recently with other women and children from Sambisa forest.

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The teenager was speaking with the journalists of TheCable at Malkohi, one of the camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Yola, Adamawa state.

She said Boko Haram terrorists kept moving hostages from one place to the other.

Umoru narrates: “When they captured us, we were taken to a house in Gwoza.

When they heard soldiers were in Madagali, they took us to Peta where we lived under trees.

“We don’t know how Boko Haram gets its information, but they always know when the soldiers are coming. If there’s something like that, they just tell us to pack our things and run.

“The night we left Gwoza, we just finished cooking, but we were not allowed to eat the food; we were just packed and left.”

Several other Boko Haram victims also corroborated this information. They said they were relocated from one village to another, one bush to the other, town to town, based on the itinerary of the Nigerian army.

Meanwhile, it is uncertain if the insurgents received its information from news reports and comments released by the Defence Headquarters or they have some insiders in the army.

Earlier in April, when the military was commencing the operation in Sambisa forest, Mike Omeri, coordinator of the national information centre, informed the journalists.

He said that the government was dedicated to liberating the girls.

About two weeks later, the army said in another comment that its soldiers were still present in Sambisa to rescue the girls.

Borno senator Ali Ndume has said that Nigerian army rescued about 1000 women and children in the North East.

After the postponement of the general elections for six weeks troops achieved success in the war against insurgency and most of the captured areas were liberated.

The mass kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls who were writing science exams at a boarding school in the town of Chibok, over a year ago, brought Boko Haram to the attention of the world and caused international outrage.

The terrorists kidnapped hundreds more in their campaign across northeastern Nigeria.