Posted on: 11:16 Thu, 24 Dec 2015



The Nigerian military is close to
completely defeating Islamist Boko
Haram militants, President
Muhammadu Buhari has told the
BBC.

He said the militants could no longer
mount conventional attacks against
security forces or population centres.

“I think, technically, we have won
the war,” he said.

The president has given the army
until the end of the month to defeat
Boko Haram, whose six-year
insurgency has devastated north-
eastern Nigeria.

But the BBC’s Bashir Sa’ad Abdullahi
in the capital, Abuja, says that the
deadline is likely to be extended as
Boko Haram is still bombing areas
despite losing towns under its
control.

Critics of the government argue that
it has exaggerated the scale of its
success against the militants, and
that each time the army claims to
have wiped out Boko Haram, the
militants have quietly rebuilt.

The insurgency is said to have killed
some 17,000 people and left more
than two million homeless.

The jihadists have been forced to cut
back on suicide bombings as a result
of the military action against them,
President Buhari said.

“Boko Haram has reverted to using
improvised explosive devices (IEDs),”
he said. “They have now been
reduced to that.”

“Boko Haram is an organised
fighting force, I assure you, [but] we
have dealt with them.”

He said the militants had all but
been driven out from Adamawa and
Yobe states and remained a force
only in its heartland of Borno state.

“They cannot now marshal forces
and attack towns or attack military
installations and so on as they did
before.

“I don’t think this is mad talking.”

The president said that Nigeria had
reorganised and reequipped the
military. which had received
training from the British, the
Americans and the French.

“A lot is being done,” he said.