The Nigerian military on Monday, December 7, commenced simultaneous and tactical offensive against the outlawed Boko group in an effort to meet the December deadline, official sources said.
As Military sources said that troops of the Nigeria army had yesterday began to advance towards Alagarno, a notorious hideout and spiritual headquarters of Boko Haram located between Borno and Yobe states.
Spokesman of the Nigeria Army, Col Sani Usman, who also confirmed the development, said it was a strategic operation involving both the air and ground troops , saying that details of the strategies might not be made known to the public immediately.
Alagarno is said to be one of the most deadly camps of the Boko Haram where the insurgents have in the past four years been camping until recent attacks early this year that caused the dislodgment of some of the insurgents.
In a related development, sources in the military have confirmed that the Nigeria Air force jets have begun massive bombardment of Sambisa forests targeting already mapped areas believed to be hideouts of the Boko Haram insurgents. Alagarno is about 45km south of Maiduguri.
A soldier in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, who spoke to Leadership on condition of anonymity said: “the bombardment started today (Monday) and from the signals being received so far, they are making appreciable progress over Sambisa.”
Meanwhile, top Boko Haram leaders are currently on the run, leaving behind cache of arms and corpses of their killed colleagues.