Three soldiers dead in Lake Chad military assault

THREE soldiers and a vigilante or civil JTF have lost their lives in the ongoing onslaught on Boko Haram insurgents by Nigerian troops on the Lake Chad regions of the northeast war theatre.

Nine others where wounded when a vehicle ladened with improvised explosive devices IED’s rammed into one of the operational vehicles of the military and exploded causing the operational casualties.

Spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Sani Usman said in a statement that the wounded were being treated in the military hospital of the 8 taskforce division of the Nigerian Army.

Aside from these distractions by the desperate insurgents, Brigadier General Usman said that the troops have been making tremendous progress in the ongoing “Operation Deep Punch 2” in the Lake Chad and the various Sectors of the war theatre.

“So far, the troops have neutralised over 50 Boko Haram terrorists, destroyed and captured high calibre arms and ammunition, especially in the Lake Chad general area.” He said.

Usman said that troops on Monday, cleared Boko Haram terrorists in Metele village, Tumbun Gini and Tumbun Ndjamena.

“During the clearance operations, Boko Haram terrorists abandoned the area in disarray leaving behind livestock, large quantity of foodstuffs, motorcycles and donkeys.

“Also in Metele, the terrorists attempted to attack troops in the harbour, but this was stiffly resisted with heavy casualty on Boko Haram terrorists. Troops neutralised over 57 of them, destroyed gun trucks and other equipments.

“The gallant troops also discovered terrorists’ logistics base at Tumbu Ndjamena which held stocks of  fish, foodstuffs, fuel and motorcycles. All these items were promptly destroyed.

“Troops also captured one anti-aircraft gun, 116 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition with metal links, four AK-47 rifles, 57 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition (special), two light machine guns, two Rocket Propelled Grenade 7 (RPG-7) tubes, with one RPG bomb and 2 already primed 36 hand grenades. Other recovered items include one small solar panel with a Gionee mobile phone, one Holy Qur’an, Six Hadith Books, as well as five gun trucks which were destroyed,” said Usman.