The Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, said in a statement on Monday, April 15 that the terrorists were killed at the northern part of Wulgo, Tumbuma, Chikun Gudu and Bukar Maryam villages in Borno.
Col. Musa said “27 terrorists were sent to permanent discomforting sleep”, with no casualties recorded for the security forces.
Items recovered from the terrorists include five gun trucks, five AK-47 rifles, five AK-47 magazines, one automatic revolver galil rifle, one G3 rifle, two general purpose machine gun, two anti-aircraft guns, four rocket-propelled gun tubes, one PK machine gun and one M21 rifle.
Others are one locally-made dane gun, five rocket-propelled gun tubes bombs, 1000 assorted rounds of different calibre ammunition, several links of 12.7MM, one Land Crusier Buffalo, one Nissan GT, one flag, one grinding machine and several motorcycles.
One Land Cruiser was also destroyed by troops.
Col. Musa disclosed that a coordinated military operation is ongoing especially in the fringes of Gombaru – Ngala and surrounding areas to deal with the fleeing bandits running out of their hideouts due to the onslaught from the Multi-National Joint Task Force.
Since Boko Haram’s insurgency escalated in 2009, it has killed around 30,000 people and displaced millions in the northeast region, with its operations also extending to border countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Even though the powers of the Abubakar Shakau-led main faction of Boko Haram has been on the wane in the past couple of years, another faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has grown in influence and carried out several savage attacks on military bases last year.