MAIDUGURI: Military authorities say Nigerian soldiers have arrested more than 400 people associated with the Boko Haram extremist group hiding on the islands of Lake Chad, including fighters, wives and children.
The two-week operation netted the largest number of arrests of Boko Haram fighters in recent months in northeast Nigeria, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu said. The operation included air and ground offensives.
The military said many Boko Haram insurgents were killed, but it did not give details.
Among those arrested were 167 Boko Haram fighters, 67 women and 173 children. The women and children will be handed over to authorities of displacement camps after investigations, the military said.
Another 57 insurgents were arrested during a separate operation in another part of the troubled region.
Boko Haram has been blamed for more than 20,000 deaths during its eight-year insurgency, which has spilled over into neighboring countries and created a vast humanitarian crisis with millions displaced and hungry.
Human rights groups have expressed concern about the large number of women and children who have been arrested in the fight against Boko Haram, saying most of those detained have been picked up at random and without reasonable suspicion.
In an effort to relieve overcrowded military detention facilities, Nigeria’s government in October began the trials of more than 1,600 suspected Boko Haram members behind closed doors at a military barracks. It was the largest mass trial in the extremist group’s history.
While Nigeria’s president late last year declared the extremist group had been “crushed,” leader Abubakar Shekau remains elusive and the group in recent months has carried out a growing number of deadly suicide bombings and other attacks. Many have been carried out by women or children who were abducted and indoctrinated.
Earlier this week, dozens of Nigerian state governors approved the transfer of $1 billion to aid the federal government’s fight against Boko Haram, signaling that the announcements of victory over the extremists had come too soon.
Nigeria troops arrest 400-plus Boko Haram fighters, families
Nigeria troops arrest 400-plus Boko Haram fighters, families
Zelensky says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defenses
- While President Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv’s defenses.
The Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Belarus remains a steadfast ally, though longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the conflict.
“We note that the Russians are trying to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighboring Belarus. This is risky for Belarus,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a military staff meeting.
“It is unfortunate that Belarus is surrendering its sovereignty in favor of Russia’s aggressive ambitions.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.
“Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-story apartment buildings, which help guide ‘Shaheds’ (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this.”
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the staff meeting also discussed ways of financing interceptor drones, which officials in Kyiv see as the best economically viable means of tackling Russian drone attacks, which have grown in intensity in recent months.
The president said the Ukrainian military’s general staff had been charged with working out changes to strategy in fending off air attacks “to defend infrastructure and frontline positions.”
Lukashenko this month said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as impossible to intercept, had been deployed to Belarus and entered active combat duty.
An assessment by two US researchers, reported by Reuters on Friday, said Moscow was likely stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik at a former air base in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe.
