ABUJA: Nigeria’s military yesterday dismissed as “empty propaganda” claims by Boko Haram’s leader that soldiers have retreated during an ongoing offensive, insisting the campaign has heavily damaged the militant group. In a video, Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau said soldiers have at times “turned and ran” when facing Boko Haram fighters and rejected military boasting about the success of the operation.
“We consider it as empty propoganda,” defense spokesman Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said of the video.
“To the best of our understanding, at the moment (the insurgents) are in disarray. They are on the run and so many of them have been captured,” he told AFP.
He declined to provide figures of those captured or killed in the operation launched on May 15 after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states considered Boko Haram strongholds.
Shekau’s whereabouts, which cannot be determined in the video, remain unknown. “I don’t know his location but I know that intelligence is trailing him,” Olukolade said.
Shekau called on like-minded fighters in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to join the fight in Nigeria.
Olukolade suggested the plea for foreign assistance implied weakness.
“If they are still firmly on ground why does he need help?“
The United States and analysts have voiced concern over the prospect of widespread civilian casualties during the operation, with Nigeria’s military having been accused of massive abuses in the past.
Olukolade told AFP he has seen no credible evidence of soldier misconduct in the offensive.
With the military having cut mobile phone service in much of the northeast and access to remote locations restricted, rivals claims about the conflict have been impossible to verify.
Olukolade said that air strikes used so far have primarily included covering fire for ground troops tasked with storming Boko Haram camps.
The military has claimed the destruction of several such camps, primarily in Borno state, Boko Haram’s traditional base.
Boko Haram has waged its insurgency since 2009, with an estimated 3,600 lives lost, including killings by the security forces.
Nigeria military dismisses Boko Haram ‘propaganda’
Nigeria military dismisses Boko Haram ‘propaganda’
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
