Nigeria: Troops launch attacks on Boko Haram
Nigerian troops were deployed in large numbers yesterday, part of a plan to rout an insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamist group that has seized parts of the region.
“The operations, which will involve massive deployment of men and resources, are aimed at asserting the nation’s territorial integrity,” defence chiefs said.
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Hide AdThe campaign targets semi-desert areas of the three states in which Mr Jonathan declared an emergency – Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, three of Nigeria’s poorest and most remote.
The insurgency has cost thousands of lives and destabilised Africa’s most populous country since it began in 2009, but it has mostly happened far from economic centres such as Lagos. The capital Abuja was, however, bombed in 2011 and 2012.