A total number of 470 Boko Haram insurgents, among them, more than 50 senior commanders and their families have surrendered to troops of Operation Hadin Kai in the southern part of the Borno State, sources said on Tuesday.
This came after sustained military land and air bombardments of their enclaves and hideouts in the Lake Chad region where scores of the fighters have been killed.
Our correspondent gathered that the insurgents came out of the Sambisa Forest with about 10 vehicles and moved straight to a military base in Gwoza, the headquarter of the Gwoza Local Government Area of the state.
A top military source familiar with the development confirmed to Daily Trust that they were received by the Brigadier Commander of 26 Task Force Brigade in Gwoza yesterday evening.
Aliyu Muhammad, a resident of Gwoza, told Daily Trust by phone that hundreds of surrendered insurgents were sighted in the Gwoza on Tuesday.
“They looked unkempt and most of their children malnourished,” he said.
It would be recalled that Gwoza was declared the administrative headquarters of the Boko Haram in 2014 by their late leader, Sheik Abubakar Ibn Al-Shekau, before Nigeria troops recaptured it in 2015.
(Daily Trust)
