Cameroonian soldiers carrying a colleague wounded by Boko Haram fighters … on Wednesday

The members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect attacked Gaya village in Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State in the early hours of Thursday.

Investigations revealed that the rampaging insurgents killed 30 indigenes of the community said to be located near the Sambisa Forest.

The insurgents were also said to have burnt several buildings in the community before fleeing the area.

The attack came shortly after the military liberated 11 communities from the insurgents. The military killed over 300 of the insurgents with several calibre of arms and ammunition seized from them on Tuesday.

A security source explained that the insurgents, who were routed out of their Sambisa Forest training base by the combined team of Air Force and Army personnel operating in the area, had resorted to attacking communities that were far away from areas being covered by the military’s presence.

The men of the Nigerian Air Force and ground forces of the Army had been raiding the vast Sambisa Forest since last week in a bid to destroy the camps of the insurgents located in the forest.

It was learnt that the insurgents were targeting remote communities without military presence for destructive attacks.

The source said, “The fighters of the Boko Haram sect attacked Gaya community in Hong Local Government Area here in Adamawa State.

“They killed over 30 people and burnt down several buildings in the community. You know that that community is in the border area just by the Sambisa Forest.

“Those who attacked the community were dislodged from the Sambisa Forest by the ongoing raid being carried out by the Air Force and the ground soldiers.

“The military is now in control of a large part of the Sambisa Forest and the insurgents are moving in bands and launching attacks on the communities that are far from where the soldiers checkpoints are.”

The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said that he was not aware of such an attack on the community near the Sambisa Forest.

He, however, said that a combined operation by the personnel of the Nigerian Air Force and the ground troops had resulted in the death of many insurgents in Sambisa Forest and parts of Gwoza.

Olukolade said in a statement on Thursday that the air strikes which hit targets with precision resulted in a heavy casualty among the insurgents.

He said, “A concerted air campaign by the Nigerian Air Force is ongoing in furtherance of the mission to clear terrorists from all their enclaves.

“The air strikes, which today targeted the training camps and logistics dumps of the terrorists in Sambisa forests and parts of Gwoza, have been highly successful as it achieved the aims with required precision.

“The death of a large number of terrorists has been recorded while many others are also scampering all over the forest and out of the struck bases.

“Details of casualty will be determined in subsequent phases of the operation.

“Meanwhile, the strikes continue in other locations of the theatre heralding the advance of troops and other elements of the mission.”

Meanwhile, 158 women and children abducted by the Boko Haram militants, who regained their freedom sometimes last month, on Thursday reunited with their family members in Yobe State.

The women and children were abducted in Katarko town of Gujba Local Government Area of the state, a distance of 22 kilometres south of Damaturu, the state capital.

Presenting the victims to their family members, the Chairman of the state Committee on Rehabilitation and Resettlement of Insurgency Victims, Ahmed Goneri, said of the 158 victims, 62 are adults while the remaining 96 are children.

Of the 62 adults, according to him, 15 are now widows because of the attack on the town. He said that the abductees were “today being handed over to their family members.”