Soldiers invade Sambisa .

The military has commenced an
operation in Sambisa Forest in
Borno State to flush out Boko
Haram insurgents.
The forest is widely believed to
host some of the training camps
and facilities of Boko Haram in the
North-East.
It was learnt that the military high
command decided to invade the
vast forest in order to make the
North-West safe for the general
elections.
A reliable source in the Army told
one of our correspondents in
Abuja that Air Force jets started
the raid on Monday. He added that
surveillance activities and raids
were also ongoing as of the time
he spoke on Wednesday.
The source, who did not want his
name in print because he was not
authorised to speak on the
development, said that massive
ground operation would follow the
aerial operations .
He said, “The military started an
operation in the Sambisa Forest on
Monday. For now, there are no
specific cases of arrest; we don’t
have that information now. The Air
Force has been operating in the
area since Monday. It is after that
that the ground troops who are on
red alert would be moved in.”
Also, a source close to an office
strategic to the operations said
that a lot of activities were going
on simultaneously in the forest and
other parts of the North-East
believed to host Boko Haram
camps.
He explained that the military was
combing the forest because of
intelligence reports that some of
the insurgents who were dislodged
from some communities in the
North- East were moving back to
the forest.
The Director, Defence Information,
Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, could not
be reached for comments on the
raids as calls to his mobile did not
connect.
Meanwhile, 800 children from
areas affected by insurgency in
Adamawa State are currently
undergoing psychotherapy in the
state.
Executive Chairman of the state
Universal Basic Education, Bello
Furo, who made this known
explained that the psychotherapy
was to minimise the trauma faced
by the children whose parents
were either gunned down or
slaughtered by Boko Haram
insurgents.
He said, “The process will take
some time because most of the
parents were slaughtered before
their children.
“Right now, they do not have
anybody to cater for them; they
lost their parents as a result of the
insurgency.”
Also in the state on Wednesday, the
wife of the All Progressives
Congress presidential candidate,
Aisha Buhari donated drugs worth
N135m to Internally Displaced
Persons in Damare.
Aisha, who said that it was
unfortunate that the IDPs were
refugees in their own country,
showed sympathy and asked
them to be steadfast in their
prayers for peace to return to the
country, especially the North-East.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram fighters
attacked Chadian army positions in
Gamboru, Borno State on
Wednesday but were beaten back.
The Chadian troops are in Gamboru
as part of a regional offensive
against the islamist sect, which
had staged several cross-border
attacks over the past week.
“We knew they were going to
attack us. We were waiting. The
battle didn’t last long. They fled,” a
Chadian soldier said.
He said that eight of his colleaques
were wounded while three Boko
Haram vehicles were destroyed and
one seized.
The Chadian Army later said in a
statement that 13 Boko Haram
fighters and a soldier lost their
lives during the attack.
Two female suicide bombers blew
themselves up on Wednesday in
Diffa, Niger Republic, a day after
mortars and machine-gun shots
were heard in N’Guigmi on the
country’s border with Nigeria.
The town lies near Lake Chad,
around 100 kilometres east of Diffa.