The Nigerian Army has said its troops of Operation Lafiya Dole, conducting Operation Deep Punch ll to clear Boko Haram terrorists from the Sambisa forest and Lake Chad Islands, have killed five insurgents. The Army equally said that the troops successfully cleared and dismantled insurgents’ camps within the remaining parts of the Sambisa forest, even though two officers were lost in the said operation.

The spokesman for operation Lafiya Dole Theatre Command, Col Onyema Nwachukwu, disclosed this yesterday in a statement in Maiduguri.

Nwachukwu said, ”In continuation of the successful exploits by troops of Operation Lafiya Dole conducting Operation Deep Punch II to clear Boko Haram insurgents from the Sambisa forest and the Lake Chad Islands, yesterday, Tuesday 28 February 2018, troops successfully cleared and dismantled insurgents’ camps at Agapulawa, Amuda, Nyawa and Attagara; all within the remaining parts of the Sambisa forest.

The clearance operations progressed further into other identified insurgents’ camps around Tchikide and Chinene, where the troops ferociously engaged and cleared pockets of resistance by the insurgents, killing five of them in the encounter.

“ However, as troops exploited further in pursuit of the insurgents as they fled, one of the combat vehicles was rammed into by a terrorists’ Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED),  injuring two officers in the vehicle.” He added that the wounded officers were promptly evacuated for medical attention by the Battle Group medical team. “Regrettably, we lost the two gallant officers yesterday afternoon. The troops have since reorganized in continuation of the operations and remain undaunted,” the statement read.