Boko Haram: Army re-opens major road in NE Nigeria
MAJOR roads to and from Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria have been re-opened, the chief of army staff said on Saturday, nearly three years after they were shut because of Boko Haram attacks.
Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai said restrictions had been lifted between the Borno state capital and Damboa to the southwest, southeast to Bama, and east to Mafa, Dikwa and Gamboru Ngala.
The road between Damboa and Biu — seen as a hotbed of Boko Haram activity — will also be re-opened, he added.
Buratai said in Damboa that officials were determined to see the roads reopened. “Indeed the residents are safe, those who left should come back,” he added.
A new army motorbike battalion will patrol the roads, which have seen frequent attacks on motorists by the heavily armed insurgents, effectively making large parts of Borno a no-go zone.
Nigeria claims to have “technically” defeated Boko Haram, despite continued sporadic suicide and bomb attacks, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas.
The government is pushing for many of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict since 2009 to return, despite widespread concerns for security in their remote home towns and villages.
Business leaders in Maiduguri have also complained that the closure of the roads — and the need for military escorts to transport goods and produce — has severely hit trade.
The roads were shut in July 2013, soon after the start of a government-imposed state of emergency in Borno and the neighbouring states of Yobe and Adamawa.
Buratai said the new armed motorbike battalion would help soldiers pursue any Boko Haram suspects and maintain control.
“As the roads are re-opened now people should be able to move freely and we will do our job to ensure that they are secured,” he added.
In Damboa, which Buratai described as “central” to Boko Haram’s insurgency, also unveiled a second 100 “most-wanted” poster of Islamist suspects, copies of which will be distributed countrywide.
The first 100 photographs were published last year and the officer said “many of them had been identified and arrested”, without specifying numbers.
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