Nigeria's military has begun anti-militant operations in the country's north-eastern region by targeting the strongholds of the radical Boko Haram Islamist sect blamed for the numerous attacks on both civilian and security targets in the region, media reports citing officials said on Thursday.
The anti-militant operation began on Thursday with troops raiding "terrorist camps" in the Sambisa Game Reserve in Borno state, where the Boko Haram is said to have established bases. Besides, the military has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew across the northern state of Adamawa to curb attacks by militants.
Military spokesman Brig-Gen. Chris Olukolade was quoted as saying that "every resource available" to the armed forces would be used against Boko Haram, implying that the military might use its fighter jets and helicopter gunships in anti-militant offensive.
A day earlier, the military said in a statement that it had made a "massive deployment of men and resources" in the country's restive north-eastern region to contain the burgeoning Islamist insurgency. The planned operation is "to rid the nation's border territories of terrorist bases" and "asserting the nation's territorial integrity," it said.
On Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the north-eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, and ordered the military to take "all necessary action" to "put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists" in the region.
While announcing the drastic measures, he stressed that the recent attacks on government buildings and killings of officials and other civilians by members of Boko Haram amounted "to a declaration of war."
Incidentally, Nigeria's north-eastern regions are predominantly Muslim, with the south being dominated by Christians. In recent years, the Muslim-dominated north-eastern states have been witnessing a campaign of violence by Boko Haram.
Boko claims that it is fighting the Nigerian government to create an Islamic state in the West African country's north. The outfit is also opposed to Western education which it considers to be anti-Islamic.
More than 3,500 people are believed to have been killed since Boko began its campaign of violence four years ago. The group has carried out numerous bomb and gun-attacks on churches, schools, police stations, military facilities, banks, and liquor outlets in northern Nigeria.
The outlawed group had also claimed responsibility for the deadly car bomb attack on the U.N. building in Abuja in 2011 as well as a suicide-bomb attack targeting the police headquarters in the Nigerian capital earlier that year.
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