Ministers, BBOG search for missing Chibok Girls in Sambisa; skeletal movement seen at Camp Zairo; fighter jets, helicopter gunship attack insurgents in Northern Borno
Ministers of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, the convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, and some government officials, on Monday, participated in a search sorties for missing Chibok girls in Sambisa.
Another member of BBOG, Hajia Aisha Yusuf, some Air Force Commanding Officers in the North-East operation and selected reporters from local and foreign media participated in the exercise,
The team, who were carried in two Beechcraft 350 surveillance aircraft, departed the Yola Air Force Base about 2.30 p.m.
The aircraft, flying at 15,000 feet altitude, entered the Sambisa general area, 35 minutes after departure.
The search sorties in the forest, which lasted for over an hour, took the team to Camp Zairo, hitherto the stronghold of Boko Haram, captured by the home troop on December 22, as well as other key spots in the forest.
Sambisa forest is said to cover 60,000 square kilometres which is about 18 times the size of Lagos and 85 per cent of Borno State land surface.
With the aid of sophisticated inbuilt surveillance camera in the aircraft, the team were shown the video images of burnt vehicles and camps of the Boko Haram insurgents, particularly Camp Zairo.
The burnt areas, according to the Commanding Officers, were consequent of attacks carried out by air strike and ground troops of the military.
The images of the tracks of the insurgents as well as the locations of the ground troops of the military, who have occupied the forest, were also shown to the team.
One of the surveillance aircraft discovered skeletal movement of some sort in the forest.
The aircraft, thereafter, proceeded to Airforce Base Maiduguri, the headquarters of 105 Composite group for surveillance report and refuelling.
Upon arrival at Maiduguri Airforce Base at about 4.30 p.m. and after the surveillance briefing on the skeletal movement, an Alpha fighter jet flown by only a pilot unaccompanied was deployed into the forest.
The team later left Maiduguri for Yola .
Another search sorties by the team is billed for the midnight and would last till morning.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has struck insurgents new hideout about one nautical mile south of Tumbum Rego in Northern Borno.
The NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, Group Capt. Ayodele Famuyiwa, made this known in statement to newsmen in Abuja on Monday.
Famuyiwa said NAF fighter jets and helicopter gunship assaulted the location in a coordinated day and night operation.
This, he said, was due to Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) report that Boko Haram insurgents who attacked own Surface Forces at Kangarwa the night of January 12, had withdrawn to the said location.
“The enclosed footage of the Battle Damage Assessment indicated that the operation was successful as the insurgent’s hideout was successfully destroyed,” he said.
Famuyiwa explained that the renewed efforts was aimed at denying the remnants of the insurgents the opportunity to regroup and launched attack on own surface forces or people within the host communities.
NAF recently intensified aerial patrol over the entire operation in the North-East and offensive mission around Green Belt Region near Niger and Chad.
