Multinational force boots Boko Haram from last Borno town

ABUJA, Nigeria—The multinational task force combating Boko Haram said yesterday it has taken back the last town held captive by the militant group in the state where its insurgency began.

Boko Haram captured the Borno town of Damasak in October 2014. Joint task force spokesman Col. Mohammed Dole said more than 30 Nigerian soldiers have died in previous attempts to recapture the town. The force this time received air support from the team’s member states.

“In continuation with clearance operations of towns and villages, troops of Sector 4 in Diffa (Niger) have successfully cleared Dutse village, captured and occupied Damasak town,” Dole said in a statement. “The forces are coordinating to stabilize the immediate environs.”

Boko Haram’s insurgency began in Borno’s capital, Maiduguri, in 2009 and has killed more than 15,000 people, displacing some 2.4 million others. The extremist attacks have since extended to neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. The affected countries combined combat troops to create the task force established to end Boko Haram’s insurgency.

Boko Haram may have lost a majority of its hold on towns in Borno state, but the extremist group still poses a threat in the region, said William Assanvo, a researcher with the Institute of Security Studies in Dakar, Senegal.

“The government has said Boko Haram no longer has control in the main cities, but they may still have some presence in some remote areas in Borno state,” he said.

On Thursday, Boko Haram fighters ambushed a humanitarian convoy returning with a security escort to Maiduguri from Borno’s Bama. The attackers wounded two soldiers and three civilians, including one United Nations worker and an employee with the International Organization for Migration.

Army spokesman Col. Sani Usman said the attackers likely were remnants of a Boko Haram detachment who hid in Meleri village near Kawuri, the gateway to the Sambisa forest. The rural area has remained Boko’s Haram’s stronghold in the region.

The UN said it has temporarily suspended its humanitarian assistance pending a review of the region’s security situation. UNICEF said earlier this month an estimated quarter of a million children are severely malnourished in Borno state, and almost 1 in 5 children could die if they are not treated. Thursday’s attack has created another challenge to providing aid to parts of the war-torn state.

“People are gathered, isolated, and cut off in a half-destroyed town and are totally dependent on external assistance, which is cruelly lacking,” said Hugues Robert, emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders. “If we don’t manage quickly to provide them with food, water, and urgent medical supplies, malnutrition and disease will continue to wreak havoc.”