The army is doing a better job of fighting Boko Haram in th…

escorted convoys are attacked. Boko Haram continues to raid rural towns and villages for supplies and prisoners. The captured civilians are either convinced (if they are teenage boys) to join the fight or used as slaves. This was especially the case when Boko Haram took large

numbers of teenagers from rural boarding schools. Criminal gangs are now trying mass kidnapping and demanding ransoms.

Despite the heavy losses, the two major Boko Haram factions continue to operate, raise money and attract new recruits.

The larger faction is also called ISWAP and it is the cause of most of the violence near Lake Chad. The two factions have fought each other in the past but in the last two years appear to have established some form of ceasefire and an effort to stay out of each other’s way.

But there seem to be growing competition between various criminal groups. Boko Haram released a video showing some kidnapped boys and offered to negotiate. It turned out that Boko Haram was not involved but was trying to benefit from the incident before it was resolved.

The army soon tracked down the kidnappers and their hostages and surrounded the area and called on the kidnappers to surrender without violence. The bandits were well organized and set up two ambushes, which the troops detected and eliminated without taking any casualties.

The bandits did have some dead and wounded and eventually fled, possibly with some of the hostages. Most of the boys were rescued by the troops. It was later discovered that some of the missing children had fled the school during the initial raid and had not reported in yet.

the Nigerian air force carried out many airstrikes against Boko Haram targets in and near the Sambisa forest over the last few days. Targets included the homes of some Boko Haram leaders. For the senior leaders their families are vulnerable targets and often sent out of the

country or live in a secret location. Most of the airstrikes were against Boko Haram camps, some of them newly established to replace camps that had been bombed or attacked by ground forces.

The army is doing a better job of fighting Boko Haram in the northeast, especially Borno state. The Islamic terrorists continue disrupting commerce in Borno state by attacking road traffic and occasionally even army bases. The army has set up a convoy system and even these

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