The Nigerian military has reported that it destroyed dozens of Boko Haram camps and freed more than 1,000 kidnap victims in recent weeks.
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“The Boko Haram fighters are not as organised as they used to be, and training those many fighters take time”, he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
But Boko Haram has stepped up the tempo and range of its attacks, with raids and suicide bombings in the past week in Niger, Cameroon and northern Nigeria.
In the town of Fotokol on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, civilian vigilantes are risking their lives keeping a lookout for suicide bombers from the deadly Boko Haram group.
The Boko Haram militancy began in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria.
Three states – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – have been under a state of emergency since May 2013, due to Boko Haram’s attacks.
The hostages were residents of those villages who had been “taken prisoner” by that group, adding that a large number of them had been handed over to a camp for the displaced.
It is not yet known whether the freed hostages includes any of the 219 schoolgirls abducted from their dormitories in Chibok, Nigeria, last year.
The Islamist terror organization has been orchestrating attacks near the borders of Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad throughout a year ago, especially because of the lack of surveillance in the areas. A day earlier, two male suicide bombers attacked a mosque in the city and killed 32 Muslim worshipers.
Assomo labelled the mission a “special clean up operation” against Boko Haram.
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Attacks have increased recently in Cameroon’s far north region since the country is part of an 8,700-strong regional task force aimed at defeating Boko Haram.
