Usman also said three Boko Haram commanders – Abubakar Mubi, Malam Nuhu and Malam Hamman – were killed and several others wounded in air strikes in the Sambisa Forest near the Cameroon border, Al Jazeera reported.
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Government planes attacked Boko Haram fighters in the village of Taye, inside the Sambisa Forest in Borno State.
The leader of the delegation, Rear Admiral Anwarul Islam, pointed out that the dramatic way in which the Nigerian Military routed the erstwhile deadly Boko Haram in the last one year was worthy of commendation.
It claims the group’s elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau, who has a bounty on his head, has been fatally wounded in the raids which were carried out on Friday.
The statement said the troops killed several of terrorists including two senior commanders that led the attack.
Colonel Usman in a text message to NAN clarified that Shekau was not among the dead, which implies that the “fatally wounded”, meant to convey “seriously wounded”. But only a week later, the shadowy Shekau surfaced in a video posted on social media, ridiculing suggestions of his death and looking more composed and energetic than in previous appearances.
“The fact is that through the multi-national joint task force with the help from the United States, France and the United Kingdom, Nigeria and its neighbours are steadily degrading Boko Haram’s capabilities”.
The protest comes a week after Islamist militants from the group Boko Haram released a new video showing as many as 50 of the kidnapped girls.
Shekau took the reins of the Nigeria-based extremist group after its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in a military attack in 2009. However, the U.S. withdrew military support from the previous Nigerian government, under Goodluck Jonathan, over concerns about a poor human rights record.
We know the army is responsible for what it says, as much as Nigerians are responsible for what they interpret.
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But the new administration argues its human rights record has improved significantly enough to lift the blockade.
