Boko Haram loses 50 fighters in failed Konduga attack

No fewer than 50 members of the Boko Haram sect
were killed in their failed bid to advance on Maiduguri,
the Borno State capital, a security source revealed on
Tuesday.
The military source said the soldiers from the 7 Division
of the Nigerian Army, halted the advance of the
insurgents, who attempted to capture Konduga, the closest
town to Maiduguri.
Konduga is about 60 kilometres from Maiduguri, and the
insurgents have tried about five times to capture it without
success in the last five months.
Speaking on the incident, a leader of the youth vigilante
group, who craved anonymity in an interview with our
correspondent, claimed that the insurgents were turned
back in Konduga by a joint team of the military and youth
vigilante, with the sect losing several of their men.
He said the battle raged for about three hours from
10.30pm on Monday to about 1am on Tuesday.
The source, who spoke on the telephone, said, “Nobody
can tell you the exact number of the insurgents killed but
we have killed many of them, while others escaped with
bullets wounds.
“Scores of the insurgents met their waterloo when they
attempted to attack Konduga town on Monday. They
came in Hilux vehicles and motorcycles.”
The youth vigilante members added that it was not
however a success story in another encounter with the
terrorist group, lamenting that an attempt to dislodge the
sect from Damasak, captured a week ago, was not a
success story.
He said, “In an attempt to reclaim Damasak, a soldier
and member of the Civilian JTF were killed in an
ambush.”
The source, who spoke on Tuesday afternoon, said,
“Four members of the Civilian JTF are still missing.”