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Boko Haram Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state on Monday released the grim statistics of deaths and material losses suffered by the state due to the Boko Haram insurgency. Mr. Shettima gave the data at the annual Murtala Mohammed memorial lecture held at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja. The governor, who delivered a paper “Managing the Boko Haram Crisis in Borno State, Experiences and Lessons for a Multiparty, Multiethnic and Multireligious Nigeria”, said the insurgency has led to the deaths of almost 100,000 persons, based on estimates by community leaders in the state over the years. “The Boko Haram insurgency has led to deaths of almost 100,000 persons going by the estimates of our community leaders over the years,” he said. This casualty figure is the highest ever provided by any government official from a state where remote areas which witness attacks by the insurgents are difficult to reach. “Two million, one hundred and fourteen thousand (2,114,000) person...

“I had many slaves – they did everything for me,” the 25-year-old said, explaining how women and girls kidnapped by the Islamist militants washed, cooked and babysat for her during the three years she spent in their base in the vast Sambisa forest. “Even the men respected me because I was Mamman Nur’s wife. They could not look me in the eye,” Aisha said in a state safe house in Maiduguri, where she has lived for almost a year since being captured by the Nigerian army in a raid in Sambisa. Aisha is among around 70 women and children undergoing a deradicalisation programme – led by psychologists and Islamic teachers – designed to challenge the teachings they received and beliefs they adopted while under the control of Boko Haram. Thousands of girls and women have been abducted by the group since it began its insurgency in 2009 – most notably the more than 200 Chibok girls snatched from their school in April 2014 – with many used...

The governor of Borno State, Mr. Kashim Shettima, has attributed the rise in the number of children used as suicide bombers in the Northeastern part of the country on  hard drugs given to them by the Boko Haram  sect. Mr. Shettima made this known at a press conference he addressed on Friday. The governor also warned that the celebrated capture of the infamous Sambisa Forest does not indicate an end to the insurgency that has troubled the zone since 2009. “In this criminal endeavor, they resort to the use of teenagers and children as young as seven years. “More recently, they even strap babies on the back of their recruits in order to slip through our security dragnets. “They also use hard drugs on these innocent children, who do not know what they are doing when they kill their own parents, relations, and fellow countrymen and women.  Many precious lives have been lost, hundreds of citizens, including school girls, were abducted. Many more people have suffered serious inj...

An 18-year-old Boko Haram suicide bomber, Amina, who was intercepted by men of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, on Tuesday in Maiduguri, said she was given N200 for the mission. She told the News Agency of Nigeria in Maiduguri that she was abducted two years ago by the sect members in Madagali, Adamawa, and taken to Sambisa forest. “They gave us N200 each which they said we should use to buy food for ourselves. “It took us three days to come to Maiduguri on a motorcycle. We were directed by the sect members to detonate our explosives any where we saw any form of gathering. “They said if we press the button, the bomb would explode and we will automatically go to heaven. “I was scared, so, I told them that I could not detonate any explosive. So, they said if Zainab detonated her own, it would serve the purpose. “On our way to Maiduguri, we encountered the military and they were shooting. I was very scared and the people that brought us ...