About 83 Nigerian soldiers still missing week after Boko Harm attack

Eighty-three Nigerian troops are still missing in action almost a week after the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists carried out a deadly ambush on a military outpost in the country’s northeastern volatile state of Borno, officials say.

The embattled troops failed to fight back as the militants had superior firing power, some senior army officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press on Sunday, adding that the morale was also low among the soldiers because they were being fed once a day and their allowances were being pilfered by their superiors.

The soldiers had been stationed at an outpost in the village of Gashigar, on the border with Niger, when the Boko Haram militants equipped with heavy guns and rocket-propelled grenades launched a surprise attack against the remote base on October 17, forcing the troops to abandon their positions.

Dozens of the soldiers, unable to withstand the militants’ heavy fire, fled the battle and jumped into the Niger River. Twenty-two soldiers were pulled out from the river by Nigerien troops, while many others are feared to have drowned. Several other soldiers also sustained fatal injuries in the incident.

Boko Haram, in a statement released in the wake of the attack, claimed that it had killed at least 20 soldiers and wounded dozens of others, a toll that has not yet been confirmed by Nigerian authorities.

Many Nigerian soldiers ran away during a blitz by Boko Haram in 2014, allowing the group to seize control of a large swath of land northeast of the country. The soldiers said that the militants were better armed and equipped during the battle.

SS