A total of 387 families of Boko Haram fighters have been rescued by the Nigerian Army from the Sambisa forest.
The 387 comprising men, women and children, were rescued by highbred forces of the Sector-One North-East Joint Taskforce Operations in Kai.
Led by Brig. Gen. Diwa, the troops also recovered several vehicles and equipment, initially seized by the terrorists from the Nigerian Army at the peak of the insurgency.
Receiving the jubilant troops at the entrance of Sambisa in Awulari Konduga lga, the Sector One Acting Commander, Abubakar Haruna said the terrorists should either surrender or face death as all their known camps and enclaves have been destroyed.
According to Haruna, the operations initially planned for four days, eventually lasted ten days.
Speaking, one of the wives of the Boko Haram fighters, Hajara Danjuma, said her husband was one of the early converters.
“We were living in Maiduguri before he disappeared without any trace, tired of being called the wife of Boko Haram. I left for my parents’ house in Gombe but one day, my husband sent his colleagues to come and forcefully carry me to the bush. That’s how I found myself in Sambisa. I have seven children apart from the two I left in Maiduguri.
“I couldn’t run because of the children I have but when I saw the soldiers, I walked to them with my children and those of my co-wife who had died in the forest. My husband left home three days before the army came to our camp),” she said.
Along with the equipment recovered, the rescued families have been transported to the headquarters of the command in Maiduguri for onward delivery to the army headquarters In Abuja.
