Nigeria troops kill 4 Boko Haram Takfiris
Nigerian government troops have clashed with terrorists from Boko Haram Takfiri group in northeastern part of the African country, killing four militants.
The army said in a Monday statement that the troops managed to drive Boko Haram extremists out of an abandoned primary school in the area in a shootout a day earlier.
The terrorists had been using the school as a transit camp, the statement added.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” has so far attacked many schools in northeastern Borno state. The schools have closed, been burned to the ground or abandoned.
According to the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over 300 schools have been demolished in an area in the state where less than 30 percent of children receive education.
In April 2014, Boko Haram militants kidnapped 276 female students from their secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok. Two days later, 57 of the girls managed to escape but 219 remained in captivity, reportedly in the Sambisa Forest.
Nigeria's new President Muhammadu Buhari has recently said talks to free the schoolgirls have stalled since authorities could not identify "credible" Boko Haram leaders to talk to.
He said in October that the group that the authorities have been negotiating with wants the release of a top bomb expert in exchange for some of the girls.
The UNICEF says Nigeria has the highest number of children out of school in the world as 10.5 million kids do not go to school in the oil-rich country.
Nigeria has intensified its crackdown on Boko Haram as the terrorist group continues to wreak havoc across the country through bombings, raids and kidnappings.
The Boko Haram militancy began in 2009, when the terrorist group started an armed rebellion against the government. At least 17,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made homeless since then.
The Boko Harman militancy has also spilled over into several neighboring African nations as well. Troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have been battling Boko Haram terrorists in recent months.
The terrorists have pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri militant group, which is primarily operating inside Syria and neighboring Iraq.
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