MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) -- Dozens of emaciated-looking Boko Haram
members begging for food have surrendered in northeast Nigeria, the
military and a civilian self-defense fighter said Wednesday.
Seventy-six
people including children and women gave themselves up to soldiers last
Saturday in Gwoza, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of
Maiduguri, according to a senior officer.
All are being detained
at military headquarters in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram and
currently the command center of the war against the Islamic extremists,
according to the officer. He insisted on anonymity because he is not
authorized to speak to journalists.
The detainees said many more
fighters want to surrender, a self-defense civilian fighter who helped
escort them to Maiduguri told The Associated Press.
Food
shortages could indicate that Nigeria's military is succeeding in
choking supply routes of the Islamic extremists who have taken their
fight across Nigeria's borders. Some 20,000 people have died in the
6-year-old uprising. Boko Haram was declared the deadliest of all terror
groups in 2014, surpassing the Islamic State group to which it declared
allegiance last year.
Nigeria's military reported that dozens of
Boko Haram fighters were surrendering in September and October last
year. It promised those who give themselves up voluntarily that they
will be rehabilitated through a de-radicalization program.
In the
10 months since he took office promising to halt the insurgency,
President Muhammadu Buhari has replaced the leadership of the military,
moved the headquarters for the fight from the distant capital, Abuja, to
the heart of the northeastern insurgency and resupplied soldiers.
The
military has driven the insurgents from the towns and villages where
they had set up an Islamic caliphate but Boko Haram has returned to
hit-and-run tactics and suicide bombings.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_BOKO_HARAM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-03-02-04-49-44
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