The lake Chad Area, where a breakaway group of Boko Haram that pledged allegiance to Islamic State is active, has become the target of a new offensive by the Nigerian Air Force.
Code named Thunder Strike 2, the operation is to annihilate the insurgents who have massed up in several locations around the lake
The gains recorded in Nigeria’s fight against terrorism in the Northeast has suffered a setback in the peak of the rainy season.
Insurgents, many who fled the Sambisa, have taken advantage of the rains to mass up in marshy locations around the lake Chad
As such the area has witnessed an upsurge in the activities of a breakaway group of Boko Haram that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
To stem the tide, the Nigerian Air Force launched another phase of an operation coordinated by its Air Task Force in the Borno State capital Maiduguri.
More pilots and aircraft which were mobilised from other formations, are being deployed to carry out a sustained bombardment of several locations on the fringes of the lake Chad such as Tumbun Allura, Sabon Tumbun and Tumbun Rego.
According to a surveillance video released by the Air Force, the insurgents had setup a logistics and communications base camouflaged among green shrubs in Tumbun Rego, 140 kilometers northeast of Maiduguri.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar said the special operation will continue until the insurgents are wiped out in the target locations
Even now, the operation indicates the need for more carriers for land forces that can withstand the marshy terrain to enable them move in.
