Insecurity: Why Boko Haram Singles Out Christians – Army Commander

UNABLE to weather sustained attacks from the military against their activities, the Boko Haram insurgents have resorted to guerilla tactics and targeting Christians to cause confusion and chaos in the country, the Commander 7th Division of Nigeria Army in Maiduguri, Brig Gen Abdul Khalifa Ibrahim, has said.

In recent times many Christians had been killed by the insurgents leading to outcry by Christian elders and groups about plots against Christianity in the country.

On December 24, 2019, Boko Haram attacked a Christian village, Kwarangulum, 10 miles from Chibok on trucks and motorcycles and killed seven people, and burned homes and churches. Among Christians killed by the sect in recent time were Lawan Andimi, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Michika local government area of Adamawa State, and a Seminarian, Michael Nnadi, who was abducted in Kaduna and killed.

Shedding light on the progress the military has made in the fight against Boko Haram, the 7th Division Commander, in a telephone interview conducted in Hausa, said the sect is targeting Christians and similar groups to cause division in the country.

‘’Boko Haram used to fight like conventional military. They attacked and took over some towns. At that time it was very easy for us to simply attack them back, fight them and retrieve the towns from them. Now, they have changed their pattern, they engage in guerrilla attacks. Vehicles can come and pass and nothing will happen especially when the vehicles are many. But on some days when one or two cars come to pass you will see them coming out. They will stop a vehicle by the road side, deliberately bring out the Christians in the vehicle and kill them in order to instigate crises across the country. But by the grace of God we are taking steps to squash this also,’’ he said.

Apart from fighting the insurgents, he said the Army also engage in other developmental activities like road repairs, construction of bridges, provision of portable drinking water, especially in villages worse hit by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Asked the development projects embarked upon by the army, he said: ‘’Following an assault against the Boko Haram when they were pushed out of Bama and they retreated to areas around Gwoza, where they declared as their headquarters, the Boko Haram destroyed the bridge leading to Banki Junction. They bombed the bridge and it could not be accessed. It was the Nigerian Army engineers that reconstructed that bridge. The bridge is now used by both the military and civilians.

‘’More so, that road is an access road not only for Borno State. You can go through it to Gwoza as you are heading to Liman Kara and Madagali in Adamawa State, from where you can get to Michika and other places,’’ he said.

Brig Gen Abdul Ibrahim, who disclosed that he has also soldiers in Adamawa State continued: ‘’There are certain things that we soldiers do that a lot of Nigerians are not aware of. I will tell you today that when you leave Maiduguri and arrive Konduga, from Konduga to Bama, our men use bomb scanners along the road to detect possibly planted bombs by the Boko Haram. This is done to avert explosions that might affect both military and civilians. So we do that every morning to clear the road for use.