Boko Haram Under Pressure As Food Supply Runs Out

According to reports, the increased presence of Boko Haram insurgents outside their Sambisa forest stronghold might be due to the need to stock up on food.

It is believed in some quarters that the need to feed the over 200 abducted girls and the insurgents themselves, has depleted the food reserves of the sect causing them to venture out on more raids.

The members of the sect are believed to have focused their raids on markets and villages in which food is carted off with the favourites being grain and bread.

Residents of the attacked villages have said that the constant stealing of foodstuffs was suspicious prompting the belief that the 200 extra mouths of the schoolgirls might be the reason.

Punch reports:

    Residents of these communities told Saturday PUNCH that the rate at which the insurgents stole their foodstuffs was unprecedented, noting that the pressure to feed the abducted girls might have contributed to the desperation of the insurgents to steal and kill the villagers in the process.

    One of the villagers, Bukar Umar, who resides in Kamuyya village in Borno State, told one of our correspondents that though it was normal for the insurgents to ask

    communities to contribute money towards “God’s work,’’ they were usually satisfied when communities raised money for them.

    He, however, said the insurgents in recent times had stepped up their activities by invading their communities and carting away food items.

    With the pressure on Nigerian soldiers to clamp down on the Islamic sect, it was learnt that the insurgents no longer felt safe to go to markets to buy food items for fear of being arrested.

    Some of the insurgents recently met their waterloo in Madagali, Adamawa State, where they were given up by a local food vendor from whom they had planned to buy foodstuffs.

    It was also learnt that the violent sect had begun to pile up food items in preparation for a long drawn battle with the military, especially as the United States, United Kingdom, France, Israel and other foreign collaborators are assisting the Federal Government to ensure the safe return of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

    With the allied forces believed to be on the ground to help the Nigerian military rescue the girls, it was learnt that the insurgents did not want to be caught unawares by running out of strategic resources, especially food.

    Saturday PUNCH further learnt that this development also contributed to the latest strategy of carting away food from communities, and the rustling up of the residents’ cattle in the last one week.

    Unconfirmed reports had indicated that certain helicopters used to drop food items and other needs in the Sambisa stronghold of the Boko Haram group.

    Security experts said the growing focus on the Sambisa forest must have disrupted the routine of the helicopters, thus putting pressure on the group’s supply chain and fueling more attacks on villagers in the North-East.