More than 2,000 Boko Haram fighters and their families have moved from the Timbuktu Triangle to the Sambisa Forest, according to security officials and community sources in the Lake Chad region.
The relocation started on Thursday as the Nigerian military increased preparations for a major clearance operation targeting the Timbuktu Triangle and other insurgent hideouts around the Lake Chad area.
An eyewitness, who requested anonymity, said the fighters, along with their wives and children, fled to Sambisa Forest to avoid the upcoming military offensive and to join other Boko Haram factions already based there.
Another intelligence source also confirmed that some fighters from the same area were heading toward Dutsen Ngulde, another well known insurgent hideout close to Sambisa.
Investigations show that the military has intensified operations in the region after a brigadier general was killed in an ambush along the Wajiroko axis.
The Timbuktu Triangle, Sambisa Forest, and the Mandara Mountains remain major strongholds used by the insurgents for training and planning attacks.
Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, recently urged the military to launch coordinated offensive operations in these locations.
“Launch an offensive attack on the terrorists’ safe havens in Tumbus, Mandara Hills, and Sambisa to end their madness,” Governor Zulum said during a meeting with the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke, at the Government House in Maiduguri.
