2,000 people flee a village as the army prepares for Boko Haram's offensive

The residents of Maiduguri (photo of April 7, 2019, after a double suicide bombing) were evacuated "for their safety, because of ongoing operations to drive insurgents out of the region". By Audu Ali MARTE (AFP / File)

Some 2,000 people were forced to flee to the city of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria, following a major offensive against Boko Haram, AFP told AFP Tuesday. Emergency and residents.

Nigerian troops gathered the villagers of Jakana village in trucks and drove them to an IDP camp in the capital of Borno state, a spokesman for the National Agency said. Emergency Management (NEMA).

The evacuees were taken to the Bakbadi camp for internally displaced persons by the army for their safety following the ongoing operations to oust insurgents from the area. said Abdulkadir Ibrahim.

Camp officials "mobilized resources" to meet their basic needs, he added.

The residents of Jakana stated that they had not received any notice.

Modu Kaka said: "The soldiers came this morning and told us to gather and started gathering in trucks.

"We left all our belongings in Jakana and we now depend on food aid."

Bakbadi is one of many camps in the city hosting thousands of displaced people, who live in squalid shelters and depend on food distributions provided by aid agencies.

An unidentified military official in the city said that the evacuation was in preparation for a "grand operation" against the Islamic State of West Africa Province ( ISWAP), the Boko Haram faction linked to the Islamic State.

Jakana sits on a pbad road known to ISWAP fighters who move between their camps in the Benisheikh forest area in Borno and their hiding places in the Buni Yadi area of ​​the neighboring Yobe State.

In January, ISWAP sent letters to residents of Jakana and Mainok asking them to leave their homes for an imminent raid on the army.

According to military sources and militias, jihadists have been attacked in recent weeks by intensive air and ground offensive carried out by coalition forces involving Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon against militant camps on Lake Chad. .

"We know that they will use their traditional route to escape," said a military source.

The Boko Haram insurgency, which has lasted for a decade, has killed more than 27,000 people in the north-east and 1.8 million of them are still displaced from their homes.

The conflict has spread to neighboring countries, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, resulting in the formation of a regional military coalition against jihadists.