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Monguno (Nigeria) (AFP) – Northeastern Nigeria is in a "post-conflict stabilization phase," President Muhammadu Buhari said Friday, despite persistent attacks by Boko Haram insurgents
from 2009, leaving at least 20,000 dead, displacing more than 2.6 million others and causing a wider humanitarian crisis.
Buhari, his military commanders and his government repeatedly insisted for several years that jihadists were on the verge of defeat.
But his last statement goes further because it implies the total end of hostilities.
Addressing troops in the garrison town of Monguno, 140 kilometers from Borno's state capital, Maiduguri, Buhari said that Boko Haram fighters were surrendering "voluntarily".
"It is obvious that we are in a phase of post-conflict stability, which has been made possible by the good work of our armed forces," he added.
Former military leader Buhari came to power three years ago on the promise to defeat Boko Haram, who is aligned with the Islamic State group and threatens security in the Lake Chad region
. obvious military gains since the launch of a counter-insurgency in early 2015, suicide bombings and raids remain a constant threat, especially for civilians.
Last month, 43 people were killed in the city of Damboa. kilometers southwest of Maiduguri. Soldiers and civilians were also killed in Niger and Chad.
The United Nations said in an activity report of its operations in Nigeria this year to May 31 that "mbadive displacements of people" were still weekly. "In the last seven months, since the intensification of hostilities in the north-east, more than 130,000 people have been displaced, sometimes for the second or third time," he added.
He warned that these trips would continue at least next month. Towns and villages damaged and destroyed by nine years of fighting lacked shelter, clean water, sanitary, sanitary and educational facilities, and security remained unstable
M. Buhari, 75, is seeking re-election next February and aid workers said his latest statement on hostilities was probably political.
He is also under pressure from growing insecurity elsewhere, The conflict between farmers and ranchers has caused 1,000 deaths since January
"There is every reason to believe that there are still some major and major problems "in northeastern Nigeria, said a humanitarian worker at AFP. ]
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