Nigeria: Anti-Boko Haram task force scores major blow against jihadist group

A multinational task force battling the al-Qaeda-linked-Boko Haram said on Thursday it had recaptured the only town in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state that was still held by the Islamist militant group.

Boko Haram, which formed in Borno, has waged an Islamist insurgency since 2009 to carve out a state based on sharia (Islamic law) in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country. More than 15,000 people have been killed and many more displaced.

Damasak, captured by Boko Haram in October 2014, was part of an area that the jihadist group controlled in northeast Nigeria.
Its attacks have spread to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which prompted those nations to combine troops to form the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).

Source: Reuters