MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) - Nigeria’s army chief said that residents displaced from Baga town in the country’s northeast should be able to return to vote in March elections after the military reclaimed the town from Islamic extremists.
Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minima spoke to journalists Wednesday in Maiduguri after he said he visited the town on Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, near the borders of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Boko Haram militants had killed hundreds of people in Baga in a January attack after Nigerian troops fled. The military on Feb. 21 reported that it had retaken the town from extremists, one of dozens of gains reported by military from Nigeria and Chad in recent weeks. Boko Haram had days earlier denied the military had retaken the town.
Minima said that Nigeria’s army would take back more towns from the Islamic extremists.
“From today it is never again for insurgents to take hold of any of our territory. I told them that today it is going to be victory all the way because the war is almost ended. From here we move to retake Gwoza, Marte and Madagali,” he said.
He said he was confident that it was “achievable to end the Boko Haram activities very soon,” and that residents who have been displaced should be able to return to their homes for March 28 presidential elections.
Boko Haram, which denounces democracy as a corrupt Western concept, has warned it will disrupt the elections with attacks.
Neighboring countries increasingly have been drawn into Nigeria’s 5-year Islamic uprising, which has killed thousands and driven 1.6 million people from their homes, including across borders into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Boko Haram has been recruiting fighters in all three countries.
Cameroon officials said that its prisons, especially at its border with Nigeria, are overcrowded with suspected Boko Haram members.
Maroua Central Prison registrar Ngeh Emmanuel said that 30,000 people have been detained in 25 prisons in Cameroon since May 2014, up from 22,000 detained before that. More soldiers are needed to stop inmates from endless attempts to break out of jail, he said.
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