Boko Haram expanding caliphate: Gwoza, Banki, Bama in Bornu and Buni Yadi, Bara in Yobe. The strategic plan to capture Maiduguri and Damaturu

Boko Haram expanding caliphate: Gwoza, Banki, Bama in Bornu and Buni Yadi, Bara in Yobe. The strategic plan to capture Maiduguri and Damaturu. The fall of Maiduguri is imminent.

Despite placating information from the Nigeria Military Headquarters, Boko Haram is quickly expanding its recently declared caliphate. The Islamic Caliphate of Northern Nigeria has spread from Sambisa to Gwoza, Gwoza to Bama, Bama to Banki in Bornu State, as well as from Buni Yadi to Bara in Yobe State in a two-pronged strategy to capture Maiduguri and Damaturu.

Earlier today BBC reported that  the Islamic terrorists group  captured the town of Banki, in the Limani area of Bornu State which borders Cameroon, after government troops fled, residents say.

Few ours ago residents told Reuters News Agency that Boko Haram has taken control of Bara, an “unguarded” town in northeastern Nigeria without firing a shot.

Musa Abdullahi, a trader who escaped the town, said Boko Haram members stormed Bara unarmed and then went about convincing residents to join their cause. “They went preaching in the whole town, asking people to leave government work and join them to do the work of Allah,” he said. “People were afraid, but they said that they did not come to kill anybody but to preach.”

Residents from Banki also reported that Nigerian troops abandoned their posts as the militants advanced on the small border town on Tuesday.

Most of the people remaining in the town were women and children, as many of the men had fled, one man who was hiding in the bush nearby told the BBC Hausa service.

The militants have not harmed anyone in the town, residents said.

The military has not yet commented on the latest takeover of towns in the northeast of Nigeria. They refuted the claim of the fall of Bama with a tongue-in-cheek statement yesterday.

With Boko Haram fighting from two fronts, Gwoza and Buni Yadi, the strategic plan is for Maiduguri and Damaturu to fall within the same period, which would give the terrorists the necessary boost to expand to other parts of the north before proceeding to Abuja.

This move has been envisaged by a think-thank, who stated that Boko Haram’s “lightning territorial gains” could lead to Nigeria breaking up like Iraq.

“Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a large area of its territory reminiscent of Isis’s lightning advances in Iraq,” the Nigeria Security Network (NSN) said in a special report released on Tuesday entitled North-East Nigeria On The Brink.

“If Maiduguri falls, it will be a symbolic and strategic victory unparalleled so far in the conflict,” it said.

“A successful attack could be followed by a take over of the whole of Borno state and possibly parts of Adamawa, Yobe, and neighbouring Cameroon.”

Boko Haram’s five-year insurgency  intensified in recent months soon after the retirement of the Generala Azubuike Ihejirika as the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, despite the deployment of thousands of extra troops to the worst-affected areas.
Related Story:

• Danger Signal! Boko Haram takes Bama. Eyes Maiduguri

Published on 03/09/2014 21:49 Greenwich Mean Time