BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — Islamic militants again attacked
the remote Nigerian town from which nearly 300 schoolgirls were
kidnapped, Nigeria’s military said Wednesday, resulting in a firefight
that killed 12 soldiers and led angry troops to fire on a commanding
officer.
Soldiers said the troops fired at a senior officer who
came to pay respects to the killed soldiers, whose bodies were brought
to a barracks in Maiduguri, the capital of northeastern Borno state.
It’s
another sign of demoralization in the military that is in charge of the
search for the abducted schoolgirls. The failure of Nigeria’s
government and military to find them after the April 15 mass abduction
has triggered national and international outrage and forced Nigeria’s
government to accept international help last week.
Nigeria’s
Ministry of Defense played down Wednesday’s shooting incident, saying
soldiers "registered their anger about the incident by firing into the
air. The situation has since been brought under control, as there is
calm in the cantonment" in Maiduguri, about 130 kilometers north of
Chibok, where the girls were abducted.
But soldiers who were at
the scene at Mailamari Barracks said infuriated troopers fired directly
at the vehicle carrying Maj. Gen. Ahmadu Mohammed, the general officer
commanding the army’s 7 Division. He was not hit.
The witnesses
said the soldiers were angry because they wanted to spend the night in a
village and told their command the road was dangerous after the attack
around Chibok. They were ordered to travel instead and were ambushed,
with at least 12 killed. The soldiers spoke on condition of anonymity
because they want to keep their jobs.
The Ministry of Defense,
which often exaggerates the number of enemy killed and downplays its own
losses, said four soldiers were killed along with several insurgents.
"Troops
engaged the insurgents in a fierce combat and extricated themselves
from the ambush killing several insurgents.
Four soldiers however lost
their lives during the ambush," said a statement from the ministry
spokesman, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade.
There is growing anger at
the military’s failures, though soldiers have told The Associated Press
that they are outgunned and outnumbered by the insurgents, don’t have
bullet-proof vests, are not properly paid and have to forage for food.
A
sign of their failure is the vigilante groups to fight the extremists
that have been springing up in northeast Nigeria over the past year.
In Kalabalge, a village about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Maiduguri, residents took matters into
their own hands.
On
Tuesday morning, after learning about an impending attack, villagers
ambushed two trucks with gunmen, residents and a security official told
The Associated Press. At least 10 suspected militants were detained, and
scores were killed, the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because he is not authorized to give interviews to
journalists. It was not immediately clear where the detainees were being
held.
Kalabalge trader Ajid Musa said that after residents
organized the vigilante group, "it is impossible" for militants to
successfully stage attacks there.
Earlier this year in other parts of Borno, extremists launched more attacks in retaliation over the
vigilante groups.
Borno
is one of three Nigerian states where President Goodluck Jonathan has
imposed a state of emergency, giving the military special powers to
fight the Islamic extremist group, whose stronghold is in Maiduguri.
Britain
and the U.S. are now actively involved in the effort to rescue the
missing schoolgirls. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said FBI agents
and a hostage negotiating team are in Nigeria now, providing technology
and other materials and working with "our Nigerian counterparts to be as
helpful as we possibly can." U.S. reconnaissance aircraft are flying
over Nigeria in search of the missing girls.
At least 276 of the
schoolgirls are still held captive, with the group’s leader threatening
to sell them into slavery. In a video released on Monday, he offered to
release the girls in exchange for the freedom of jailed Boko Haram
members.
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Adamu reported from Yobe, Nigeria. Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria.