Boko Haram fighters have surrounded the
northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri and are
preparing an imminent takeover, an influential
regional group claimed on Thursday, calling for
military reinforcements.
"They have completely surrounded the city of
Maiduguri," said the Borno Elders Forum, which is
made up of retired senior civilian and military
officials as well as community leaders.
"It is apparent that their imminent target is to
take the city of Maiduguri, the Borno state
capital," they said in a statement.
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa regions have been
under a state of emergency since May last year
but despite the Nigerian army driving Boko
Haram out of Maiduguri, thousands of people
have died in the countryside and many more
have been forced to flee.
"We wish to call on the federal government to
urgently fortify in and around the city of
Maiduguri," the elders added.
"The insurgents… are nursing the ambition of
attacking the city in all directions. There is
credible local intelligence information to that
effect."
The elders said that half of Borno state's 4.1
million population was now living in temporary
accommodation in Maiduguri, where Boko Haram
began as an anti-corruption movement in 2002.
The United Nations says that more than 650,000
people across the northeast have fled their
homes, while the United States has warned that
any attack on Maiduguri could hit civilians
further.
Roads and bridges have been destroyed, schools
shut and the economy blighted, with Maiduguri
without mains electricity for the last three
months.
The elders warned of "starvation" given that
subsistence farmers in the state had not been
able to plant crops this year because of the
chaos.
Security analysts have warned that Nigeria's
government was on the brink of losing control of
the northeast and Maiduguri would be a major
gain in its aim at creating a hardline Islamic state.
The elders said the government needed to act,
claiming the militants were in control within reach
of the city from the south and east after taking
over swathes of territory elsewhere in the state.
Boko Haram recently claimed to have taken over
Bama, 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Maiduguri
but the military has since said it has retaken the
town.
That followed a declaration by Boko Haram leader
Abubakar Shekau in a video released on August
24 that another captured Borno town, Gwoza, was now part of their
islamic caliphate.
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