Thirty-five people, including two soldiers and a policeman, have been killed in two separate gunfights between security forces and members of the militant Islamist sect, Boko Haram, in Borno State.
The killings took place on Sunday when the sect members launched attacks on a riot police base in Bama, a town close to the Cameroun border, and the Multi-National Joint Task Force base in Malam Fatori.
A third incident in Gwoza, another Borno State community, was said to have resulted in the death of unspecified number of Boko Haram commanders.
They all took place just as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said that after a preliminary investigation, she was convinced that acts attributed to Boko Haram amounted to crimes against humanity.
Members of the violent sect had launched a similar attack in Bama on May 7 this year, killing 55 persons, including 22 policemen and 14 prison officials.
In the Sunday attacks, a policeman and 17 members of the sect, were killed and two soldiers injured. Two other soldiers and 15 insurgents also died in the Malam Fatori onslaught.
The spokesperson for the MNJTF , Lt.Col. Sagir Musa, confirmed the Bama and Malam Fatori attacks, in a statement on Monday.
He said, "During the incident in Bama, Bama Local Government Area, troops recovered four Toyota Hilux vans, 10 AK-47 rifles and magazines, two G3 rifles and 10×4 40mm bombs.
"Other weapons recovered from the terrorists were three RPG tubes, 85 rounds of special ammunition, three motorcycles, among others.''
He said another group of suspected Boko Haram terrorists launched an attack on Malam Fatori.
"Similarly at about 10 am on the same day(Sunday), some Boko Haram terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons attacked a MJTF location at Malam Fatori in Abadam LGA. The attack led to the death of two soldiers and 15 Boko Haram terrorists but the situation in both places has returned to normal," Musa disclosed.
Meanwhile, the special forces are said to have intensified action against Boko Haram members in Gwoza hills.
It was learnt that a majority of the soldiers that returned from the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations were deployed in Borno State last week to intensify the fight in Gwoza.
A highly placed security source said on Monday that the special forces and the Boko Haram members engaged themselves at the Gwoza area of the state for the greater part of Sunday.
The source said that several people, including commanders of the sect whose identities were not disclosed, were among the dead.
He added that while there was still a heavy security presence in the area, it was believed that the area had been swept by the special forces.
The source said, "There was an attack by the special forces on some people who were trying to flee the Gwoza area believed to be harbouring some top commanders of Boko Haram.
"The corpses have yet to be indentified but they are believed to be leaders of the sect." When one of our correspondents contacted the Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, he admitted that there was an ongoing military operation at the Gwoza area of the state.
Olukolade said that the Special Forces were carrying out a holistic mopping-up operation in the mountains of Gwoza.
"All I can tell you is that there is a mopping-up operation going on at Gwoza, and the operation is expected to be thorough too," he added.
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