"Chibok is now under Boko Haram siege," the chairman of the Chibok local government area, Yaga Yarkawa, told journalists today in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Nigeria's homegrown Islamic extremist group some 130 kilometres northeast of Chibok.
The accounts of Boko Haram violence around Chibok, along with multiple suicide bombings in Maiduguri city and attacks on army outposts, raise doubts about military and government claims that the seven-year-old insurgency is nearly defeated. Instead, the rebels have stepped up attacks as the rainy season draws to an end, making them more mobile.
Boko Haram is employing scorched earth tactics, rustling livestock, looting crops just ready to harvest, and burning homes and what crops they cannot carry, he said. "Contrary to claims by government and security operatives, Chibok is not safe."
It's not known if anyone has been killed because people are too scared to go back to the deserted villages, civilian self-defense fighter Bulama Abogu said. No soldiers have intervened, he said.
More From This Section
Many of the villages fringe on the Sambisa Forest, where Nigerian security forces have been carrying out near-daily air bombardments and ground attacks in which they have freed thousands of Boko Haram captives and cut food supplies.
Another Chibok girl escaped captivity in May and one was rescued in an army raid earlier this month. The government says it is conducting negotiations with Boko Haram for the freedom of nearly 200 Chibok girls remaining in captivity.
The chief of army staff, Lt Gen. Tukur Buratai, last week insisted that "the terrorists have been defeated" and said the army is conducting "mop-up operations aimed at ensuring that we clear the rest of them".