ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s military claims it has destroyed the headquarters of Boko Haram in Gwoza, a town in northeast Nigeria. It was not possible to verify the victory that comes the day before presidential elections.
The official Twitter account of the Nigerian Defense Headquarters announced “FLASH: Troops this morning captured Gwoza destroying the Headquarters of the Terrorists self-styled Caliphate.”
It followed with “Several terrorists died while many are captured. Mopping up of entire (hash)Gwoza and her suburbs is ongoing.”
There was no mention of the Sambisa Forest, in the Gwoza local government area, where Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic extremist group is believed to have camps. Warplanes have been bombarding the area for weeks.
Sambisa Forest is where extremists first took nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok nearly a year ago. Some 219 remain missing.