The military said yesterday that the wife of Mamman Nur, factional leader of the Boko Haram terror sect, was among the casualties of a raid on the group’s location in the Lake Chad region.
Nur, son of Boko Haram’s spiritual founder, Muhammed Yusuf, was himself declared by the army as having been ‘fatally injured’ during the operation.
There is no independent confirmation of his injury or his wife’s death yet.
Nur is fingered as the brain behind the August 2011 bombing of the UN building in Abuja.
The State Security Services (SSS) declared him wanted the following month and placed a N25 million bounty on him.
He parted ways with Abubakar Shekau and proceeded to form his own group which he named AbuMussab Albarnawi.
The army also said yesterday that 1,050 insurgents had surrendered to troops in Lake Chad and Monguno general area of operations.
Many other terrorists are said to be on the run.
A separate joint operation on Sambisa forest by the Army and the Air Force has claimed the lives of scores of insurgents, the military said.
Spokesman for the Operation Lafiya Dole Theatre Command in Maiduguri, Onyema Nwachukwu, warned communities to watch out for the fleeing Boko Haram insurgents.