News: Boko Haram 'takes five municipalities' in Nigeria's Adamawa state
Abuja (AFP) - Boko Haram
has taken over at least five municipalities in northeast Nigeria's
Adamawa state, its governor said on Friday, calling for more troops to
halt further Islamist gains.
"I can talk of
my entire (home) district... Five local governments have been overrun,"
Governor Bala Ngilari told journalists on a visit to the capital,
Abuja.
"We need a lot of intervention. We need to move more troops to secure the state," he said. "It is a big challenge."
Nigeria
imposed a state of emergency in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa in May last
year but many believed that Adamawa was included as a precaution.
Violence in Adamawa had been relatively contained compared with Borno and Yobe further north.
But
Boko Haram has since captured significant parts of the state,
underscoring the severity of the crisis facing Nigeria, with the
militants apparently advancing with little resistance south of their
Borno stronghold.
Residents in Mubi, part of
the governor's home district, told AFP on Thursday that the extremists
had changed the town's name to Madinatul Islam, or "City of Islam" in
Arabic.
While calling for
more troops urgently, Ngilari also restated the need for a "soft power"
strategy to end the fight beyond the use of force, including reaching
out to Boko Haram foot soldiers.
"They
live with us. They are not from planet Mars. They are part and parcel
of society," he said, identifying high unemployment in the impoverished
northeast as a key factor in radicalisation.
Boko
Haram, which wants to create a hardline Islamic state in Nigeria's
northeast, is now thought to control at least two dozen towns in Yobe,
Borno and Adamawa.
The governor's call for more troops seemed to contrast with federal government claims of a possible ceasefire.
Many
were sceptical of the government's October 17 announcement of a truce
with the Islamists and the violence has continued at a relentless pace.
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