Nigeria says last Boko Haram stronghold crushed

by TheHill.com - 12/24/16 2:32 PM ET

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari announced Saturday a successful military takeover of the last stronghold of rebel group Boko Haram.

Buhari commended Nigerian troops for “finally entering and crushing the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents at Camp Zero,” the rebel base in Sambisa forest, according to The Associated Press.

“The terrorists are on the run, and no longer have a place to hide,” he said.

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The ultimate defeat of the rebel group came as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a group Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to, attacked a military barracks in Nigeria’s Yobe state. Both attacks occurred Thursday.

Camp Zero was alleged to be the place where Boko Haram was holding more than 200 young girls kidnapped from the town of Chibok in 2014.

Although Nigerian forces have liberated thousands of Boko Haram prisoners, 197 of the Chibok girls remain missing.

A group of girls who escaped Boko Haram claimed that some of their fellow prisoners had died under captivity of malaria and snake bites, the AP reported.

“Further efforts should be intensified to locate and free our remaining Chibok girls still in captivity. May God be with them,” Buhari said.

Boko Haram was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2013 by the U.S. State Department.

Its 7-year uprising has cost more than 20,000 lives and displaced about 2.3 million people, according to the AP.

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