Owing to the spate of attacks launched on the Nigerian troops by the Boko Haram insurgents, the Nigerian army has officially declared one officer and 45 soldiers missing.

Ceoafrica gathered that the Army authorities have formally informed the families of the 46 personnel of the fate of their loved ones and requested that their next of kin sholud forward bank details for remittance of accrued payments.

The sources said the declaration and notification were contained in a November 20 notice sent by M. Jimoh, the new commander of the Nigerian Army 145 Task Force Battalion in Damasak, Borno State in which Jimoh, a lieutenant colonel, sent the signal to the 145 Battalion rear base in Ohafia, Abia State, and copied the Army 7 Division Headquarters in Maiduguri and 82 Division Garrison in Enugu, respectively.

Moreover, 5 Battalion in Kano, 20 Battalion in Serti, Taraba State, 103 Battalion in Enugu and 119 Battalion in Malam Fatori, Borno State were also copied alongside 143 Infantry Battalion for special forces in Borno State, 144 Battalion in Abia State and 146 Battalion in Calabar.

Each of the battalions copied in the signal had soldiers that were part of the 83 missing,

Mr Jimoh recently replaced K. Yusuf, commander of the 145 Task Force Battalion who was among the missing soldiers.

The admission by the army that 46 personnel are missing came exactly five weeks after the soldiers were dislodged from their base in Gashigar, Borno State, by Boko Haram operatives which led to their loss.

The troops who launched operation in June 2016, were on deployment in Gashigar, which sits on the northernmost edge of Borno State, as part of the ‘Operation Gama Aiki’ aimed at displacing insurgents hibernating around the Nigerian border with Niger and Chad.

They were manning the Forward Operation Base there when Boko Haram operatives pushed towards them with superior firepower in the evening of October 16, senior military sources familiar with the encounter dislosed to ceoafrica at the time.

After initial resistance, the troops soon abandoned their base and scampered for safety. At dawn on October 17, the leadership of the Nigerian Army was informed that Boko Haram attacked the troops when they jumped into River Yobe, where the sect opened fire and left unknown number of them fatally wounded.

Twenty-two of the fleeing soldiers were rescued by the Nigerian troops and transported to a hospital in Diffa, southern Niger, for treatment.