LAGOS, Nigeria _ Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari announced Saturday that the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram had been driven from its final stronghold in the Sambisa Forest on the border with Cameroon. Still, the group's deadly suicide attacks on markets, bus stations and other civilian targets are likely to continue.
"I am delighted at, and most proud of the gallant troops of the Nigerian Army, on receipt of the long-awaited and most gratifying news of the final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave in Sambisa Forest," Buhari said in a Christmas message to the nation.
Camp Zero, its main base deep in the forest, was destroyed Friday by Nigerian security forces, he said.
Nigerian soldiers frequently abandoned their posts rather than fight Boko Haram, an affiliate of Islamic State, and by 2014 the group had gained control of a large expanse of northern Nigeria.
But in the past 18 months, Nigerian forces have consolidated their attack on the militants, forcing them to leave all the major towns they controlled and to pull back to the dense Sambisa Forest.
The government has been pursuing them there, carrying out intensive air strikes, sending in ground forces and building roads into the forest to clear out insurgent bases.
Between Dec. 14 and Dec. 21, Nigerian forces rescued 1,880 prisoners of Boko Haram who were being held in the forest. During that same period, 564 Boko Haram fighters were arrested, Maj. Gen. Leo Irabor said last week.
Government troops faced several attempted suicide bombings, he said. Some fighters simply blended into the local communities, making it difficult to trace them.
"The terrorists are on the run and no longer have a place to hide," the president said in the statement Saturday.
Nigerian authorities have frequently boasted of defeating Boko Haram or killing its leader, Abubakar Shekau, only to be proven wrong.
The group, which emerged in 2003 and is fighting to impose an Islamic state across Nigeria, has proven to be resilient. It has been almost wiped out more than once, notably in 2009, only to regroup.
Even as pressure on Boko Haram intensified in recent months, the group continued to carry out devastating suicide bombings, often using girls _ teens and younger _ to carry out bomb attacks.
At least 56 civilians died in a twin suicide bombing at a busy market in the town of Madagali in northeastern Nigeria earlier this month.
Now Boko Haram will likely intensify use of its tactics of assassinations and suicide bombings on soft civilian targets. Six suicide bombers, including five women, were killed Friday trying to detonate suicide vests, according to authorities.
Extremists continue to drive farmers from their land, making it impossible for them to plant crops, and many areas of the northeast remain too dangerous for humanitarian workers to access, as the region faces a severe hunger crisis caused by the conflict.
Among those worst affected by the crisis are people who fled their homes. Roughly 14 million Nigerians are in need of humanitarian assistance because of the violence, according to the United Nations.
