Dead Soldier Corpses Still in Boko Haram Controlled Territory, Details Revealed

Our men are in Gubio local government area, though the place we wanted to capture is Damasak, which has a boundary with Niger Republic. That (Gubio) is the only local government area under Boko Haram. They control the whole area. "Boko Haram is well-armed… all of them. Anti-aircraft gun is what they use to kill people. Their vehicles are the colour of the Nigerian army just as their uniforms. Boko Haram uses anti-aircraft guns, but we don’t have those. And they have more than 20 rocket-propelled grenades; we have only two. "When we were trying to enter Gubio on Monday (April 18), they ambushed us. It is not clear to us how they got to know our mission. "On that day soldiers said that they did not want to go into that local government area because they did not have arms. But their bosses said that they must go there without being well-armed. Two battalions (113 and 158) of the fifth brigade went there. "Uncountable soldiers lost their lives. The corpses are still there now. We only recovered 15 bodies, but many of the soldiers are in the bush dead, and their bodies are decomposing. And authorities are going to block their accounts if their bodies are not recovered. Their families will not be able to access their salaries or benefits. There must be a dead body before you can make claims. "There is no reinforcement, and the commanders are asking the soldiers to go back there. Some soldiers have run away; there are less than 100 in a particular battalion now. The ammunition has been depleted, and no reinforcement. The two battalions are scattered and there is no encouragement."