In the dry season, Nigeria’s army puts Boko Haram on the back foot

THE CHIEF OF STAFFACLED of Nigeria’s army, General Tukur Buratai, has often declared victory over Boko Haram, a jihadist group known for kidnapping girls and strapping bombs to children. But it was only in April, after soldiers from neighbouring Chad attacked the rebels’ bases, that he felt confident enough to move his headquarters from Abuja, the sleepy federal capital, to Borno state, the heart of the insurgency. It was intended as a signal that Nigeria was entering the final stages of a bloody war that has raged for more than ten years and cost perhaps 40,000 lives, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (), a non-profit organisation based in America.Nigerian forces claim to have made big advances and to have killed more than 1,000 insurgents in recent weeks. Few Nigerians believe the government’s numbers or that it is winning the war, since it has been saying so since late 2015. But audio messages released by Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram’s main faction, since April suggest the group is indeed hard-pressed. In one of them he wept and prayed for protection from the “devilish” army as he urged his men to stand firm.