By Adam Abu-bashal
ABUJA, Nigeria (AA) – Several Boko Haram militants were killed Thursday in an air raid targeting one of their camps in northeast Nigeria, according to a top defense official.
Defense Ministry spokesman John Enenche told reporters that the operation was carried out over the Sambisa Forest in Borno state where Boko Haram members were holding a meeting.
He said a large number of terrorists were killed and the camp was destroyed.
Boko Haram launched a bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread its atrocities to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a military response.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram's violence in Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Violence by Boko Haram has affected 26 million people in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.6 million others, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
*Writing by Sena Guler