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Bishop Mattew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has said that the Nigerian government is finally turning the tide on Boko Haram, the ISIS-aligned terrorist group that has held the north in its bloody grip for years. The Christian leader told the FoxNews in a recent interview.
“In the last six months, there has been significant progress, we can proudly say, they no longer control territory and that they are literally on their last legs now.”
Kukah said the central African nation’s recent advances against the extremist group have been hard-won. The terror group has existed for more than a decade, but gained international infamy in April, 2014, when members kidnapped 276 Christian schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, in the northern Borno state.
Some 57 of the girls escaped and others are feared dead. But the terrorist group is believed to be holding as many as 200 more than two years after seizing them. The government in Abuja has sought their safe return even as it has waged war on the Islamist terror group.
"Boko Haram has become outed and they are no longer a threat to the Nigerian society," he said. "[They] are now involved in some sort of back door negotiations with the federal government, and these negotiations are certainly tied to the release of the Chibok Girls.”
Last month, Nigeria's government said it was examining a "proof of life" video showing 15 of the schoolgirls, the first footage of the missing girls released since May, 2014, when Boko Haram put out a video showing about 100 of them in Islamic garb and reciting the Koran.
