“The people that were freed are just villagers”. Nigeria’s military says it has carried out air strikes against militant Islamist group Boko Haram “deep inside” the Sambisa forest, destroying at least 11 of its bases.

This is contained in a statement by Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Usman, when he disclosed that troops arrested one of the insurgents during the encounter, while many others were killed.

He denied Cameroon has forcefully evicted Nigerian refugees though Nigerian officials have reported receiving several thousand in recent months. “This is not a war for the military alone, it is a war for all Nigerians,” the minister said.

In Takulashi, a group of insurgents on bicycles and on foot invaded the farming and herding community at about 6:00 am (0500 GMT) on Sunday, shooting indiscriminately and setting fire to homes. I was taken on our way to my village.

It would be recalled that Boko Haram seized about 200 schoolgirls in April 2014 from their dormitories in the town of Chibok. The information minister said the Nigerian military “has largely met the deadline issued by the president, and would have done so totally by December”.

In Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, Mohammed conceded attacks on “soft” targets were more difficult to prevent, as “there is nowhere in the world that you end this kind of thing overnight”.

General Tukur Buratai explained that the security challenges witnessed in the country in the area of Boko Haram insurgency has posed a serious threat to national security, adding that “this has placed great demands on the Nigerian Army which has not relented in living up to the expectations of the nation’s citizenry”.

Analysts believe that the girls have been split into small groups and made to settle with Boko Haram families in villages both in Nigeria and Cameroon making it hard for law enforcement to track.