MAIDUGURI: Boko Haram fighters on Sunday overran a strategic town in northeastern Nigeria and seized a military base, as Secretary of State John Kerry pledged further US support against the militants.

The Islamists captured the town of Monguno in Borno State, which lies about 125 kilometres north of the state capital Maiduguri, which was targeted in a simultaneous dawn raid.

“Monguno has fallen, Monguno has fallen,” said a senior military officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“We fought them all night long but they took over the town, including the military barracks there”. The military in Abuja said that “scores” of Boko Haram fighters were killed as troops restored order in Maiduguri and Konduga, some 40 kilometres away.

But on Monguno, defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said an air campaign was being mounted as “troops had to retreat from the location” after the commander and soldiers were injured.

With closely-watched elections in Nigeria less than a month away, top US diplomat Kerry jetted into the financial capital Lagos for meetings with President Goodluck Jonathan and his main opposition rival Muhammadu Buhari.

Kerry’s whistlestop visit came amid fears of a repeat of election-related violence which in 2011 left some 1,000 people dead. Security has dominated the build-up to the February 14 presidential and parliamentary vote, as Boko Haram has intensified its attacks. Nigeria is currently scrambling for a solution to the problem of how to allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence to vote, which has led to calls for a delay.

There have also been sporadic tit-for-tat attacks by supporters of Jonathan’s Peo­p­les Democratic Party and those of Buhari’s All Progressives Congress .

Jonathan said he had told Kerry that his government would “provide all the resources that are required by the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that the election goes smoothly”. Kerry said it was “absolutely critical” that Nigeria had free, fair and timely elections and that the world was “paying very close attention” to developments in Africa’s most populous nation.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2015

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