Just as quickly as they rose out of the desert scrub several months ago, however, they recently disappeared as Nigeria’s military regained control of this area as part of a new offensive.
As attack helicopters hovered overhead and tanks hid among the scrawny trees, military commanders told journalists touring the region on Wednesday that they had struck a decisive blow against the radicals, who want to impose strict Islamic law over this multiethnic nation of more than 160-million people.
Behind the smiles and speeches, commanders acknowledged that fighters of the extremist network Boko Haram had probably escaped their dragnet, burning equipment they could not carry while still maintaining an arsenal of heavy weaponry. That means Nigeria’s quick military successes may carry the price of years of troop commitments in this region of crumbling roads and derelict power lines to hold territory against a now-unseen adversary.
"One year, two years, three years — that’s what we signed up for," Lt-Col Olufemi Olorunyomi said.
The new military offensive comes after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency last month in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states — a territory of about 155,000km² of the Sahel bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In a nationally televised speech, Mr Jonathan acknowledged that the state had lost control of some villages and towns to extremist fighters responsible for more than 1,600 killings since 2010 alone.
Military reinforcements arrived in a northeast region already heavily occupied with soldiers, but now with the authority to arrest anyone at will and occupy any building believed to harbour extremists. For weeks, the military issued statements outlining quick advances and mass arrests, while never offering clear explanations of its own losses.
On Wednesday, the military flew foreign and local journalists from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to Maiduguri in Borno state as part of a tour of one battleground area. The tour clearly offered the message Nigeria’s military wants publicised: Soldiers routed the extremists.
The chief of defence staff "was interested in the whole world knowing what was going on, and we have nothing to hide", said Jah Ewansiha, the commanding officer of the joint police and military task force in the northeast. However, commanders ordered journalists not to "clandestinely interview" any soldiers and tried to limit questions to officers who spoke along the way.
Officers displayed items of a cache of weapons they said they seized from Boko Haram fighters, ranging from locally made pistols that fire a single shotgun shell to truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns firing 12.7mm rounds. Long belts of heavy ammunition were mixed up with rounds for Kalashnikov assault rifles. Much of the weaponry appears to be from old Eastern Europe arsenals, Col Kayode Ogundele said, likely smuggled into the country as part of West Africa’s thriving illegal arms trade.
The colonel acknowledged that extremists probably still have anti-aircraft guns and other sophisticated weaponry that pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s military.
"I have a strong belief they still have some of them, and we are on it," Col Ogundele said.
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the spiritual home of Boko Haram, had long lines on Wednesday at automated teller machines, and some stores were open. Cellphone service remained turned off, as security officials have said the government shut down the networks in hopes of disrupting extremists. A military convoy carrying journalists sped past lines of waiting cars at numerous checkpoints, escorted by armoured personnel carriers with gunners who constantly swivelled their machine guns.
The northeast remains one of the poorest places in the country, where 75% of people live in absolute poverty on less than $1 a day, Nigerian government statistics show. That poverty, coupled with growing anger over public corruption and few opportunities for the region’s youth, helps fuel the insurgency.
That allowed Boko Haram extremists to take over Marte several months ago as they preached about religious purity and called the government sacrilegious, Lt-Col Olorunyomi said.
Shortly after the president’s announcement in May, soldiers moved into the area and took control. They discovered an extremist camp close to a nearby village called Kerinowa. What happened next remains unclear, as officials contradicted each other on whether they attacked the camp and destroyed the extremists’ vehicles or whether the fighters torched what they could not carry and escaped.
The camp, hidden in brush, was deserted on Wednesday and the ground was scattered with medical supplies and discarded clothes. Authorities said extremists had begun coating their vehicles with mud and hiding them under trees to avoid being spotted from the air. Brig Gen. Chris Olukolade, the military’s top spokesman, has said the military carried out some aerial bombings against fighters.
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