Defence Hqtrs alerts on use of cluster bombs by Boko Haram

The war against Boko Haram terrorists yesterday took a new dimension as the terrorists have now introduced cluster bombs, which is a banned weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations, to annihilate Nigerians living in the North East.

This development came to light when the Defence Headquarters disclosed that Nigerian Army engineers recovered some caches of the bombs in the contested areas of battle in a recent confrontation.

A statement signed by the Acting Director, Defence Information, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said: “The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, wishes to inform Nigerians living in the North East and any other part of the country to keep a lookout for cluster bombs sometimes called scatter bombs as the Nigerian Army engineers serving in Adamawa State have recovered some caches of these bombs in the contested areas in recent time.

“The military high command has discovered that the Boko Haram Terrorists, BHT, in the areas have used such lethal instruments over time to push their callous terrorist cause.

“For easy identification, it is important to note that cluster bombs are bombs that house sub-munitions, that is, smaller explosives contained in individual cases.

“These bombs are used against large areas containing many targets, such as columns of vehicles, market places, places of worship or large troop concentration as the case may be.

“Some cluster bombs carry several hundred of very small explosives wrapped in a metal container like a pot while others carry larger sub-munitions that can find specific targets such as tanks.

“Some of these sub-munitions do not blow up immediately, but remain behind and act as landmines.

“This can be an acceptable explanation for the recovery of caches of these bombs by Nigerian Army Engineers in the area.”