Nigerian army denies report about missing soldiers

The Nigerian army on Thursday denied media reports that some 105 soldiers in the northeastern Borno state went missing after an attack by Islamist group Boko Haram.

"It is true that our troops were attacked after we captured Gulumba town in Borno, however, our men have successfully repelled the attack," Maj.-Gen.Yushau Abubakar, a military commander told reporters in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

Abubakar said the military had consolidated its grip on the town by stationing its troops.

"Our men are very visible in the area, I do not know of any report about the missing 105 soldiers," he said.

"I am telling you that our soldiers are standing firm in the area and they are flushing whatever Boko Haram remnants in the area," he added.

The Nigerian army, supported by troops from Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has been engaging Boko Haram militants in the northeast.

It has reclaimed most of the territory held by Boko Haram. However, suicide bombings by the militants persist, with the latest killing at least 50 people at a phone market in the northwestern Kano state on Wednesday.

Boko Haram has since 2009 waged a campaign of violence in Nigeria in an effort to establish an Islamic state.

It has killed some 13,000 people and kidnapped hundreds, with neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon affected.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has given a December deadline for the army to end the Boko Haram insurgency. Endit