The loss of the chopper happened even as the Islamic insurgents, Boko Haram, raided two more towns while local vigilantes and hunters fought them back.
There was no immediate indication that the insurgents were responsible for the crash, but it is clear that there has been an increase in their activities in the state in recent weeks.
Boko Haram has reportedly taken over more than two dozen towns in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, including the commercial hub of Mubi, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Yola.
Last week, the extremists, who have been waging a five-year insurgency to create a hardline Islamic state, renamed Mubi “Madinatul Islam” or “City of Islam” in Arabic, residents said.
Chief of army staff, Major General Kenneth Minimah, told a Senate defence committee on Thursday that the loss of territory was “painful” but promised that troops would recapture lost ground.
Locals and a government official said later that about 200 vigilantes and hunters armed with home-made guns, spears, clubs, bows and arrows, and machetes took back Mubi.
“It is true Mubi has fallen back into the hands of Nigerian soldiers with the help of local vigilantes and hunters,” Chibado Bobi, chief of staff in the Adamawa state governor’s office, told AFP.
“It is however too early for residents who fled to move back to Mubi because the security and vigilantes need to mop up all remnants of the group that may be lurking in nearby areas.”
Boko Haram had introduced its strict version of Islamic law in the town, including amputations for accused thieves, according to residents who fled.
AFP
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