With a military escort instead of the usual pomp, the emir of Mubi was reinstalled Friday in his palace, where until recently the black-and-white flag of Nigeria’s Islamic extremists, Boko Haram, had flown.
An army tank guarded Mubi’s town gate, fortified by sandbags, as residents returned from the mountain hideouts where they took refuge while the militants held their city for more than a month.
After weeks of setbacks and reports that soldiers ran away when Boko Haram attacked, Nigeria’s military, including newly deployed special forces, have gone on the offensive and recaptured some cities and towns.
All is not yet back to normal in Mubi. Bodies of militants still littered one street, testimony to the hard fighting by Nigerian soldiers who won back the town a week ago. They were helped by air raids, traditional hunters armed with guns and spears, as well as vigilantes carrying homemade weapons.
The emir’s cavalcade drove by bombed-out buildings, burned-out armored personnel carriers, vandalized banks, and government offices looted when the extremists seized the town in October. Banks are still shut and there’s no cellphone service, but the dozens of people who have returned home welcomed their traditional Muslim monarch, Emir Abubakar Isa Ahmadu.
“We appreciate the gallant efforts of the Nigerian military, hunters, and vigilantes that saw the liberation of our towns,” he told a handful of cheering supporters gathered to welcome him home.
At Friday prayers, he said he was optimistic other centers in northeastern Nigeria would soon be won back.