Nigerian troops deployed to the country’s troubled North-East to contain the Boko Haram menace have raided more camps belonging to the sect, killing at least 35, according to reports.

The Nigerian military earlier confirmed the take-over over Boko Harma’s Sambisa camps on the outskirt of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, but Director of Defence Information, Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade, told Reuters news agency yestreday: “There are a lot of casualties. It is not just Sambisa; every camp is under attack. But we have not done the mopping up operations on the ground to determine the numbers killed.”

He also said: “There have been air strikes since Wednesday, and were continuing yesterday. I cannot tell you the actual number of terrorists killed, but I am optimistic we are making headway, and at the end of the operation, we will be commended.”

A report in the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard said that the country’s “troops yesterday used jets and attack helicopters to bombard Boko Haram Islamic camps in Sambisa Game Reserve,” adding that “no fewer than 35 of the insurgents had so far been killed during the air strikes.”

Over 3,600 military personnel comprising the Army, Navy, Police, the Department of State Security, DSS and other security agencies and men of Counter Terrorists Squad, CTS, are said to be involved in the campaign to rout the Boko Haram insurgents from their hideouts in the affected states.

The troops were deployed to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states on Monday – a day before President Goodluck Jonathan imposed emergency rule on the three states, though sparing their governors as the country’s constitution strips him of the right to remove them.