When the Nigerian army announced on Sunday that the last battleground against Boko Haram is the Sambisa forest, it appeared to many as if the battle against insurgency had almost been won and could end within days.

But with a landmass of 60, 000 square kilometres, the Sambisa forest, Boko Haram’s hideout, is 18 times the size of Nigeria’s most populous state of Lagos, which is just about 3,345 square kilometres. That forest is also about 85 percent of Borno State’s surface area of 72,898 square kilometres.

While Borno is the second biggest state in Nigeria, coming only behind Niger State which is 76,363 square kilometres, Lagos, even with its 21 million people, remains the smallest state in Nigeria, even smaller than Anambra, Nigeria’s second smallest state with its 4,844 square kilometres.

It is therefore naive to believe that battling Boko Haram inside the Sambisa forest would be easy, especially because there are no good roads inside the forest as we have in Lagos, and also because Boko Haram is in charge and understands the terrain better than Nigerian soldiers who have never lived there.

Boko Haram terrorists have been living there for years now since they launched their insurgency seven years ago, and the Chibok girls who were taken there have not been rescued for almost two years now. Many other women who were forcefully taken there have not been released.

This is because inside that jungle, the Nigerian army is simply not there. It is inside the Sambisa forest that Boko Haram prepares and launches attacks against Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

While more than 25,000 Nigerians have been murdered by the militants who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in March last year, and have since modelled their barbarism after the Middle East killers, over 1200 people have been murdered in Cameroon since 2013, including 67 soldiers. Hundreds have been killed in Chad and Niger, forcing President Idris Deby of Chad to declare a permanent state of emergency within the Lake Chad Basin.

That forest also constitutes the northern border between Nigeria and Cameroon and part of Chad. With the Nigerian army not in charge of such vast land, the terrorists have been comfortable for years and have smuggled in sophisticated weapons and security vehicles, including armoured vehicles.

But the Sambisa forest is not the only problem with the war as a Senator from Borno State told journalists on Saturday that claims by President Muhammadu Buhari that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated” are simply false as the terrorists still control more than half of Nigeria’s troubled state of Borno.

Buhari has repeatedly said since December last year that Boko Haram had become so weakened that it now only resorts to hit and run attacks, but the Senator from the troubled state said all that was propaganda but not the reality on ground.

The Senator representing Borno Central, Baba Kaka Garbai spoke to journalists on Saturday evening during a condolence visit to Dalori village where 65 persons were killed last week and at least 136 others were injured in the gun and bomb attacks by Boko Haram that lasted four hours, less than 10 kilometres from Maiduguri, the heavily militarised capital of Borno State.

He said both the military and Boko Haram have full control of three separate local governments in troubled Borno State and share control in all the 21 other local governments.

“I feel highly demoralised, devastated in the sense that this is the village we came during the election and they were going about their normal business. The activities that were ongoing was like confidence building.

“They actually got the signal a few days before the attack that the insurgents were likely to attack them, they reported to the constituted authorities but nothing was done.

“I will like to appeal to the military to intensify their effort in ensuring they beef up security around the villages and communities that share borders with Maiduguri metropolis. It is very important and more so that this place is porous, there could be attack from any direction,” he said on Saturday after giving financial assistance to those left in Dalori.

He added: “It is a wrong assumption that most of the local governments in Borno are recaptured from the Boko Haram. In reality this is not true in the sense that apart from Maiduguri Metropolis, Bayo and Kwaya Kusar, these are the three local governments that are under the occupation of the Nigerian government where the military and police are maintaining law and order.

“Mobbar, Abadam and Kala Balge are 100 percent occupied by the insurgents. There are some local governments that are partially occupied by the insurgents especially as the local government secretariats have been liberated but their hither-lands are still controlled by the insurgents.”

Garbai gave an instance of Konduga which was liberated but still has many communities in the local government area under the insurgents.

He said “though Gwoza town has been liberated there still remain six wards in Gwoza local government area still occupied by the insurgents.”

“From my count, only three local government are fully liberated, 21 local governments partially occupied by insurgents, that is there is still some level of Boko Haram occupation side by side the military or any other constituted authority. The local government fully occupied by Boko Haram are Abadam, Mobbar and Kala Balge.

“We should not live under the illusion that Boko Haram are decimated or weakened, these are not reality and neither a true reflection of the reality. The reality is that most of the local governments in Borno is partially occupied by Boko Haram.”

On the proposed reconstruction, rehabilitation and relocation in the troubled areas, Garbai said it was unreasonable while bomb and gun attacks were still taking place.

“If the people are moved back to their homelands you are making them vulnerable to attack. Unless you provide maximum security and return of law and order in these areas, relocating these people would be endangering their lives.”

With all of this, and with intelligence gathering visibly not there to track Boko Haram finances and sponsors or their movements to determine how they import landmines and other dangerous weapons into Nigeria, in addition to the fact that Nigerian soldiers have not received new weapons since Buhari came to power almost nine months ago, having previously complained that Boko Haram was using superior weapons, the war against Boko Haram may last for years, even with a retired Major-General in charge of Africa’s most populous country.

Simon Ateba is the publisher of Simonateba.com in Lagos.