Goodluck Jonathan's move comes as Nigerian jets reportedly drop bombs on Cameroonian border post
Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, fired all his military chiefs on Thursday and appointed an air force officer from the troubled north-east as the top military commander, in a major shakeup of the high command.
Officials in neighbouring Cameroon, meanwhile, said Nigerian jets dropped bombs that exploded around a Cameroonian border post on Wednesday, as Cameroonian forces were pulled into fighting between Nigerian troops and Islamic extremists. At least one woman on Cameroonian soil was killed by stray bullets and five other civilians were wounded.
Air Marshal Alex. Badeh, 57, has the top job as chief of defence staff and services, with immediate effect, and there are new chiefs of the army, navy and air force.
Badeh's home state of Adamawa as well as neighbouring Borno and Yobe states have been under a state of emergency since May. Thousands of security forces deployed to the area quickly drove Boko Haram insurgents out of major urban centres but there has been a resurgence in attacks recently.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and one of its biggest oil producers, is battling Islamic extremists in the north-east and there are fears the rebellion could spread beyond Nigeria's porous borders. On Wednesday, the violence affected neighbouring Cameroon, which has felt fallout from the conflict before.
Nigerian officials have complained that Cameroonian security forces are not doing enough to stop the insurgents from using Cameroon as a safe haven to launch attacks in Nigeria. Nigeria's military has said that fighters from Cameroon, Chad and Niger have been found fighting alongside Boko Haram.
The shakeup of Nigeria's military comes after recent high-profile attacks by Boko Haram.
On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in a busy commercial centre of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital that is the birthplace of Boko Haram. At least 43 people were killed, according to a mortuary official, who said some bodies were burned beyond recognition.
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