The Boko Haram is believed to have run out of weapons and ammunition even as the Nigerian army is closing in on its hideout in the Sambisa forest in Borno State, local media have reported.
The Islamist militant group, which recently claimed allegiance to the more formidable Islamic State, has been left with "bows and arrows and machetes" to use as weapons, locals have revealed.
A person who escaped form the terror group's stronghold said that only a few of the fighters are left with rifles, and some of them have run out of ammunition, instead using the weapons as 'sticks'.
"You can find more than 500 members of the insurgents with only few of them having rifles and even when one or two of them have rifles, it is like a stick, as they have run out of ammunitions, because the usual supplies they get are not forthcoming (sic)," the escapee told Nigeria's Vanguard.
"The Boko Haram terrorists have only bow and arrows, machetes, daggers and other local weapons, as they have run out of arms and ammunitions and were roaming about in the bushes of the villages along the fringes of the Sambiza forest," another local resident told the newspaper.
Many of the Boko Haram have been cornered in the Sambisa forest after losing much of its seized territory following a coalition military crackdown involving troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The forest is about 100 kilometers from the Chibok village, from where the Boko Haram terrorists had kidnapped 200 school girls last year.
The Nigerian military forces are said to be in the "final stages" of combing out the terrorists from their stronghold in the forest, an official told Newsweek, adding that a top Boko Haram commander was recently killed by the army.
The terrorists have heavily booby-trapped the Sambisa forest with landmines according to reports.
The six-year-old insurgent group has killed more than 10,000 people in the last year itself.
