The Nigerian army has vowed to press ahead with a war on Boko Haram militants in the northeast as it imposed a 24-hour curfew in parts of the city of Maiduguri.

Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, the director of Defense Information, said on Sunday that the fighting against the Salafist militants will continue "as long as it takes" to achieve its main objectives.

Olukolade stressed that the army is determined to defend Nigeria's "territorial integrity as a nation."


A day earlier, the army had imposed a 24-hour curfew in 12 neighborhoods of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and Boko Haram's traditional home base.

"In order to sustain special operations in the face of recent Boko Haram attacks, [a] 24-hour curfew is hereby imposed," said Nigerian military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa in a statement on Saturday.

In a separate statement issued later in the day, the Nigerian military said it had killed "10 suspected terrorists" in one Maiduguri neighborhood and captured 65 militants who were trying to infiltrate the city.

It said those arrested had been "fleeing from various camps now under attack."

On Friday, the military said it had launched airstrikes on Boko Haram militant training camps in the northeast of the country and dozens of militants were killed.

Jets and helicopter gunships were used to attack several camps across three northeastern states, where President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency on May 14.

The Nigerian president imposed a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa, saying Boko Haram had captured territory and declared war on the government.

On May 7, Boko Haram militants launched attacks on military barracks, a prison, and police stations in the town of Bama in northeastern Nigeria, killing 55 people and helping 105 inmates escape from the prison.

"In these attacks, 55 people including two soldiers, some prison warders, policemen, and civilians were killed," said Musa Sagir, the military spokesman in nearby Maiduguri, Boko Haram's stronghold.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.

Over the past four years, violence in the north of Africa's most populous country has claimed the lives of 3,600 people, including killings by the security forces.