ABUJA, Nigeria

Nigerian special forces eliminated 57 Boko Haram fighters in the country’s northeastern state of Borno on Tuesday.  

The Nigerian army conducted operations against the terror group in the Damboa and Gwoza local government areas of the state, said the sources, who asked not to be named.

Several other members of the terrorist group were wounded yet managed to escape.

Boko Haram launched a bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread its atrocities to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a military response.

More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram's terrorist activities in Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Violence committed by Boko Haram has affected some 26 million people in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.6 million others, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

*Writing by Merve Berker