Brigadier General Bernard Onyeuko, Acting Director, Defence Media Operations attributed the development to the military’s counter-insurgency efforts.
About 6,000 Boko Haram fighters have surrendered in recent weeks, the Defence Headquarters said on Thursday.
“Within the last few weeks, more than 5,890 terrorists comprising foot soldiers and their commanders have surrendered with their families to own troops in the Northeast Zone,” Onyeuko said.
He said 565 of the surrendered fighters had been handed over to the government of north-eastern Borno State for “further management after thorough profiling”.
The figure of the surrendered is about 50 percent more than the 3,900 that Governor Babagana Zulum gave at the weekend.
Some 350,000 people have died in the conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian army since it began 12 years ago, according to a United Nations estimate.
And the fighting has spilled over to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
Onyeuko at the bi-weekly briefing also gave an insight in military operations in other parts of the country.
“The Armed Forces of Nigeria have sustained their operational engagements across the country against all criminal elements across the Country”, he said.
“These operations yielded significant results notwithstanding some negative incidents of the past week.
“This is evident in the reduction of the spate of incidents recorded; the massive surrendering of terrorists in the North East as well as reduction in IPOB/ESN activities in the South East and economic sabotage in the South-South and South West zones of the Country”, he said.
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