Speeding upriver in a gunboat, Sarkin-Yaki Bello, the general in charge of chasing militants from the Niger Delta, cannot resist a touch of bravado in his message to his number one suspect. “You can run,” he says, above the roar of twin 225-horsepower engines, “but you can’t hide.”

Escorted by a flotilla of navy vessels, the commander’s journey into the swamps certainly feels like a victory tour – albeit one protected by enough firepower to fight off a small army.