On Boko Haram's mortar position, six unevenly distributed 60mm mortars stood erect.
Flanking and to the rear of the mortar position were three machine-gun emplacements, and several masked armed personnel in black combat gear were scattered amongst them.
A black man with a red beret and gold teeth scornfully glanced at those hiding in the upper machine-gun emplacements, then took out a brand-new pair of binoculars for a closer look...
Down in the gravel was a group of about a dozen RPG gunners, and several hundred of Boko Haram's core forces lay in ambush in the nearby woods.
The gold-toothed black man turned his binoculars eastward, where he could just make out the dust raised by the convoy.