Maiduguri – Fighting between the Nigerian military and jihadists left at least two dozen militants and soldiers dead, local and military sources said Wednesday, in the latest attack on a military base in the northeast.
A long-running jihadist insurgency in Africa’s most populous country, sparked by Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising, has eased since its peak a decade ago but violence has been on the rise in the last two years.
Militants from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram offshoot and rival, attacked a military outpost in Kukawa, near Lake Chad in Borno state overnight “and engaged soldiers in a four-hour gun battle that lasted till dawn”, a military source told AFP.
“They took away weapons before they were chased out of the base with the help of fighter jets,” the source said.
Last year saw a slew of jihadist attacks on military installations, with militants often temporarily overrunning bases and carting off weapons and supplies.
The ISWAP fighters used rocket-propelled grenades and a vehicle-borne suicide bomb, the source said, giving a toll of 10 soldiers killed, 13 wounded and “a large number” of jihadists killed.
Borno state assembly member Karta Maina Ma’aji Lawan gave the same toll, adding that three paramilitaries from the Civilian Joint Task Force were also wounded.
Kukawa resident Zarami Grema, 47, said his brother was wounded by stray bullets, while Alibe Kurama, 53, said the four hours of gun shots “caused serious panic among residents”.
The military said in a statement that 14 bodies of jihadists were recovered and “at least” 25 in total were killed, adding an undisclosed number of Nigerian troops “paid the supreme sacrifice”.
“Supported by the air component, the troops overwhelmed the terrorists, inflicted heavy casualties and forced the surviving elements to flee” after a “coordinated multi-directional assault” by ISWAP militants on the base.
“During exploitation of the area, troops recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.”
The Nigerian military is stretched across multiple fronts: jihadists are concentrated in the northeast, though they have spread to the centre and northwest of the country, which is also attracting militants from the neighbouring Sahel.
Rural areas of the northwest also face non-ideological “bandit” gangs that raid villages and impose “taxes” on farmers, while the centre of the country sees recurrent farmer-herder clashes over land.
The southeast, meanwhile, is home to a simmering separatist conflict.
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Source: AFP
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