Islamic State West Africa Province
Nigerian army chief charges troops to be decisive against terrorists
The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Faruk Yahaya, has charged troops of Operation Hadin Kai to be decisive and alert in the fight against the Islamic State West Africa Province and Boko Haram terrorists in North East Nigeria. The COAS, according to a statement by the Director Army Public Relations, Onyema Nwachukwu, on Sunday stated this while addressing troops of Sector 3 Operation Hadin Kai/Multinational Joint Task Force, Monguno. He was said to have embarked on his maiden operational tour of the sector on Saturday. The statement was titled ‘Be decisive and alert in countering insurgency – COAS tells Sector 3 OPHK/MNJTF troops.’ It read, “General Faruk Yahaya lauded the level of discipline and commitment to duty exhibited by troops of the Sector. He, however, admonished them to be apo...
Rivals say Boko Haram chief dead as jihadists battle for control
When Nigeria’s military claimed Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been badly wounded in an air strike 2016, the jihadist chief soon appeared in a video to deny another of the many reports of his impending death. Over the weekend, it was an audio from a rival jihadist group finally claiming Shekau had died, detonating explosives to kill himself rather than surrender after a raid on his forest stronghold by his Islamic State-allied enemies. The Boko Haram warlord’s death marks a major shift in Nigeria’s conflict, potentially allowing ISIS jihadists to consolidate and further challenge an already stretched army in their long war. In the audio obtained by AFP, a voice apparently of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander Abu Musab Al-Barnawi confirmed Shekau killed himself whi...
ISWAP confirms Boko Haram leader’s death
TIME The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) militant group said in an audio recording heard by Reuters on Sunday that Abubakar Shekau, leader of rival Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram, was dead. Shekau died around May 18 after detonating an explosive device when he was pursued by ISWAP fighters following a battle, a person purporting to be ISWAP leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi said on the audio recording. “Abubakar Shekau, God has judged him by sending him to heaven,” he can be heard saying. Two people familiar with al-Barnawi told Reuters the voice on the recording was that of the ISWAP leader. A Nigerian intelligence report shared by a government official and Boko Haram researchers have also said Shekau is dead. Last month, Nigeria’s military said it was investigating She...
35 killed in Boko Haram attacks in Borno
Jihadists have killed 35 people, including five troops and 15 militiamen, in two attacks in Nigeria’s troubled northern Borno state, sources told AFP Tuesday. Islamic State-aligned militants have intensified attacks on army camps in recent weeks as part of a decade-long insurgency that has killed 36 000 people and forced more than two million to flee their homes. Fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) came in several trucks fitted with machine guns and stormed Ajiri town late on Monday. They attacked a military base, leading to intense fighting in which five soldiers and 15 anti-jihadist militia were killed, two military sources said. ISWAP had raided the same base on Sunday, killing the base commander along with six civilians and carting away weapons, military sources sa...
Nigeria’s president under fire over surging violence
With his country ensnared in mounting jihadist violence, bandit attacks and kidnappings, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is under fire from allies and enemies alike for appearing incapable of tackling the security crisis. April saw an almost daily toll of bloody assaults and abductions in Africa’s most populous nation. In the past week alone, at least 240 people have been killed and more than four dozen kidnapped, according to tallies by local media. The fatalities included 19 Fulani herders gunned down in southeastern Anambra state; five students in the northwest who were shot to death days after gunmen snatched them from their campus; 31 troops, slain in a jihadist ambush in the Lake Chad region; and nine police killed by cattle thieves in northwestern Kebbi state. Senators, local go...
DHQ reorganises operations to tackle security challenges
The Defence Headquarters has said it is reorganising operations across theatres toward tackling security challenges in the country. Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this while giving update on the operations of the armed forces across the country yesterday in Abuja. Enenche said the recent changes in the leadership of the armed forces would usher in new modus operandi for tackling security challenges in the country. He said the service chiefs on assumption of duty, immediately hit the ground running, by conducting operational visits to the North East. “In line with the re-organisation of the armed forces of Nigeria with the appointment of new service chiefs, the operations of the armed forces are equally being reorganised to tackle security challenge...
Families of kidnapped Katsina schoolboys fear time running out
Families of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be brainwashed or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the Islamist group – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – was responsible for last week’s raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. “They will radicalise our children if the government does not act fast to help us rescue them,” said trader Shuaibu Kankara, crying as he spoke from home. His 13-year-old son Annas was among those abducted from the Government Science school on...
10 Nigerian soldiers shot dead by terrorists in Borno – report
Jihadists shot dead 10 Nigerian soldiers in two incidents in the country’s restive northeast on Monday, security sources said. The assailants gunned down eight troops in an attack on a military convoy near Kumulla village, roughly 40km southwest of regional capital Maiduguri, two sources told AFP. Both sources spoke on anonymity because they were not authorised to pass on information to the media. Hours later, two soldiers were killed in a separate “firefight” after a military patrol encountered a group of insurgents in Kolore village, around 50km west of Maiduguri, the sources said. The latest losses for the Nigerian military come after at least 35 troops were killed last week in an attack by fighters loyal to the so-called Islamist State group near Kumulla. Jihadists have waged a decade-...
Five jihadists, two soldiers killed in Cameroon clash
Five rebels and two soldiers were killed early Tuesday when jihadists crossing from Nigeria attacked a military position in northern Cameroon, sources said. The overnight attack took place at Soueram, a village close to the Nigerian border in Cameroon’s Far North region, an army colonel and a local official told AFP. “Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed” in the assault, while five jihadists died in the counter-attack, the colonel said. He attributed the attack to Islamic State West Africa Province, a splinter group of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, which has led a bloody 11-year campaign against perceived western influence. An army vehicle was destroyed and the jihadists made off with a piece of heavy weaponry, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local leader, who also asked not to be i...
