The self-proclaimed Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) issued a statement July 9 claiming its fighters killed 40 Nigerian soldiers in an ambush along the Damboa-Maiduguri highway in northern Borno state. The statement said ISWAP fighters captured five all-terrain vehicles, weapons and ammunition, and burned an armored vehicle during the attack, at the locality of Bulabulin. The Nigerian military confirmed the attack but said only two soldiers were killed.
Boko Haram split into two factions in mid-2016. One, under longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, is notorious for suicide bombings and indiscriminate killings of civilians. Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in March 2015, but ISIS only gives formal recognition to the rival faction, which calls itself ISWAP. (Sahara Reporters)
Photo: Sahara Reporters
Boko Haram kill over 30 troops in new attacks
More than 30 soldiers werekilled and hundreds others injured during separate attacks by Boko Haram insurgents near Gamboru in Borno state July 10, the military confirmed. (Sahara Reporters)
Boko Haram kill at least 30 in new attack
At least 30 people, mostly security agents who were in the convoy of Borno state governor, Babagana Zulum, were killed in an ambush by Boko Haram militants Sept. 25. The attack which is the second on the governor’s convoy in less than two months, happened along the Baga Highway in the northern part of the state as the party was heading to Baga town ahead of the government’s planned return of internally displaced persons from Maiduguri. (Sahara Repoters)
Boko Haram kill at least 100 in new attack
At least 100 farm-workers were killed when armed men on motorcycles attacked a rice plantation in Nigeria’s Borno state. Boko Haram is being blamed in the attack. (Al Jazeera, NPR, Sahara Reporters)
Mass adbuction of school kids in Nigeria
Gunmen raided a government secondary school in northern Nigeria’s Katsina state, in what police are calling a mass kidnapping for ransom. Up to 600 students are believed to have been taken. (TRT World, Vanguard)
Nigerian boys seized in mass abduction are freed
More than 300 schoolboys kidnapped by gunmen from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria last week were handed over to security agencies Dec. 18. Authorities said that 344 of the boys had been turned over in the forest of neighboring Zamfara state and would be immediately driven to their home Katsina state for medical treatment. Terms of the release remain unknown, although the Nigerian government denies that it pays ransom. Boko Haram claims responsibility for the mass abduction, although they have not had a significant force in the area before. (CNN)
Boko Haram burns church in Christmas Eve attack
At least seven people were killed Dec. 24 in a Boko Haram gun attack in Nigeria’s Borno state. The militants killed seven people and kidnapped another seven, including a pastor in the majority-Christian village of Pemi. The attackers also burned down a church, a dispensary and several houses. (UPI)
Boko Haram leader killed on orders of ISIS: report
The self-proclaimed Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) issued a statement claiming that rival Abubakar Shekau has been killed in combat with ISWAP militants. He apparently blew himself up while being pursued in the Sambisa forest. ISWAP said that orders to kill him came from the ISIS central leadership. (CNN, The Guardian)
500 taken in mass Nigeria abductions
In two separate incidents of mass abductions, around 500 people—including a large number of school children—have been seized by jihadist fighters (or bandits) in northern Nigeria. Over 300 people, mainly women and children, were abducted in northeastern Borno state on Feb. 29 as they collected firewood beyond the “safety trenches” of their displaced persons camp at Ngala. State governor Babagana Zulum said the thousands of households in the camp receive only “minimal food assistance,” and firewood sales are one of the few ways they can feed themselves. He suggested some of the abducted women may have voluntarily joined Boko Haram in the hope of a better life.
In north-central Kaduna state, gunmen believed to be linked to the jihadist group Ansaru, stormed two schools in Kuriga on March 7 and seized more than 200 students. One pupil was killed. Kidnapping for ransom—or to make a political point—has become a routine occurrence in northern Nigeria. (TNH)
In contrast to continuing such cases today, te mass abduction of the “Chibok girls” nearly a decade ago made global headlines.
Nigeria: ransom demanded for abducted students
Kidnappers have demanded a ransom of 1 billion naira (approximately $600,000) for the release of over 280 students and teachers abducted by bandits March 7 from two schools in Kaduna. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu vowed that “not a dime” would be paid out. Nigeria outlawed ransom payments in 2022. (TNH)
More mass abductions in Nigeria
At least 87 people were reportedly kidnapped by gunmen in Kajuru village in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, on March 17. The incident occurred following another nearby attack during which 16 people were abducted, marking the third mass kidnapping in Kaduna within a two-week period. (TNH)
The Chibok abductions a decade later
Ten years ago, over 250 Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted by the militant group Boko Haram. Fifty-seven of the young women managed to escape. A further 108 were rescued by the Nigerian military or released through negotiations. Today, more than 90 remain missing. Some 20 are believed to have died; others are still being held. (PRI)
Hundreds of hostages rescued from Boko Haram
Hundreds of hostages, mostly children and women, who were held captive for months or years by Boko Haram extremists in northeastern Nigeria have been rescued from a forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the army said.
The 350 hostages had been held in the Sambisa Forest, a hideout for the extremist group which launched an insurgency in 2009.
At least 1,400 students have been taken from Nigerian schools since the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in the village of Chibok in Borno state shocked the world. (AP)