Five Nigerian soldiers have been killed and several others missing after an ambush by Boko Haram’s Islamic State-backed faction, security sources said yester day.
Fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) last Friday opened fire on a column of civilian vehicles under military escort in the northeastern Borno State, according to the sources who requested anonymity.
The troops were escorting residents from the village of Sabon Garin Kimba in dozens of trucks to a camp in the town of Damboa about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, according to a militia fighting against the jihadists alongside the army.
They were being evacuated from the village, which lies 130 kilometres from the state capital Maiduguri, ahead of a major military offensive against ISWAP, which has recently increased its activities in the area. Shocker! Gunmen stop Marian procession,
“We lost five soldiers in the ambush, two were wounded and several are missing, their fate still unknown,” said one military officer.
He said the attackers seized two military trucks and tried to immobilise an armoured vehicle by destroying its tyres but the driver managed to drive it to safety.
“As they approached Bungiri village ISWAP laid an ambush on the convoy. The troops engaged the terrorists in a gun battle and all civilians were able to escape but five soldiers were killed,” a second military source said.
A search and rescue operation was under way, the officer said. Last month the jihadists raided a nearby military base in Mararrabar Kimba, killing five troops and stealing weapons, while some 30 troops are still listed as missing.
ISWAP has since July last year targeted dozens of military bases in attacks that that have killed scores of soldiers. On Monday, its fighters ransacked a base in the town of Gubio, 80 kilometres from Maiduguri, killing three soldiers, although the group claimed it killed 20 soldiers.
Boko Haram’s decade-long campaign of violence has killed 27,000 people and displaced around two million in Nigeria. The violence has also spilled over into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to defeat the jihadist group.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army has described as untrue a published report making round, that 25 soldiers were killed in Borno State, last Saturday.
In a statement, yesterday, by the Acting Director Army Public Relations, Col Sagir Musa via his verified Twitter handle said there was no truth in the publication.
“Report of terrorists attack and killing of 25 soldiers and a number of civilians in Borno State on Saturday, 25th May, 2019 is fake.
“No truth in the publication”, he declared.
Recall that there were published reports on some online media yesterday, that troops in Borno State were ambushed and killed while escorting a group from a village in Borno State.
Earlier, it had been alleged that Islamist insurgents killed, at least, 25 soldiers and a number of civilians in an ambush in northeast Nigeria on Saturday morning, two security sources said, the second deadly attack on the Army, last week.
Militants were alleged to have opened fire as the soldiers were escorting a group of evacuees from a village in Borno State, where Boko Haram and other militants have been fighting for a decade.
“They ambushed and surrounded the vehicles of both the soldiers and the civilians and opened fire on them,” said one of the sources, part of a vigilante group that fights alongside the military against the insurgencies.
“They exchanged fire for some minutes before the Boko Haram militants overpowered the soldiers.”
The Federal Government has said the Boko Haram insurgency, and the rival Islamic State West Africa Province group, are on their last legs.
But sustained efforts to eradicate the militants have failed and the military continues to suffer heavy losses.
The war has killed more than 30,000 people and displaced millions more.
The soldiers were evacuating villages in the region on Saturday to carry out operations against Boko Haram, the sources said.
One said the civilian convoy had as many as 50 vehicles.
On Wednesday, Islamic State’s West Africa branch claimed responsibility for a raid in Nigeria in which it said 20 soldiers had been killed, and released a video purporting to show the execution of nine other Nigerian soldiers.
In another development, an unspecified number of persons have been killed, with many others injured, and several houses torched as fresh violence erupts in Jos, the Plateau State capital.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer in Plateau State, Mr Mathias Terna Tyopev, said that security men have been drafted to arrest the situation.
He said: “We have received reports of tension around Dutse Uku, Rikkos, Cele Bridge and we have mobilised our personnel to the area.
“As we speak, the Area Commander, Jos Metropolis is there on ground.”
A resident of the area, who identified himself as Mr Paul Musa, said there has been tension in the area since last week when a boy from Angwan Miango was found dead at the boundary between the community and neighbouring Rikkos, a community of Hausa extractions in the metropolis.
The tension emanating from the killing was however doused by the security agents.
Again, yesterday morning, another boy from the same Angwan Miango was allegedly killed when he went to wash at Cele River, a stream that runs between the Angwan Miango and Rikkos community.
Angered by the spate of killings, the natives from Angwan Miango took a fight to their Hausa neighbours in Rikkos.
This degenerated into full blown mayhem with gunshots rending the air and houses set ablaze.
Some churches, on getting wind of the crisis, had to hurry and wind up their services in order to allow worshippers get to their homes.
Meanwhile, the security agents are currently struggling to control the affected communities and avoid further escalation.