Jihadists have killed four Nigerian soldiers and a member of a local self-defence group in an ambush in restive northern Borno State, security sources confirmed, yesterday.
A column of Nigerian troops was attacked, last Monday, by fighters aligned to the Islamic State group outside the town of Marte in the Lake Chad region, the sources told newsmen on condition of anonymity.
“We lost four soldiers and a vigilante,” said one.
The casualties were taken to a nearby base, a second source said.
Marte, which lies 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the regional capital Maiduguri, has been repeatedly targeted by the jihadists who attack military bases in the area.
The Nigerian Army said its forces had thwarted an ambush by jihadists close to Marte after an “initial setback”, but did not give any death toll.
“The ambush was reinforced with a crudely prepared Improvised Explosive Device planted by them against the troops”, Army spokesman, Col Aminu Iliyasu, said in the statement.
The military said troops forced the fighters to “flee in disarray”, abandoning equipment, including trucks, anti-aircraft guns, automatic rifles and ammunition.
Since July, last year, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group has intensified deadly attacks on military targets, raiding bases and ambushing troops.
ISWAP is a splinter faction of the Boko Haram jihadist group notorious for attacks on civilians.
The decade-long insurgency in northeast Nigeria has killed more than 35,000 people, displaced around two million and spilt over into neighbouring countries.
However, the Nigerian Army says it has recorded another success in the ongoing onslaught against Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State.
A statement from the Army Operations Media Coordinator, Col Aminu Iliyasu, yesterday, disclosed that the feat was made by troops of 153 Task Force Battalion deployed at New Marte.
Iliyasu explained that the soldiers had embarked on fighting patrol to Dikwa to hunt and destroy remnants of Boko Haram criminals in the area in the early hours of Monday.
Incidentally, the troops were said to have encountered an ambush staged against them by the insurgents along the patrol route at Ala Village, some 7km away from New Marte.
According to the media coordinator, the ambush was reinforced with a crudely prepared Improvised Explosive Device planted against the troops.
He said rather than getting discouraged by the sudden attack on them, the troops turned around the initial setback and dealt a devastating blow on their attackers.
“Having so clearly asserted their superiority in the ensuing fire-fight, the criminal insurgents were forced to flee in disarray.
“The gallant troops then embarked on a relentless pursuit of the scampering insurgents who abandoned some of their fighting equipment in utter confusion,” Iliyasu.