Boko Haram jihadists have killed 53 soldiers and farmers in three days of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, security sources said yesterday, in a new show of force ahead of February elections in the West African country.
Despite the government’s insistence that Boko Haram is near defeat, the group has recently carried out a string of major attacks on military and civilian targets.
President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking re-election in February, faces widespread criticism over his security record as soldiers based in the northeast regularly complain of fatigue and insufficient supplies of food and arms.
The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram splinter group, killed at least 44 soldiers in attacks on three military bases at the weekend, according to security sources. Of those, at least 43 were killed on Sunday in Metele, a remote village near the border with Niger, according to a military officer who requested anonymity.
“Our troops were completely routed and the terrorists captured the base after heavy fighting,” he told AFP, adding that the base commander and three officers were among the dead.
A search was under way for survivors or further victims in the surrounding bush, he said.
A pro-government militiaman said the jihadists arrived on around 20 trucks and army air support did not arrive until after they had “invaded the base and looted the weapons”.
The same day, jihadists also launched a pre-dawn attack on a base in the town of Gajiram, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. Fighting lasted several hours, residents told newsmen.
And a soldier was killed in an attack Saturday on a base in Mainok, also in Borno state, the cradle of the Boko Haram movement, security sources said.
ISWAP asserted responsibility for the attacks in Metele and Mainok, claiming to have killed at least 42 soldiers in addition to carting away four tanks and other vehicles, according to the SITE Intelligence monitoring group.
In addition, Monday saw the latest in a string of attacks on villages, usually carried out to pillage food and abduct civilians used as fighters or forced to marry jihadists.
The jihadists have accused farmers and loggers of passing information to the military. Armed with guns and machetes, jihadists killed nine farmers and abducted 12 others in the Mammanti village in Borno state, locals told newsmen yesterday.
The jihadists came on bicycles, said Usman Kaka, a farmer who escaped. “They just opened fire on us and continued to fire as we fled,” Kaka said.
Village chief Muhammad Mammanti said the assailants had hacked “three people who resisted being abducted”.
Also on Monday, seven women were snatched while working in fields near the city of Bama, according to militiamen fighting alongside army soldiers.
In an attack on Mammanti last week, jihadists stole hundreds of heads of cattle.
The surge in attacks on military targets suggests that hardliners within ISWAP have taken the upper hand after internal divisions, observers say.
More than 27,000 people have died since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009, and 1.8 million remain homeless.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram members have killed nine farmers and abducted 12 others in a village in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, the cradle of the jihadist movement, locals told newsmen yesterday.
Last Monday, they stormed into fields outside Mammanti village, opening fire on farmers as they worked, killing nine and injuring three others.
“We recovered nine dead bodies after the attack,” the village chief Muhammad Mammanti said.
“The insurgents took away 12 people, including women, and macheted three people who resisted being abducted,” Mammanti.
The jihadists came on bicycles in the afternoon, said Usman Kaka, a farmer who escaped.
“They just opened fire on us and continued to fire as we fled,” Kaka said.
“We later returned to find nine people had been killed and three left with machete cuts on their heads for refusing to go with the gunmen,” he said.
Last week Wednesday Boko Haram jihadists attacked Mammanti, killing one person and burning the entire village before stealing hundreds of cattle.
The attack on Mammanti forced residents to moved to the state capital Maiduguri from where they would commute daily to work on the fields.
Boko Haram has stepped up attacks on farmers and loggers in recent years, accusing them of passing information to the military.
Despite the government’s insistence that Boko Haram is near defeat, the group has recently carried out major attacks on military and civilian targets, killing scores.
More than 27,000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in the remote northeast in 2009 and 1.8 million are still homeless.
In another development, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, yesterday, dismissed insinuations killings and destruction in the country by Muslim elements in the name of Islamic Jihad were against the tenets and teachings of Islam.
Emir Sanusi said this while speaking at the grand finale of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria, MUSWEN, and N5 billion launch of MUSWEN International Centre, which took place at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano Sanusi said: “Killing people in the name of Jihad is not Jihad.
Allah does not prohibit us to cater for and take care of people. “So, what we see with people destroying the peace of the nation is not a Jihad. When your freedom to practice Islam is not tampered with, this is not Islam.
And we have to take it and we have it as our responsibility to say that this is not Islam. “We must keep the promise with those we promised.
These who are leaders, you are expected to fulfil your promises to the people when you assume office.
It doesn’t matter if you ask God to make you President, Governor, Emir, it does not matter but you promised Allah that I will take care of people and fail. “Islam does not allow a Muslim to take away property of the people unjustly. Fight only those who fight you. Even, there are rules when there is war, you don’t fight the children, this aged and women.”
Sultan urges Muslims to eschew violence In his remarks, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar warned Muslims against violence, as he urged them to remain calm, even at the point of provocation. He said: “Let us show decorum, let us show people that we are Muslims.
We should not use foul languages. We can be aggrieved, but don’t let us allow grievances to make us to be violent.” Also speaking Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, urged Muslims in the region to continue to embrace peace as the 2019 general elections are fast approaching.