Twin extremist attacks across Lake Chad killed at least 22 people in Nigeria, sources said on Friday, with Boko Haram killing more than a dozen civilians and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) raiding a military base.
The attacks come as Nigeria’s embattled northeast — facing an insurgency that since 2009 has killed 40,000 and displaced 2 million — has witnessed renewed attacks over the past few weeks.
While violence has fallen from its 2014-2015 peak, the governor of Borno has warned that the military was losing ground to militants. A spate of attacks killed 100 people.
Photo: AP
Militants from Boko Haram killed at least 17 fishermen and farmers on Thursday, local anti-extremist militia members said, warning that the toll might rise.
The assailants seized an unknown number of people in Malam Karanti village near the fishing town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad, militiamen assisting Nigerian troops in the region said.
Separately, in a predawn raid on Friday, fighters with extremist rival ISWAP killed five troops from a multinational coalition, two military sources said.
The militants stormed the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) base housing Nigerian and Cameroonian troops in the town of Wulgo, engaging troops in a gunfight, the sources said.
Four Nigerian soldiers, a Cameroonian soldier and “nine of the terrorists” were killed in the fighting, an officer said.
The militants forced the troops to abandon the base after overwhelming them, said a second officer, who gave the same toll.
The attack comes two months after a similar raid on the same base killed 25 Cameroonian soldiers.
Nigeria’s top military officer was on Thursday in the region, telling troops in Borno capital Maiduguri that the increase in unrest would be quickly resolved.
“Actions have been taken to ensure that we address the series of attacks,” Nigerian Chief of the Defence Staff General Christopher Musa said, promising new material was being drafted in.
Musa said conflict in the wider Sahel, including Mali, Chad and Niger, “has put a lot of pressure on Nigeria.”
“Whatever is going on is just for a short while,” he added.
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