Boko Haram

Jihadists Kill 10 Nigerian Soldiers: Sources

Jihadists shot dead 10 Nigerian soldiers near Maiduguri, continuing a decade-long insurgency that has displaced over two million.

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Jihadists in NE Nigeria Kill 11, Others Missing: Security Sources

At least nine Nigerian soldiers and two members of a civil defense militia were killed in a jihadist attack on a civilian convoy in northeast Borno state.

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Nigeria Attacks Spark Fears of Bloodier Jihadist Strategy

People in northeast Nigeria are no strangers to horror after a decade-long jihadist insurgency, but a flurry of bloody assaults has ramped up fears that a powerful jihadist faction may be opening a grim new chapter.

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Jihadists Kill Dozens in Northeast Nigeria Attacks

Jihadists linked to the Islamic State group killed dozens of people in the latest of a flurry of bloody attacks in northeast Nigeria, local sources said Sunday.  Inhabitants of remote Goni Usmanti village told AFP that fighters gunned down 38 people in a raid on Saturday and set a truck ablaze, killing an unknown number of passengers.  Security sources and residents said at least 15 people, including nine soldiers, died hours later in a second attack by the jihadists on the town of Monguno, 40 miles away.  The killings are the latest in a spike of assaults by fighters believed to be from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction after they massacred 81 people at a village in the area on Tuesday. Jihadists in pickup trucks on Saturday shot dead fleeing residents in Goni Usmanti after brief clashes with members of a local government-backed militia, sources said.  “The insurgents killed 38 people, including six vigilantes who put up a fight before they were overpowered,” local self-defense group leader Babakura Kolo said. Resident Grema Nuwaisu gave the same toll and said the fighters had also opened fire on a lorry loaded with traders, burning the vehicle and those inside.  …

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Death Toll From Nigeria Jihadist Attack Rises to 69

The death toll from an attack by jihadists linked to the Islamic State group on a village in northeast Nigeria has risen to 69, security sources and residents said Wednesday.

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Jihadists Kill Six Nigerian Troops: Sources

Jihadists have killed six Nigerian troops in an attack on a military base in northeast Nigeria, army sources said Sunday.

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Thousands Flee Niger Refugee Camp After Jihadist Attack

Thousands of people have fled a camp hosting 20,000 Malian refugees in western Niger after a deadly jihadist attack devastated the site, the United Nations said Wednesday. Around 50 jihadists on motorbikes killed three local leaders, abducted a guard, destroyed communication antennas, and sabotaged the water supply at the Intikane site near the Malian border in a coordinated attack on Monday. Intikane is home to around 20,000 Malian refugees and 15,000 internally displaced Niger citizens — all of whom previously fled their villages due to jihadist violence — as well as the local population. Now many are on the move again, with some 3,000 people fleeing to Tlemces, a site 27 kilometers (43 miles) from Intikane, the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Niamey told AFP. UNHCR official Kourouma Mamady Fatta said the agency was carrying out an assessment of the damage and was trying to get the water supply flowing again. The governor of the Tahoua region, Moussa Abdourahamane, said, “Intikane is losing its population, people are moving towards Tlemces.” The jihadists “attacked the sensitive points of the site — they cut communication lines to isolate the population and they destroyed the sources for drinking water,” he told the national public …

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Five Jihadists, Two Soldiers Killed in Cameroon Clash

Two soldiers were killed early on Tuesday when jihadists attacked a military position in northern Cameroon after crossing from Nigeria, sources said, while seven other soldiers were injured in a mine blast in the same village. The device exploded when the soldiers’ vehicle was passing, according to an army colonel. Both the explosion and the overnight attack took place at Soueram, close to the Nigerian border in Cameroon’s Far North region, the colonel and a local official told AFP. “Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed” in the overnight assault, while five jihadists died in the counter-attack, the colonel said. The attack was claimed by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity. ISWAP is a splinter group of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, which has led a bloody 11-year campaign against perceived Western influence. An army vehicle was destroyed and the jihadists made off with a piece of heavy weaponry, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local leader, who also asked not to be identified, confirmed the attack and the toll, adding that there were no civilian casualties. The Far North is an impoverished tongue of land that lies between Chad to the east and …

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Jihadists Attack Nigeria Town Where Girls Abducted

Jihadists have carried out a rare attack on the northeast Nigerian town of Dapchi, where more than 100 schoolgirls were abducted two years ago, military sources and residents said Tuesday. One soldier was killed and three wounded as fighters believed to be from an Islamic State group affiliate looted shops and torched the home of a local chief in the assault Monday, the sources told AFP. The attack comes days before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when jihadists who have waged a 10-year insurgency usually ramp up their deadly assaults in the region. Fighters suspected to be from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) faction stormed the town, leading to a fight with troops in which sources said the soldier and five jihadists were killed. Resident Bashir Manzo said the insurgents spent over four hours in town before soldiers backed by a military jet confronted them. Dapchi was the scene of the abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls by ISWAP in February 2018. The girls were later released although the only Christian among them is still being held by the group after she reportedly refused to renounce her faith. The decade-long conflict in northeast Nigeria has …

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AFRICOM shifts strategy from degrading to containing West Africa insurgents, OIG report says

United States Africa Command has shifted its strategy from degrading violent extremist organizations in West Africa to simply containing their spread

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