At least 65 Nigerian soldiers have been killed in jihadist attacks in the country’s northeast in the past two weeks, as the West African state struggles to contain one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups.
On March 5 and 6, gunmen from the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) invaded four military bases in Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency. The Nigerian newspaper Punch reported that about 40 soldiers were killed in these attacks.
In a statement on March 7, the same day a mass funeral was held for fallen troops, the military questioned the death toll but did not provide an alternative figure.
Nigerian troops “successfully defeated multiple coordinated attacks launched by Iswap terrorists against military positions in Delwa, Goniri, Kukawa and Mainok” on March 8 and 9, the military said in a separate statement.
According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, 300 people, including women and children, were also kidnapped by Iswap gunmen, who used sophisticated machinery, including anti-aircraft machine guns and drones, during the raids.
The attacks follow a pattern of coordinated raids by jihadists against military installations in the north of the country, which is being devastated by a nearly two-decade insurgency that spiraled after the extrajudicial killing of Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf in July 2009.
Nigeria has been struggling to contain the conflict, which has spread to cover the Lake Chad basin area and also runs through Cameroon, Chad and Niger. More than 2 million people have been displaced by the insurgency.
The sect has since split into at least three factions, including the ruthless Iswap. In November, a general was assassinated by jihadists who then mocked Nigerian authorities by publishing images of his death, even as the state denied his capture.
Last month, 200 US soldiers arrived in northern Nigeria to train their counterparts, weeks after US President Donald Trump announced airstrikes against terrorist elements in the region.
The Nigerian establishment, including President Bola Tinubu, has been heavily criticized for apparently prioritizing a mass wedding involving 10 sons and daughters of Defense Minister Bello Matawalle in Abuja last month. On Tuesday, Matawalle also came under fire for a social media post applauding the defection of the governor of Zamfara, his home state, to the ruling party in a week of multiple Iswap attacks.
The minister’s last post on the military was on January 15, Nigerian Armed Forces Commemoration Day. “We also remember our fallen heroes, those who paid the ultimate price so our nation could live in peace,” he posted. “His sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
