Jihadists linked with the Islamic State
militant group killed five members of a militia in an offensive in Nigeria's
northeastern Borno state, militia sources told AFP.
Fighters from Islamic State West Africa
Province (ISWAP) -- travelling in pickup trucks fitted with machine guns --
attacked Gajiram town, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the state capital
Maiduguri, on Friday. They targeted hunters and vigilantes who were guarding
the town against attacks, resident Mele Butari said.
"We lost five men in the attack,"
militia leader Babakura Kolo said on Saturday. The five men were buried in
Maiduguri on Saturday, another militia member Ibrahim Liman said. Nganzai
district, where Gajiram is located, has been repeatedly attacked by jihadists
in recent months, with troops and residents targeted.
In the past two months, the number of
ambushes against troops and civilian abductions at fake highway checkpoints by
ISWAP -- which split from the Boko Haram militant group in 2016 -- has
increased. The spike in attacks followed the creation of "super
camps" by the Nigerian military in the northeast to stave off repeated
jihadist raids.
Authorities in the state recruited hundreds
of hunters and vigilantes to fill the void left by the withdrawal of troops
from small camps, but they have been exposed to incessant jihadist attacks. The
decade-long conflict has killed 36,000 people and displaced around two million
from their homes in northeast Nigeria.
The violence has spread to neighbouring
Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the
insurgents.
Source: Sowetan Live – 12 January 2020
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