Boko Haram jihadists have killed 53 soldiers and farmers in three days of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, security sources said Tuesday, 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, local residents told AFP.
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.
– Villages also attacked –
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 AFP on Tuesday.
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.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/11/boko-haram-attacks-leave-53-soldiers-dead-in-pre-election-show-of-force/

Nawah oo

Just speechless. These men have families. These men gave their lives for our country. Their ogas wack monies allocated to them yet these poor soldiers die for nothing. Rest in peace guys.

jjkh

I Respect Soldiers Alot.

Lets not make this political abeg.

Our hearts go out to these fallen soldires, their colleagues and famiky members.

May we see better days. No, we demand to see better days.

joining the Nigerian military now is similar to committing suicide.

Buhari is a total failure. He must be replaced.

Fake news! Boko haram has been technically defeated

RIP to our Heroes who lay there lives for this great Country.

God bless our Galant Soldiers.

nameo:
Lets not make this political abeg.

Our hearts go out to these fallen soldires, their colleagues and famiky members.

May we see better days. No, we demand to see better days.

where were you with this sermon when they were killing unarmed ipob members?

Nigeria is worse than a shithole..
full of idiotic and stupid followers.
Buhari has failed woefully,
yet,youths who should be advent of change are willing to put the dunder head back as president.

God help us.

Boko Haram terrorists led by Jubril from Sudan.

I pity the widows and children these soldiers left behind. Nigeria is not worth dying for walahi.This country don cast.

This is just too much a death.For God's sake over how many BH sect members were killed in return God rest the soul of these soldiers.

nameo:
Lets not make this political abeg.

Our hearts go out to these fallen soldires, their colleagues and famiky members.

May we see better days. No, we demand to see better days.

RIP to the fallen soldiers.
But, it was political during the era of the man from Niger Delta

mgbadike81:
where were you with this sermon when they were killing unarmed ipob members?

That episode was one of the saddest days of the military. Their shenanigans in the southeast on the excuseof fighting IPOB is both condemnable and shameless.

Their commanders are the people responsible for that in my view.

But do not expect me to start rejoicing where our soldiers are been killed. I will NOT

eagleeye2:

RIP to the fallen soldiers.
But, it was political during the era of the man from Niger Delta

Whe some peeps made it political during GEJ time, I also condemned it here too.

How can we "rejoice" when our own military are killed by a bunch of terroist in the name of politics. People who do that are sick in the head.

I have no apologies for this at all

4kDdullard:
Fake news! Boko haram has been technically defeated

MUMU this is a cross border insurgency,the USA with all their might have been fighting the taliban in Afghanistan since 2003,if President Buhari a Nigerian army general can’t defeat Boko Haram which was bred under pdp,no way atiku a customs officer smuggler will have a clue on what to do. You think what is happening there with Boko Haram is only Buhari’s problem?

[s]

blacknp:
MUMU this is a cross border insurgency,the USA with all their might have been fighting the taliban in Afghanistan since 2003,if President Buhari a Nigerian army general can’t defeat Boko Haram which was bred under pdp,no way atiku a customs officer smuggler will have a clue on what to do. You think what is happening there with Boko Haram is only Buhari’s problem?

[/s]

BrownRoofRep:
Boko Haram terrorists led by Jubril from Sudan.

NSA Azazi blames PDP for Boko Haram attacks

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/4853-nsa_azazi_blames_boko_haram_attacks_on_pdp_s_politics_of_exclusi.html

4kDdullard:
[s][/s]

Sorry I know,the truth is a very bitter pill to swallow,take heart.

blacknp:
Sorry I know,the truth is a very bitter pill to swallow,take heart.

You need help

APc-Buhari and his security chefs should help us conduct free and fair election.

Time to kick-Buhari out of office, Bokoharam decide to re-enforce.

Somebody should warn this useless i.slamic fighters to channel their grieve to government houses and Aso Rock not at poor market men and women.

4kDdullard:
You need help

Let me leave you I can see you are void of any intellectual exchange,open Barrel Empty vessel?You need a revolution of the mind for social and political orientation.

[s]

blacknp:
Let me leave you I can see you are void of any intellectual exchange,open Barrel Empty vessel?You need a revolution of the mind for social and political orientation.

[/s]Zombie

In all, a state of emergency must be declared in the Nigerian Army and in Borno State. Even countries with advanced technologies, spies and intels struggle with terrorism not to talk of a country where its military chiefs are highly partisan and surprisingly fanatical. You will be surprised to know that most of these killed soldiers are just mediocrely trained men who are handed guns and paid very paltry salaries.

As I speak to you, the Nigerian Army is a mere cash cow with a highly incompetent head. A military base is supposed to be a safe haven and thus quite suicidal to attack/invade. But right there in Borno, where security is on red alert, 53 soldiers (according to reports, its usually more) were killed and trust me, they will never get their full benefits.

This same BAMA was declared free of insurgency and its roads were opened. This same government declared Boko Haram technically defeated. This same government has been very lazy, slow and parochial in their handling of these insurgents.

Elections are coming, vote with your conscience please.

If I were contesting for presidency next year, I will have three main goals
- Fix Power within 4 years (it must work even if heads have to roll)
- Fix all major roads within 4 years.
- Fix the education section within 4 years.

Please vote wisely.

Fashola and some Yorubas don't care, as far as a Yoruba man would be voted in 2023. Calamity can befall every part of the country...evil souls

nzeobi:
joining the Nigerian military now is similar to committing suicide.

Its direct suicide. I only pity the Southern and Eastern youth who still join N/A as recruit and get drafted to their wild North to die for nothing.

Where is the One Billion Dollars approved to fight boko Haram under Buhary regime

This is clearly the modus operandi of Atiku and the den of killers called the PDP.
PMB should be careful. These blood suckers are ready to rubbish his government at all cost.