Militants Attack Northern Nigeria, Killing At Least Thirty

Nigeria – (Web Desk) – At least 30 people were killed in three separate militant attacks in northern Nigeria, where rising violence has worsened in recent months. The country, Africa’s most populous, has been grappling with a 16-year insurgency, complicated further by other armed groups operating in the region.

Boko Haram fighters killed 25 people, including three soldiers, in attacks on the towns of Madagali and Hong, near the Cameroon border in northeastern Adamawa state on Tuesday. A local official in Madagali, speaking anonymously to AFP, said, “Gunmen, believed to be Boko Haram, attacked the market on motorcycles. They opened fire on people, killing 21.”

He added that authorities were still searching for more bodies, as some victims may have died while fleeing into the bush. The attackers also looted the market, stealing food and motorcycles. The remaining four deaths, including the soldiers, occurred in Hong.

Meanwhile, in northwestern Kebbi state, a jihadist raid on a mosque in Dodin Kowa village left at least five worshippers dead late Wednesday, according to the government-owned News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

A security report seen by AFP said 10 worshippers were killed in the raid, with several wounded.

The police spokesman in Kebbi, Bashir Usman, did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comments.

But he told NAN that the attacks came after Lakurawa fighters were killed in a “failed ambush” on a military convoy on Sunday.

Adamawa state governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri described the attacks in Madagali and Hong as “cowardly” and “senseless”. Kebbi state’s information commissioner said he was away from the state and not aware of any attack.

Since 2009, the jihadist insurgency in Nigeria, led primarily by Boko Haram and its rival faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has left more than 40,000 dead and two million displaced in the northeast of the country, according to the United Nations.

In the northwest region, the Lakurawa group has been blamed for many of the attacks on communities in parts of Kebbi and Sokoto states.

JUST IN: Terrifying Video Shows Bandits Brutally Attacking Villagers in Northern Nigeria – Man and Children Beaten, Pleading for Mercy pic.twitter.com/guLnyisCm5

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Its members stage raids from their forest base, rustling livestock and imposing “taxes” on locals.

Nigeria’s government said the Christmas Day air strikes by the US military in Sokoto had targeted members of the group and “bandit” gangs.

Some researchers have linked the group to ISWAP, which is active mainly in neighbouring Niger and Mali, though others remain doubtful.

Nigeria is also grappling with other armed groups that have compounded its insecurity challenges in the north of the country.

Military crackdowns have yielded few results.

The jihadist conflict has spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition to fight these groups.

But the coalition has lost steam in recent years after the withdrawal of Niger due to a diplomatic spat with Nigeria following a 2023 military coup in Niger.

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Earlier this month, the United States began deploying troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to the country’s soldiers in fighting the jihadist groups.

The US Africa Command said 200 troops were expected to join the deployment overall.