Terrorists suspected to be members of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have attacked two military bases in Goniri and Kukawa, Borno State, reportedly killing a commanding officer and some soldiers.
Security sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the attacks were launched overnight on Monday. The exact number of people killed in the attacks have yet to be verified.
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The terrorists also destroyed military operational vehicles. However, many of them were reportedly killed in the attack on the military base in Kukawa.
Daily Trust quotes a resident of Kukawa as saying the attack on the base there started after midnight.
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“They (terrorists) stormed the town from multiple directions and launched an attack on the military camp,” the source told the newspaper.
Philip Brant, a jihadi researcher, said the attack on the Goniri military base was repelled by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
PREMIUM TIMES reports that the attacks come four days after the terrorists invaded four military camps in Mainok, Jakana, Marte and Konduga. In a statement last week, the Nigerian Army said it repelled all the attacks and eliminated many terrorists, although a senior officer and an unspecified number of soldiers were also killed.
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The army buried some of the slain soldiers on Saturday.
The army has not issued a statement about the latest attacks. Appolonia Anele, the spokesperson for the army, has not responded to an enquiry sent to her.
Last year, ISWAP launched what it described as “Camp Holocaust”, overrunning at least 16 military bases, according to a report by Malik Samuel, a researcher with Good Governance Africa (GGA). The Institute of Security Studies (ISS) estimates that about 500 people were killed in not the less than 200 attacks staged under the deadly campaign.
The horror campaign seems to have taken a sharp turn, with the insurgents deploying sophisticated weapons including armed drones.
