Nigeria: Over 60 Jihadists Killed in Army Raids in the Northeast

Edited by: Widad WAHBI

The Nigerian military announced on Friday that it had killed more than 60 jihadist fighters, including a key figure in Boko Haram, during coordinated air and ground operations in the country’s northeast—an area long plagued by Islamist insurgency since 2009.

In the early hours of Friday, the armed forces launched two separate assaults targeting camps belonging to Boko Haram and its rival faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). The strikes resulted in the deaths of dozens of combatants, according to a military statement.

“Dozens of Boko Haram terrorists were neutralized” in an assault on their camp located in Bita, a village on the outskirts of Gwoza in Borno State, near the Cameroonian border, the statement said. “The intense confrontation led to the elimination of at least 60 terrorists,” it added, referring specifically to the Bita operation.

Security sources confirmed to AFP that airstrikes had also targeted jihadist camps in Bita and in Kareto, a village in the Abadam district, close to the Niger border. “The 60 fatalities reported pertain only to the Bita operation; we are still awaiting detailed information regarding Kareto,” one source said, suggesting the overall death toll may rise.

Nigeria’s northeast has been the epicenter of a brutal insurgency led by Boko Haram and ISWAP, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions over the past decade.