Five Nigerian soldiers were killed on Saturday evening by jihadists affiliated with theIslamic state in West Africa (Iswap) in an ambush targeting a military convoy in Borno State in northeastern Nigeriasecurity sources said Sunday.
Fighters of this branch of Boko Haram ISIS affiliates also kidnapped 35 people on Friday and killed a woman in the attack on another convoy of cars carrying civilians in the same region, the epicenter of the Islamist insurgency, according to two other security sources.
On Saturday evening, jihadists armed with rocket launchers opened fire on the military convoy on the outskirts of the town of Mafa, 44 kilometers from Maiduguri, capital of Borno.
Terrorists fired a rocket at the convoy which hit a vehicle in which five soldiers were
a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
All five soldiers were killed
, according to this source. This assessment was confirmed by another security source, which adds that the insurgents seized two military vehicles.
Also on Saturday evening, “80 schoolchildren returning to their village of Mahuta, in Katsina state, Nigeria […] were kidnapped by bandits Local police spokesperson Gambo Isah said. They were recovered Sunday morning after the operation carried out by a vigilante group. This new kidnapping took place 48 hours after the release of 344 children and adolescents, kidnapped from their boarding school on December 11 by criminals operating on behalf of the jihadist group Boko Haram.
Civilians increasingly targeted
ISWAP, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, is stepping up attacks on the armed forces and has killed dozens, if not hundreds, of Nigerian soldiers. But she is accused of attacking civilians more and more often.
In late Friday afternoon, jihadists ambushed a convoy of cars carrying civilians on the highway between Maiduguri and Damaturu, a town in neighboring Yobe state.
The insurgents arrived in five trucks equipped with machine guns and barricaded the highway. They kidnapped 35 people and killed one
, the head of a pro-government anti-jihadist militia, Umar Ari, told AFP on Sunday.
Nine vehicles abandoned by travelers were looted by the jihadists who set a truck and two other cars on fire.
Over 36,000 people have been killed and an estimated two million have been displaced in a decade of conflict in northeast Nigeria.
The jihadist violence of Iswap and Boko Haram has so far remained localized in northeast Nigeria.
But the kidnapping of 344 children on December 11 by criminal groups on behalf of Boko Haram in the north-west of the country, hundreds of kilometers from their bastion, raises fears of a territorial expansion of the jihadist group.
The hundreds of children were finally released on Friday after negotiations between authorities and criminal groups.
– .
