Deadly Weekend as Militants Overrun Police Station and Displaced Persons’ Camp in Northeast Nigeria
A wave of coordinated attacks by suspected Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters has left at least five security personnel dead in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state. Police sources confirmed that militants raided the Nganzai Divisional Police Headquarters on Saturday, located less than 100 kilometers north of the state capital, Maiduguri. In a fierce exchange of gunfire that lasted several hours, four police officers lost their lives as the assailants attempted to overrun the town. A police spokesman described how officers on duty “engaged the attackers in a fierce gun battle,” but were ultimately overwhelmed.
In a separate but seemingly linked operation, another group of jihadists targeted a security post at the entrance of a camp hosting internally displaced persons in the town of Damasak, near the border with Niger. During that assault, a local security volunteer was killed, and around twenty thatched houses were set ablaze. Authorities noted that both the police and military, along with civilian volunteers, responded swiftly to repel the attacks, but the violence underscores a troubling surge in militant activity across the region.
The attacks come just over two weeks after triple suicide bombers tore through a busy market and other areas in Maiduguri, killing at least 23 people in one of the deadliest strikes on the city in recent years. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a US-based monitor, Borno state—the epicenter of Nigeria’s long-running insurgency since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising—saw a significant increase in attacks from both Boko Haram and ISWAP over the last year. As Africa’s most populous nation continues to grapple with the insurgency, residents fear the violence is once again escalating despite repeated military campaigns to crush the jihadist groups.
