Escalated ISWAP/Boko Haram Clashes Claim Over 100 Fighters

By: Zagazola Makama

Fierce rivalry clashes between Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) terror groups escalated in the Lake Chad Basin over the last one week, claiming over 100 of the fighters of both groups.

From April 18 to April 24, the clashes between Boko Haram factions and ISWAP flared up across the riverine islands of the Tumbums, with the ISWAP gaining more footholds and dislodging the Boko Haram rival factions.

Shortly after ISWAP received a fresh consignment of weapons from Mali, through Niger to Dogon Chukwu Kangarwa, it declared a renewed war, issuing a stern directive to its fighters to completely exterminate the members of the JAS Buduma Boko Haram factions on April 18.

Prior to the clashes, Boko Haram JAS has moved several fighters from upper parts of the riverine Niger to take defensive positions in Kukawa in Borno, while another sets of armed fighters were moved to the Nigeria- Cameroon borders, occupying Dawashi, Dabar Wanzam, Kiri Bulla in Kukawa as well as Lokobili and Kandahar in Cameroon.

On its parts, ISWAP mounted on 20 water vessels, conveying 130 fighters to Doron Kirta Wulgo near Nigeria- Cameroon. More ISWAP fighters arrived from Kwalaram, while others trooped in from Ngala and Marte, in preparation for the major encounter.

The clash, which erupted on April 19, at Garin Mallam Ya’u, and Mallam Karamti when ISWAP led by Commander Akilu, led to the killing of several Boko Haram fighters.

The ISWAP elements later seized six of JAS Boko Haram’s motorcycles and destroyed them in the process.

In another encounter, JAS elements swiftly cordoned and captured about 15 ISWAP members at Tumbum Abuja. The clash however did not last long and subsided immediately after the capture of the rival counterpart.

On the same day, ISWAP fighters stormed Tumbum Allura, in Kukawa LGA and killed several Boko Haram fighters. ISWAP, however, lost a few of its fighters in the process while forcing the surviving JAS fighters to flee.

The ISWAP fighters chased the fleeing Boko Haram fighters to the axis of Kariya and Koleram in Kukawa, which led to another gun battle.

Again, the ISWAP fighters overpowered the rival group and killed scores of the Boko Haram fighters, including a top Commander, Khaid Allayi Gana.

Seventy armed JAS Boko Haram men later returned to Garin Mallam Ya’u to bury its neutralized Mujahedeens, while counting its losses and licking its wounds.

The intensified rival clashes forced about 10 Boko Haram fighters to surrender with arms to the troops of Sector 4, Multinational Joint Task Force at Nguiguimi, Diffa region, Niger Republic.

Two other fighters surrendered to troops of Sector 3, Multi National Joint Task Force(MNJTF) in Monguno.

The JAS group, led by Ibrahim Bakura Doro aka Bakaura Buduma, has remained a formidable enemy of ISWAP ever since Shekau’s death. It has repeatedly attacked ISWAP positions around the lake.

The ISWAP, on the other hand, have upscaled efforts to reclaim its position taken control by the JAS group.

Both ISWAP and JAS have lost more fighters from rival clashes with each other since 2021 than in confrontations with government security forces.

The incessant, and ever worsening, clashes between ISWAP and Boko Haram has continued to provide ampler opportunities for government security forces to seize, to craft strategies to exterminate the two rival groups and stamp out the terror scorching the Lake Chad Basin.

Escalated ISWAP/Boko Haram Clashes Claim Over 100 Fighters

NSCDC Rescues 10 Suspected Victims of Human Trafficking in Abuja

By: Michael Mike

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has intercepted in Abuja 10 suspected victims of human trafficking, purportedly being sponsored for illegal migration abroad.

The victims were accosted at Zuba motor park, Abuja, by officers of the FCT command of the NSCDC, following a tip off on their return from Minna, Niger State, where they had gone to process their International passport as directed by their sponsor.

The victims whose age bracket was between 24 and 34 years, consisted of a male and nine females, and all claimed to be indigenes of Ondo State.

It was gathered that each of them paid N80,000 to facilitate the procurement of the International passport.

According to a statement on Monday by the spokesman of the FCT Command of the NSCDC, Samuel Idoko, the intercepted persons also confessed to being promised migration abroad to undertake ready made jobs, especially in North Africa and Canada by a yet to be identified sponsor who according to them, resides in Okitipupa, Ondo state.

While handing over the 10 suspected victims to the Nigeria Agency for the prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP), the FCT Commandant, Olusola Odumosu, warned Nigerians on the dangers of illegal migration abroad.

He said: “Be careful of the types of people that are promising you a better future abroad, don’t be desperate because, some of them end up ruining your lives .

“They deceive you and collect huge sums of money from you that there are ready made jobs, whereas, you may end up in slavery or forced to be sex workers.

“If you must travel abroad, follow the right channel that’ll give you rest of mind, don’t allow somebody to seize your international passport abroad, and place you under an oath that you’ll regret.”

The Commandant further stated that, the victims were handed over to NAPTIP being the agency in charge of human trafficking to carry out further investigations and actions within the ambit of the law.

NSCDC Rescues 10 Suspected Victims of Human Trafficking in Abuja

Boko Haram slaughter 27 fishermen in Cameroon

By: Zagazola Makama

No fewer than 27 fishermen were slaughtered and 3 others abducted by the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah
lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād, Boko Haram terrorists group in the fringes of Lake Chad in the border between Cameroon- Nigeria.

It was gathered that terrorists suspected to be from the Buduma faction of Abou Ummaymah, attacked a local fishing community harboring most fishermen from Nigeria at Island Kofiya near Darak in the Republic of Cameroon.

Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that they asked them to lie down, tie their hands behind their backs before they started slaughtering them.

The sources said the terrorists also abducted four other fishermen after accusing them of spying for the ISWAP faction

The bodies of the fishermen were later recovered during a search and rescue operation by troops and their colleagues who received the news from victims who fled the attack scene.

Boko Haram slaughter 27 fishermen in Cameroon