- Over 20 feared dead as bandits attack Sokoto villages
Boko Haram insurgents have killed six military operatives including a colonel, a captain and four soldiers in an ambush along Maiduguri-Damaturu highway.
All the slain military operatives belonged to the 29 Task Force Brigade Headquarters in Benisheik, a source said, adding that the ambush was staged by members of the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Daily Trust gathered that the military operatives moving in a gun truck between Mainok and Jakana, 30km away from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, ran into the insurgents around 5:25pm on Wednesday.
They were reportedly from neighbouring Yobe State on their way back to their station.
“The terrorists opened fire at our patrol vehicle killing all but one soldier on board,” a security source said yesterday.
There was no official statement by the military authorities on the ambush yet.
Another source from the military told our correspondents that the only soldier that escaped by running into the bush had since returned to the main base.
“The six dead bodies had been recovered from the scene of the incident,” he said, adding that the gun truck was completely destroyed by the attackers.
“The six dead bodies have been recognized as our own. The bodies included Chief of Staff at the 29 Taskforce Brigade, Colonel K. E. Elemele and that of Captain A. Mohammed as well as bodies of four other soldiers,” he said.
It was further gathered that late Elemele was on his way to Abuja for a course when the unfortunate incident happened.
Daily Trust further gathered that immediately after the ambush, the assailants proceeded to a military facility in Jakana and engaged the operatives in gun duel that last more than an hour.
“They approached the Jakana military base in a convoy of seven trucks, all of them mounted with machine guns,” the source said.
“It was a serious fire fight but the terrorists were repelled. Some of them were killed while the survivors fled, leaving some of their vehicles behind,” he added.
“Fighting during the raining season is always tough for our troops because of the difficult terrain,” another officer said.
“The terrorists normally take advantage of this period to move, strike and disappear,” he added.
Locals told the Daily Trust last night that Boko Haram fighters driving in a convoy of eight vehicles were sighted around Lamba village, 15 kilometres north of Jakana.
Humanitarian workers abducted
Similarly, the Boko Haram fighters on Wednesday ambushed some international Non-governmental Organisation staffers at Kennari village along Damasak road in northern part of Borno State.
“One of the drivers of the humanitarian workers was killed on the spot and some the workers abducted.
“The terrorists also went away with the two vehicles that the health workers were travelling in,” he said.
Spokesman of the Nigerian Army Sector II, Lt. Njoka Irabor did not respond to several calls and text messages sent to him, and no statement has been issued by the military in that regard.
