Scores Left Dead as Shekau-led Boko Haram and ISWAP Fight

Press Release

A fierce battle between Abubakar Shekau-led Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) broke out and has led to the death of many of their fighters.

The incident which took place in a border area between Nigeria and the Niger Republic was revealed by Al Thabat, an al-Qaida affiliated media outfit.

Al Thabat, in a statement, said Jama’at Ahlas-Sunnah lid-Da’wah well-Jihad, commonly known as Boko Haram, killed Islamic State West Africa Province insurgents in the village of Sumbawa on the Nigeria-Niger border. The battle occurred after ISWAP abducted dozens of women linked to Boko Haram. The group subsequently attacked the ISWAP base and rescued the women.

It will be recalled that ISWAP broke off from the Shekau led Boko Haram in 2016, and since then, a bitter war of attrition and violent confrontations between both factions have been recurrent. This incident has once again exposed the disorganized and disoriented nature of these criminals.

The Nigerian Army in recent Operations under the leadership of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, has continued to dismantle all logistics and operational bases of the insurgents along the Lake Chad Basin axis and Sambisa forest area. The troops in one of its operations along Sambisa forest discovered and destroyed Abubakar Shekau’ farm and rescued abducted victims.

The Nigerian Army wishes to use this medium to reassure Nigerians of the determination of troops to clear the remnants of terrorists out of the Nigerian territory.

You are please requested to disseminate this information to the general public through your medium.

Mohammed Yerima
Brigadier General
Director of Army Public Relations
22 February 2020