A local government chairman told AFP today that terrorists in northeast Nigeria killed a Brigadier General in an attack on a military base. This is the second time in five months that a high-ranking official has been slain.
Boko Haram’s rise in 2009 started a terrorist insurgency in Africa’s most populous country. Since then, strong splinter groups like Islamic State West Africa Province have formed.
An intelligence source told AFP that militants attacked a facility in Benisheikh, which is around 75 kilometers from the Borno state capital Maiduguri, killing at least 18 troops and setting vehicles on fire.
Zannah Lawan Ajimi, the chairman of the Kaga Local Government, told AFP over the phone, “Unfortunately, the brigade commander, Brigadier General O.O. Braimah, lost his life.”
Two sources told AFP that Braimah was dead.
ISWAP killed Brigadier General Musa Uba in November, and now his death follows. He was the highest-ranking military officer to die in the long-running war since 2021.
“They overran the brigade,” one of the intelligence sources stated, and the death toll was “at least” 18.
The second source of information indicated that “the terrorists killed several troops” and “burnt vehicles and buildings before they left,” but they didn’t say how many.
The army and Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters did not answer right away when asked for a response.
– More terrorist violence –
Researchers have said that violence has been on the rise since 2025.
Since December, there have been two suicide bombs in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno. These are the kind of violent, urban strikes that were common during the height of the conflict ten years ago.
The US State Department announced in a notice yesterday that it was allowing “non-emergency US government employees” to depart Abuja “due to the deteriorating security situation.”
The insurgency is mostly in the northeastern countryside, but terrorists from Nigeria and the nearby Sahel have found their way into western Nigeria. There, organized crime groups called “bandits” have been invading towns and stealing from farmers and artisanal miners for years.
This week, gunmen killed at least 90 people in various rural villages in northwest Nigeria, according to an AFP count of tolls from local and humanitarian sources.
Police said a local terrorist cell called Mahmuda, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, was behind one of the attacks in Kebbi state.
Kebbi lies near Nigeria’s border with Benin and Niger, and since 2025, there have been more and more terrorist strikes there.
ACLED, a group that keeps an eye on conflicts, said that violence has risen in the area because of militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
In October, gunmen from the Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM claimed an attack in adjacent Kwara state. This came after years of studies warning that the terrorist warfare in the Sahel could move south to coastal West African states.
In December, the US struck northwest Sokoto state with help from Nigeria. The goal was to kill Islamic State Sahel Province fighters who are generally found in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
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