Nigerian Troops Repel ISWAP Attack on Borno Forward Operating Base
Military personnel deployed under Operation HADIN KAI repelled a midnight assault by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on a Forward Operating Base in Gajiram, in Borno State’s Nganzai Local Government Area, killing several of the attackers, according to a report by AllAfrica citing Daily Trust.
The Joint Task Force, North East, which leads the operation, confirmed that fighters from ISWAP, a splinter faction of the longer-running Boko Haram insurgency, attempted to overrun the base in the early hours. Troops engaged the assailants and forced them to retreat after sustaining casualties among the militant ranks.
Background to the insurgency
ISWAP emerged around 2016 as a breakaway from the original Boko Haram movement, after the faction pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Operating primarily across the Lake Chad basin in northeast Nigeria, parts of Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, the group has continued to stage attacks on military positions, humanitarian convoys, and villages despite years of regional counter-insurgency efforts.
Northeast Nigeria has faced near-continuous insecurity since 2009, when the Boko Haram uprising began in Maiduguri. The conflict has displaced millions of people and drawn in a multinational force backed by the Lake Chad Basin Commission. Within Nigeria, successive military operations have sought to degrade the insurgents’ capacity, though attacks on remote outposts remain a recurring feature of the conflict.
Operation HADIN KAI
Operation HADIN KAI, which translates roughly as “together in strength,” is the Nigerian military’s primary counter-insurgency framework in the northeast. It replaced earlier operations in the theatre and coordinates ground forces, air support, and civil-military activities aimed at stabilising liberated areas. Forward Operating Bases such as the one at Gajiram serve as frontline positions from which troops patrol surrounding communities and respond to militant incursions.
Gajiram lies in a rural part of Nganzai, an area that has seen repeated militant activity over the years owing to its proximity to the Lake Chad shoreline and the Sambisa forest reserve. Military commanders have repeatedly identified the disruption of insurgent logistics and the protection of civilian populations as central objectives of the ongoing campaign.
Sources
This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.
