An overnight assault by Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) jihadists, a splinter of Boko Haram linked with ISIS, hit a Nigerian military base in the early hours of Saturday, leaving at least four soldiers dead and several pieces of military equipment destroyed.
The attack targeted the 27 Task Force Brigade in Buni Gari, a town in Gujba local government area, Yobe State.
Explosions rang out around 2:00 a.m., a soldier who survived the ambush said, catching troops off guard. Army troops dubbed “Operation Hadin Kai” battled through the night in a fierce gunfight with the insurgents.
At exactly 10:38 a.m.—more than eight hours after the assault began—the Nigerian Army announced the attack across its verified social media pages. “Troops of Operation HADIN KAI currently (sic) in a fierce battle against ISWAP attack at Buni Gari, Yobe State. Details later,” it stated.
A security source, speaking anonymously, described the chaos: “We were taken off guard by the heavy explosion and gunfire, but we stood our ground. A lot of our fighting equipment was destroyed, and sadly, we lost four of our men.”
As of press time, military authorities have not provided a full account of the incident, and no official casualty figures have been released. Meanwhile several local media report at least four soldiers killed. The reports remain unconfirmed by Nigerian military officials.
Saturday’s attack came less than 24 hours after the Northeast Governors Forum wrapped up a high-level security meeting in Damaturu. Governors from the six states in the region—Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe—had agreed on a new “multidimensional” strategy to combat escalating terrorist violence.
To many Nigerians, the Buni Gari attack is yet another grim reminder that the Islamist insurgency, now more than a decade old, is far from over despite years of aggressive military campaigns.
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