At least 38 individuals lost their lives this week in a series of suspected extremist attacks targeting loggers and a village in northeast Nigeria, according to local anti-jihadist militia and community members.
On Tuesday, militants affiliated with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) conducted a brutal assault in a forest near the town of Mafa. Reports indicate that they rounded up loggers, resulting in the deaths of 27 individuals while abducting 18 others. Babakura Kolo, a militia fighter working alongside the Nigerian military, detailed the horrific scene, stating, “They slit the throats of 27 loggers and took away 18 others whose fate is still unknown.” Another fighter, Ibrahim Liman, corroborated Kolo’s account, affirming that the loggers hailed from Mafa, located approximately 60 kilometers from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
In a separate incident the previous month, a triple suicide bombing in Maiduguri claimed the lives of 23 people, marking one of the most devastating attacks the city has experienced in years. Amnesty International further reported that 20 internally displaced persons were killed and 30 others abducted while gathering firewood in the same forest area.
ISWAP, along with its rival, Boko Haram, has increasingly targeted local agricultural workers, including farmers, fishermen, loggers, herders, and metal scrap collectors. The groups accuse these individuals of providing intelligence to the military regarding their activities.
On Monday, ISWAP launched another attack on Kautikeri village, located near Chibok, resulting in the deaths of 11 people and the destruction of homes. Manasseh Allen, the head of the Chibok Area Development Association (CADA), reported that the terrorists killed 11 villagers and set fire to multiple homes and barns before retreating to the nearby Sambisa forest. Chibok remains infamously known for the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram, an event that garnered international outrage and ignited the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign. While some of these girls managed to escape, many remain unaccounted for.
As of now, there has been no official statement from the Nigerian authorities regarding the latest attacks. The increase in violence attributed to militant groups targeting both military and civilian sites has raised significant concerns in Africa’s most populous nation.
