A fierce duel has erupted between the Abubakar Shekau-led Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and has led to the death of many of their fighters, according to Al Thabat, an al-Qaida affiliated media outfit.
The Director, Army Public Relations,Brig. Gen. Mohammed Yerima who made this known, disclosed that the incident took place in a border area between Nigeria and the Niger Republic.
Al Thabat, in a statement, said the battle occurred as a reprisal attack after ISWAP abducted dozens of women linked to Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihad, commonly known as Boko Haram, who subsequently attacked the ISWAP base in the village of Sunawa on the Nigeria – Niger border, killed the ISWAP Insurgents and rescued the women.
It will be recalled that ISWAP broke off from the Shekau led Boko Haram in 2016, and since then, series of bitter wars 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.
Meanwhile, 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’s farm and rescued abducted victims.
The Nigerian Army again reassures Nigerians of the determination of troops to clear the remnant terrorists out of the Nigerian territory for good.
