ISWAP Kill 8 soldiers, abduct hundred in Borno

The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) (an offshoot of Boko Haram) on Tuesday reportedly killed at least eight soldiers and injured three others in an ambush in Kukawa town in the northern part of Borno State

They also, in the last ten days abducted about one hundred people including young men and girls from Kukawa and adjoining communities, security sources, vigilantes and locals said.

The terrorist group overran the town of Kukawa in Borno state late on Tuesday, the sources told the AFP news agency.

They seized residents who had returned to the town in a government operation on August 2, after spending nearly two years in displacement camps, said Babakura Kolo, head of a local militia.

“The terrorists attacked the town in 22 trucks around 4:00 pm (16:00 GMT) yesterday and engaged soldiers guarding the town in a fierce battle,” he said.

Kukawa’s residents had returned to their homes just 16 days earlier under military escort, on the orders of the Borno state authorities.

They had been living in camps in the regional capital Maiduguri, 180km (120 miles) away, where they fled following a bloody attack in November 2018.

A security source who confirmed the incident to AFP said fighter jets were deployed from Maiduguri on Wednesday to “tackle the situation”, but did not give further details.

The decade-long insurgency forced more than two million people out of their homes, most of them from the northern part of Borno.

Many have moved into squalid displacement camps in Maiduguri, where they rely on handouts from international charities.