At least eleven civilians fighting jihadist groups died this Saturday in northeast Nigeria due to the explosion of a land mine that hit their vehicle. The information was confirmed this Sunday to EFE by sources from a self-defense group that collaborates with the Army in anti-terrorist operations.
The fighters were escorting a civilian vehicle from Gamboru, near the border with Cameroon, to Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, when their vehicle hit the landmine and exploded at around 1:00 p.m. local time.
“We lost eleven of our men to a landmine explosion on Saturday. Fourteen of our men were escorting a car of merchants from Gamboru to Maiduguri,” Muhammad Goni, leader of the Civilian Joint Task Forces (CJTF), told EFE.
The CJTF, to which the eleven deceased belonged, They are armed civil self-defense groups that help the Armed Forces Nigerians in the fight against jihadism.
“Three were injured and are being treated in hospital. The merchants did not suffer any damage because their vehicle was behind them,” said Goni, adding that theThe bodies of all the fatalities were recovered and buried in Gamboru.
“We will not allow this incident to stop us from dealing with ISWAP (Islamic State in West Africa Province) and Boko Haram terrorists in Borno and other parts of the northeast,” he stressed.
Goni assured that the jihadists “and“They are resorting to planting bombs because they are under pressure,” but he promised to continue fighting, alongside the military, against them “until the last terrorist is eliminated.”
Nigeria: Target of attacks
At least ten civilians, mainly merchants and fishermen, died on the 17th in the town of Monguno, also in Borno, due to the explosion of a land mine attributed to the ISWAP.
Northeastern Nigeria has been the target of attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram since 2009, a violence that worsened in 2016 with the appearance of its splinter group, the Islamic State in the West Africa Province.
Both groups seek to impose an Islamic State in Nigeria, a country with a Muslim majority in the north and a predominantly Christian country in the south.
Boko Haram and ISWAP have killed more than 35,000 people and left some 2.7 million internally displaced, mostly in Nigeria but also in neighboring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger, according to government and United Nations data.
