Terrorists of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) on Sunday, attacked the Boko Haram insurgents in Gajibo camp, Borno State, killing six of them.
Gajibo, a border community with Cameroun along the Dikwa-Gambouru road, remains terrorists’ main hideout.
A counter-insurgency expert in the Lake Chad region, Zagazola Makama, stated, yesterday, in Maiduguri, that Sunday’s attack appeared to be a sustained inter-rivalry clash between the two terror groups in the North East.
According to him, ISWAP, in a silent operation, stormed the base of Boko Haram terrorists in Gajibo, 95 kilometres east of Maiduguri.
He said ISWAP also tagged Boko Haram terrorists, infidels, hours after the attack.
Makama added that the terrorists seized five AK-47 rifles from the Boko Haram fighters.
“Incessant clashes between the two terror groups lead to huge casualties,” he said.
He further disclosed that the ISWAP fighters carted away Boko Haram’s weapons and other war assets in Sambisa forest and the Lake Chad region.
According to him, the rivalry may lead to self-destruction, as ISWAP had vowed to continue clashing with Boko Haram terrorists in the region.
“ISWAP vowed to continue battling with members of Boko Haram than with Nigerian troops,” Makama noted.
In a related development, multiple airstrikes by Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets have killed dozens of ISWAP terrorists in the Shettima-Abbor-Galmasku axis in Borno.
The terrorists were eliminated on Sunday after two Super Tucano fiter jets bombed a moving convoy of the terrorists on the axis.
Confirming the incident, yesterday, in Maiduguri, Makama said: “The military airstrikes were carried out, following surveillance missions showing two moving gun trucks and motorcycles conveying many fighters.”
He explained that the fighter jets, dispatched for a military operation, scored accurate hits at the terrorists’ convoy.
According to him, these resulted in the destruction of a Hilux vehicle, killing all occupants.
He added that the military airstrikes also eliminated some of the terrorists on motorcycles, while others escaped with degrees of injuries.
Makama noted that subsidiary operation was an air interdiction operation to identify terrorists’ hideouts in Sambisa forest and the Lake Chad region.
“Nigerian Armed Forces, operating with other security agencies and stakeholders, will sustain efforts to flush out terrorists and other criminal elements in the North East,” he said.