On Saturday in Marte, Borno State, about 70 combatants and commanders were killed in a clash between the Jam’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihd, also known as Boko Haram, and its rival terrorist group, ISWAP.
Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency expert and security analyst in Lake Chad, revealed this in a post on his X handle, formally Twitter.
As the infighting continued, he predicted that both sides would suffer more than 60 casualties.
Zagazola confirmed that a heavy fight broke out between the two groups at Tumbum Ali Island in Marte LGA around 1400 hours, with both warring groups’ commanders killed.
He disclosed that the attack was in retaliation of the massive killing of ISWAP fighters by the Buduma factions that had seized most of their hideouts.
He wrote: “Scores of fighters from the Boko Haram, ISWAP terrorists, including their commanders were killed during an infighting in the North East of Borno State.
“Reports indicated that a heavy fight broke out between the two groups at Tumbum Ali Island in Marte LGA at about 1400hours.
“Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama, a Counter-Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in the Lake Chad region that 6 boats belonging to the Bakura Buduma faction and four JAS elements boats, all full with fighters were destroyed.
“The sources said the casualties on both sides could be more than 60 as the infighting continued”.
Sources disclosed that the in-fighting between the two terrorist rival groups worsened in recent times with a fresh flow of arms and combatants from the Sahel ISIS to join ISWAP in the Chad Basin to restrengthen control of the region by the terrorists.
With this development, both terrorist groups, according to reliable sources, have increased their torments on the Niger Republic section of the Lake Chad Basin, forcing numbers of Nigeria refugees in the neighbouring Francophone country to seep back home, which led to the gradual overcrowding of the IDPs camp at Damasak, Mobbar LGA of Borno State.
All along, each of the two rival groups not only wants to eliminate the other from the region but also confront the Multi-National Joint Task Force, MNJTF, in a bid to establish firm control of the Chad Basin.
The incessant ISWAP-Boko Haram clashes portray a three-pronged terror with the MNJTF on one hand and the two rival groups.
Crediblenews.ng
