Scores of fighters were killed earlier this week following a fierce battle between the Abubakar Shekau-led Boko Haram group and IS West Africa Province at a border area between Nigeria and the Niger Republic.

The Nigerian Public Relations Officer, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, in a statement, said, “Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihad, commonly known as Boko Haram, killed Islamic State West Africa Province insurgents in the village of Sunawa on the Nigeria-Niger border.” Yerima added, “The battle occurred after ISWAP abducted dozens of women linked to Boko Haram.”

All Africa reports that ISWAP broke off from Boko Haram in 2016 and there has since been frequent violent confrontations between the two groups. Yerima claimed that this week’s incident has once exposed the “disorganized and disoriented nature” of the so called ‘terrorists’.

All Africa reports that the Nigerian Army had, in recent operations continued to dismantle the bases of the fighters along the Lake Chad Basin axis and Sambisa  forest area. Yerima, meanwhile, claimed that the army had discovered and destroyed Abubakar Shekau’s farm near the Sambisa forest and rescued victims of Boko Haram who had been kidnapped.

Umm Muhammed Umar