No fewer than 12 persons have been reported killed and several others injured by terrorists who attacked Ilela community in Safana Local Council of Katsina State, like reported by guardian.ng.

The incident, which occurred at the weekend, also saw several homes ransacked and burnt. It was learnt that the assailants stormed the community to counter a repentant terrorist, Mani Turwa, who was said to be protecting the community against attacks.

Sources said they initially engaged Turwa and his team in a gun duel, during which they were repelled. The Guardian gathered that the terrorists thereafter turned their anger on the community, plundering and burning most of the houses.

Police Public relations Officer (PPRO), SP Gambo Isah, confirmed the incident but said he could not ascertain the casualty figure.

In a related development, gunmen shot at vehicle on Sunday afternoon along the Batsari/Jibia road. The PPRO was yet to confirm the Batsari incident as at the time of filing this report.

However, the Nigerian Army high command has said troops of 120 Task Force Battalion, Sector 2, Joint Task Force (JTF), North East (NE) Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), eliminated terrorists in a fierce encounter at Goniri, Yobe State.

Army spokesman, Brig-Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said yesterday: “Troops recorded this feat in conjunction with members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF). In a clearance action, code-named, ‘Operation Dominance 1’ along the insurgents’ route of manoeuvre at Ngirbua village, the gallant troops neutralised two Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, following a ferocious battle, while others, bowing to the troops’ superior firepower, retreated in disarray.”

Meanwhile, the Kaduna Government will present its security report for 2021 today. The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, is expected to present the yearly report to Governor Nasir el-Rufai.

Besides, the ministry will also present the security report for the fourth quarter of 2021 at the event, which will be held at the Council Chambers of Sir Kashim Ibrahim House.

El-Rufai, in 2019, established the Ministry of Internal Security, the first by any state government in the country and appointed Aruwan as commissioner.

Aruwan stated: “The ministry has introduced openness in reportage of security incidents with daily updates, quarterly reports and yearly reports. This reflects a commitment to transparency and the strength of the relationship the ministry has built with security agencies that trust it to responsibly handle security data.”

“The ministry has become a consistent source of information to the security agencies through its Operations Room, which is open 24-hours to receive reports from citizens.”

According to the commissioner, the 2021 security report follows the 2020 yearly report and the quarterly reports published in 2021. He pointed out that the reports provide a facts-based assessment of the security challenges the state confronts.

Jihadists in the Sahel are waging an effective war of attrition, experts say, contributing to two military coups in the volatile African region within the last 18 months, like reported by dailymail.co.uk.

Burkina Faso’s army seized power on Monday and cited the “manifest incapacity” of the elected government to handle the Islamist insurgency, which it said “threatens the very foundations of our nation”.

The coup followed a military takeover in neighbouring Mali in August 2020, where the army also pointed to the deposed government’s helplessness against jihadists, as well as corruption, as reasons for the putsch.

Much of the semi-arid Sahel region has been plagued by a brutal jihadist conflict that first emerged in Mali in 2012, before spreading to Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of people across the region have died and around two million have been displaced by the conflict.

The impoverished landlocked countries have struggled to contain the violence, which has also begun to spill over into West African coastal states such as Ivory Coast and Togo.

Mahamoudou Savadogo, a Burkinabe security consultant, said that the whole region is suffering the “full force” of a jihadist “strategy of attrition”.

He explained that this consists of “being patient, sowing the seeds of division, destabilising our political system and destabilising the social order”.

– ‘War of all against all’ –

A patchwork of competing Islamist groups — including affiliates of the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda — operate in the Sahel.

They are increasingly governing the areas they control as Sahel governments retreat, imposing sharia law and levying taxes.

Under-equipped and underfunded state security forces, for their part, are on the back foot. Some bases have been abandoned entirely in the face of sustained attack.

Malian researcher Boubacar Haidara told AFP that the precarious military situation combined with poor governance and corruption has driven a wedge between civilians and their leaders, both civilian and military.

In Burkina Faso, the most recent major attack is believed to have contributed to frustrations that led to Monday’s coup.

On November 14, at least 57 people, 53 of them gendarmes, were killed in an assault on a police station at Inata in the north of the country, sparking protests.

An internal memo leaked a few days afterwards revealed that the soldiers had not been supplied with food for days.

A newspaper boss in Ivory Coast, a country itself threatened by jihadist spill-over, recently summed up the mood in a social media post.

“Terrorists are triumphing everywhere in the Sahel,” said Tiemoko Assale, pointing to how the shock caused by jihadists massacres was triggering a “war of all against all”.

– ‘Patience’-

The militaries that have seized power in Mali and Burkina Faso have both announced their determination to regain control amid chaos.

Amnesty International researcher Ousmane Diallo said that both armies have “all the means to adopt the strategy they deem most effective to reverse the trend” now that they are in charge.

But he added: “If they don’t succeed, what will happen?”

In Mali at least, attacks on security forces appear to have fallen since the August coup.

However, the reasons for this are unclear. France, the former colonial power in much of the Sahel, has assassinated several jihadist leaders.

It is also difficult to verify the Malian junta’s claims of military success.

Eventually, both Mali and Burkina Faso will likely have to confront the vexed question of whether to engage the jihadists in dialogue.

Many analysts view such talks as one of the few viable options to escape the cycle of violence.

But France — which has thousands of troops deployed in the Sahel — has long viewed dialogue with jihadists as anathema.

Jihadist leaders themselves have stayed relatively silent about the recent coups. They may be biding their time.

In a message broadcast after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Iyad Ag Ghaly, the leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated GSIM group, praised the “patience” of Afghan fighters after two decades of American occupation.

He encouraged Sahelian jihadists to follow suit.

Islamist militants have killed at least 12 civilians and burned houses and motorbikes during raids on two villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, two local human rights groups said according to sowetanlive.co.za.

Fighters believed to be from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militia active in eastern Congo since the 1990s, attacked the villages of Mutuheyi and Mapendo in Ituri province on Sunday night, the activists said.

Since launching a joint military operation against the ADF in November, Congo and Uganda claim to have captured several of the ADF’s jungle camps, but the militia’s attacks on civilians have not stopped.

Christophe Munyanderu, head of a local rights group, said the attackers came from bases in nearby North Kivu province and killed the 13 people, burned four motorbikes and torched six houses.

Patrick Musubao, president of another rights group, said 12 people had been killed. He said the victims were shot or butchered with bladed weapons.

He warned authorities of the presence of the ADF in the area before the attack but had no response, he said.

“Now a dozen people have just been innocently killed,” Musubao told Reuters.

Army spokesman Jules Ngongo Tshikudi confirmed an attack had taken place in the villages but did not give a death toll or say who was responsible. He said soldiers could do nothing to stop the attack.

“The army has had no warning. What is important here is to impose peace in this area and the army will not rest,” he said.

No group has taken responsibility for the killings. The ADF does not have a spokesperson and does not usually comment on its operations.

The ADF pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in mid-2019. Islamic State has in turn claimed responsibility for some of the ADF’s violence, including bombings in Uganda and Congo late last year.

United Nations researchers, however, have found no evidence of IS command and control over the group’s operations.

Troops have killed many fighters of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and dislodged the terrorist group from the Kainji National Park, New Bussa in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, like reported by dailytrust.com.

The Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Internal Security, Emmanuel Umar, disclosed this in a chat with journalists in his office in Minna Tuesday.

He said the military operation became intensive as the terrorists tried to make the park their new settlement.

It was gathered that the fleeing terrorists from neighboring states had established a camp in Niger State.

“Many of the terrorists have been neutralised while a number of them were apprehended and taken into police custody,” he said.

Umar said terrorists were being attracted to parts of the state especially areas with viable cattle and agricultural products but said the government had stepped up actions against them.

“We have stepped up our game to make sure that the bandits don’t return to these areas,” he added.

Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists killed four persons and abducted 24 during the recent attack on Chibok communities in Borno State, like reported by thenationonlineng.net.

The chairman of Chibok Local Government Council, Umar Ibrahim, stated this during a sympathy meeting to the families of the abductees by Governor Babagana Zulum.

He said: “In addition to the 24 people abducted, three persons were killed by the terrorists during separate attacks on three communities.”

The chairman stated 110 buildings made up of 73 houses, 33 shops and four churches were burnt with eight vehicles and three tricycles during the attack.

Zulum, who was in Chibok on Monday, invited family members from the three communities of Kawtakare, Korohuma and Pemi all in Chibok Local Government where they met at the local government lodge in Chibok town.

The Nation checks revealed that 22 women and two men abducted were kidnapped by Boko Haram/ISWAP during the attack.

“We are here in Chibok to commiserate with you, immediate families of our sisters and brothers abducted as well as four of our brothers killed by the Boko Haram terrorists in these unfortunate incidents. We share your pain and we pray this act will not happen again,” Zulum said.

The Governor took turns to meet with heads of security agencies in the area as a way of understanding their challenges and proffering proper ways to secure the communities.

The Governor observed that four local government areas: Biu, Askira, Chibok and Damboa were faced with serial attacks from Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists in recent times, assuring that his administration will not relent in providing additional support to security operatives to contain the challenges.

Zulum directed that an assessment report containing all destructions perpetrated by the terrorists in the three communities be submitted to him.

He commended the chairman of Chibok Local Government for his responsive leadership.

Burkina Faso’s military takeover is unsettling but not unexpected. The ousting of President Roch Kaboré is the fourth coup in West Africa in the last 17 months. Neighbouring Mali has seen two military interventions in that time, fuelled by concerns over an inability to deal with growing militant Islamist violence, like reported by bbc.com.

How serious is the Islamist threat?
As in Mali, Mr Kabore’s removal was triggered by growing discontent among security forces over his alleged failure to adequately support them against militants linked to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

On Sunday, mutinies were reported in several military camps, in the capital, Ouagadougou, and the northern towns of Kaya and Ouahigouya.

The unrest followed months of anti-government protests demanding the president’s resignation.

Militant attacks that began in 2015 have claimed more than 2,000 lives and forced 1.5 million people from their homes, according to UN estimates. Schools are closed in large parts of the country because it is too dangerous for them to open.

Public confidence in the president’s management of the security crisis sharply fell after an attack in the northern village of Solhan in June 2021. More than 100 people were killed in the attack blamed on militants who had crossed from Mali.

The Solhan attack prompted opposition protests in the capital, forcing Mr Kaboré to reshuffle his government and appoint himself defence minister.

Another attack on the northern Inata military base in November 2021 heightened anger towards the government.

More than 50 members of the security forces were killed. Reports emerged that the base had sent a distress message asking for food rations and additional equipment two weeks before the attack, which never arrived.

The president sacked his government and appointed a new prime minister and defence minister ahead of national reconciliation talks with the opposition.

How did militant violence spread to Burkina Faso?
Despite West Africa’s security and political volatility, Burkina Faso enjoyed fragile stability until a popular uprising in 2014 that ousted former long-serving President Blaise Compaoré.

A coup attempt in 2015 left the military deeply divided. Mr Kaboré was first elected that year on a pledge to unify the country.

However, militants from neighbouring Mali – where a separatist insurgency in 2012 was hijacked by jihadists – carried out an attack in the Burkinabè capital as Mr Kaboré prepared to take the helm.

Armed groups took advantage of a weak security presence in Burkina Faso’s exposed borderlands to mount more attacks and entrench their presence.

Jihadists have also triggered sectarian tensions between previously co-existing Christian and Muslim communities in Burkina Faso.

The militants have taken advantage of the sparse state presence and lack of humanitarian support, which have left communities both vulnerable and prone to recruitment.

Political participation has also been undermined by the militant presence.

In 2020, voters who had fled their homes in parts of the north and east were unable to participate in the presidential poll in which Mr Kaboré was re-elected with 58% of the vote.

Militant pressure on communities heightened public disgruntlement in the president’s second term.

What are the parallels with Mali?
There are concerns that a pattern is emerging.

The build-up to Burkina Faso’s coup bear similarities with events in Mali before its own military takeover in August 2020.

A series of deadly attacks on military and civilian targets was followed by mass protests sparked by a growing lack of faith in the government of Mali’s then President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.

Burkina Faso’s main opposition leader, Eddie Komboigo, has tried to take advantage of the public discontent about insecurity to whip up anger.

But while the public in Mali broadly supported the military coup, Burkinabès may be wary of further instability with the army in charge.

Did anti-French sentiment play a role?
Both countries used to be French colonies and France has continued to maintain strong economic and security ties long after independence.

Like Mali, Burkinabè security forces depend on support from France which deployed 5,100 personnel in the region under what was called Operation Barkhane. This began when France sent troops to stop jihadists marching on Mali’s capital, Bamako in 2013.

But public backing for the French involvement has waned as the security situation deteriorated.

In December, residents of Kaya blocked a French military convoy delivering supplies to the Burkinabè army and instead accused Barkhane forces of working with jihadists.

France has further been pushed out of the Sahel region, which includes both countries, in a diplomatic row with Mali that triggered the withdrawal of nearly half of the Barkhane contingent.

The security vacuum could be exploited by jihadists, while persistent political instability could undermine defence cooperation under what is called the G5 Sahel force that includes troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

While Mali is turning to Russia to fill this security gap, its Sahel partners – including Burkina Faso – have strongly opposed this controversial move.

Should the region be wary?
The coup in Burkina Faso suggest that putschists are not concerned about the reaction of the West African regional group Ecowas. Recent sanctions against Mali and Guinea, which saw a coup last September, failed to curb the soldiers’ actions.

The president of neighbouring Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, had a shaky start in office in 2021 with a coup attempt against a backdrop of deadly attacks against civilians and the army.

He has been a fierce critic of the political situation in Mali and its potential impact on the morale of regional defence forces.

The Nigerien president has been trying to quell any military discontent by visiting defence forces in volatile regions, which seems to be working for now.

The instability in Mali and Burkina Faso is also leading to security concerns in Ivory Coast, their neighbour to the south. There have been jihadist attacks there since June 2020 targeting security forces.

The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, said troops killed 49 terrorists and bandits across theatres of operations while 863 terrorists surrendered in the last two weeks, like reported by championnews.com.ng.

The Director Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Bernard Onyeuko, made this known while giving an update on operations of the armed forces on Thursday in Abuja.

Onyeuko said troops of “Operation Hadin Kai”, neutralised 37 terrorist, arrested 17 and recovered 21 assorted arms and 117 rounds of different calibres of ammunition.

He added that four gun trucks were captured from the terrorists while 16 abducted civilians were rescued within the period.

Onyeuko said the 863 terrorists and their families comprising 136 adult males, 251 adult females and 476 children surrendered to troops.

He said they surrendered at different locations including Banki, Bama, Dikwa, Gwoza and Gamboru towns in Borno within the period.

“The surrendered terrorists have been properly profiled and handed over to appropriate authorities for necessary actions.

“Relatedly, the Air Component scored devastating hits on terrorists’ stronghold at Arina Chiki Village in the Lake Chad Basin in Borno State.

“This resulted in the neutralisation of scores of the terrorist, while several others escaped with various degrees of injuries.

“This feat was achieved on Jan. 14, when on the heels of credible intelligence, a force package of NAF platforms were dispatched to attack the identified location which the terrorists used as venue for biweekly meetings.

“Consequently, the NAF platforms took out the terrorists in successful turns of airstrikes,’’ he said.

On Operation Hadarin Daji, Onyeuko said the troops eliminated 12 bandits and arrested 15 including their collaborators within the period.

He added that 16 assorted arms and 136 rounds of different calibres of ammunition as well as 114 rustled livestock were recovered.

According to him, troops recovered three extra magazines of AK-47 rifle and four motorcycles from bandits, while three kidnapped victims were rescued in the course of the operations.

Onyeuko disclosed that troops of Operation Safe Haven arrested 27 criminal elements and rescued six kidnapped victims at various locations in Plateau and Kaduna states during the period.

He added that they recovered five arms and 69 different calibers of ammunition among other items of security concern in the course of their operations.

The defence operation spokesperson further said that troops of Operation Whirl Stroke apprehended five criminals and held peace and security meetings with community and youth leaders and other critical stakeholders.

According to him, this is non-kinetic means of tackling insecurity

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has raised the alarm that the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) are currently recruiting more fighters in the state, like reported by dailypost.ng.

The governor, who stated this on Wednesday when he received the Senate Committee on Army in Maiduguri, the state’s capital, said the ISWAP fighters are more dangerous and more funded than the Boko Haram insurgents.

According to him, if the menace is not checked on time, the effect would be disastrous to Nigeria, stressing that the fighters are better chased out of the country at the early stage.

He said, “I must commend the Nigerian Army for the relative peace in many parts of the state but I want to appeal to the military to take the war against the insurgents and chase them out because ISWAP is currently recruiting fighters in some parts of the state.

“If nothing is done to check and tackle the growing presence of ISWAP fighters who are better armed, better equipped, more deadly, more sophisticated and receive more funds than Boko Haram, it will be disastrous not only to Borno State but the country in general.

“They (ISWAP) are growing spontaneously and it is not difficult for us to address these problems; we need to pursue ISWAP at this early stage.

“ISWAP fighters are mounting checkpoints between Damboa and Biu; they are collecting taxes from communities because just three days ago, I got security information that they held a party (ceremony) with over 300 machines. Something needs to be done especially in the axis of Askira, Chibok and Damboa.

“Another issue is that two of our local government headquarters are still under the control of Boko Haram terrorists, Malumfatori in Abadam Local Government and Guzamala.

“We want the owners of these two local governments to take over, that is the government of Borno State and the two local governments.

“I have commended the Nigerian Army for the relative peace in many parts of the state and there is nothing wrong if I ask them to wake up from the slumber in addressing the problems of ISWAP”.

The Somali National Army said it had killed at least 25 members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group al-Shabaab and wounded dozens in an operation in the country’s southwest, like reported by aa.com.tr.

The operation, which took place near the town of Barire in the Lower Shabelle province, was carried out by Gorgor (eagle) special commandos who were trained by the Turkish military under bilateral security cooperation.

“The operation came after the army got an intelligence report that the terrorist fighters were regrouping in the area,” the Somali National News Agency reported on Monday.

Bariire is a small strategic agricultural town located 74 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu which was recently liberated from al-Shabaab by a major military offensive.

On Sunday, the Somali National Army and forces from the country’s Galmudug region repulsed an attack by al-Shabaab, killing at least 21 of its members.

The firefight took place in the town of Adakibir in the country’s Galgadud region and also killed four military personnel, including a senior commander.

The Army Ranger Wing (ARW), the Defence Forces’s special forces unit, is to cease counter-terrorism operations in Mali this year, like reported by irishtimes.com.

The move would free up the elite soldiers for possible deployments to other parts of north Africa’s Sahel region, which has seen extensive instability and conflict in recent times.

It is understood that the resulting gap may be filled by conventional Irish Army troops, although no final decision has been made on this.

The ARW is in Mali as part of Minusma, a UN stabilisation mission in the African nation. It is widely considered the most dangerous of the Defence Forces’s overseas missions.

Up to 14 ARW members are deployed at any one time to Minusma headquarters in the capital Bamako and to the isolated Camp Castor in Gao, some 1,200km away. From there, they engage in long-range surveillance patrols in areas controlled by Islamic militants seeking to overthrow the Malian government.

The ARW operates as part of a large German intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance company which provides the armoured vehicles they patrol in.

It is understood Defence Forces management consider the role carried out by the ARW, known as human intelligence (Humint), as not specifically a special forces competence and that it could be carried out by well-trained conventional troops.

This would free ARW troops up for more complex operations and it understood they may be deployed on another mission in the Sahel region in the medium term.

The Mali mission has been viewed as valuable from a training and experience point of view. However, it has also sometimes involved significant risks to troops.

Fourteen German and one Belgian peacekeeper were injured in a suicide bombing on their overnight camp by an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group on June 25th last. Irish troops avoided injury as they were on patrol at the time.

It is understood the toll could have been much worse if the attacker had detonated the bomb closer to the camp’s fuel dump, which was believed to have been his intended target.

Three members of the ARW suffered minor injuries in February 2020 while on patrol in Gao. It is understood that their armoured vehicle struck a concealed explosive along the roadside.

The 13,000-strong French-led Minusma mission was established to help stabilise Mali following the Tuareg rebellion in 2012.

Irish involvement was first authorised by the Dáil in 2019 for a two-year period, which was later extended until this September.

More than 190 UN peacekeepers have died in the country, including nearly 120 killed by hostile action.

Another 20 Irish troops are currently deployed to Mali as part of the separate European Union Training Mission. These are non-combat troops responsible for training the Malian military in Koulikoro Training Camp 100km east of Bamako.

A spokesman for the Defence Forces said the ARW “currently contributes a field human intelligence team to Minusma as part of the German Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Task Force.

“Óglaigh na hÉireann is currently scoping the possibility of replacing the ARW with infantry soldiers from the Army, continuing the Defence Forces commitment to Minusma.”