Nigerian troops unleashed a barrage of ground assaults and precision airstrikes on terrorist hideouts across the north Sunday, ramping up operations in response to US President Donald Trump’s blistering threat to unleash American firepower against Islamist extremists unless the killings of Christians cease.
The intensified campaign, spanning Borno, Katsina, Kwara, Zamfara, Kebbi and Kaduna states, came hours after Trump vowed to halt all US aid and potentially invade “guns-a-blazing” if President Bola Tinubu’s government fails to curb the atrocities.
In a weekend clash on the fringes of Lake Chad, Boko Haram fighters routed their ISWAP rivals in Toumbun Gini island, Abadam district of Borno State, killing over 50 insurgents in a brutal turf war that left the air thick with gunfire and the water stained red, according to local witnesses.
“ISWAP boats landed, but what was meant to be a surprise attack turned into a deadly trap. The first shots were decisive. JAS fighters overpowered them within minutes. ISWAP was routed,” one community source recounted, referring to Boko Haram’s official name, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad.
On the ground, soldiers from the 135 Special Forces Battalion under Operation Hadin Kai thwarted a Boko Haram ambush on civilians along the Buratai-Kamuya road in Dutse Kura, freeing 86 hostages and detaining 29 alleged supply runners en route to Chilaria with 1,000 litres of fuel, tyres, medicines and rations.
Pursuing the fleeing attackers to Mangari, troops razed an 11-structure camp, seizing an AK-47 rifle with 73 rounds, PKT belts, vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles in a haul that underscored the group’s logistical web.
From the skies, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) hammered ISWAP positions in Borno’s Mallam Fatori and Shuwaram, obliterating hideouts, arms depots and mobility assets along the Lake Chad Basin, while bandit kingpins on Zango Hill in Katsina’s Kankara district met fiery ends in a multi-pass onslaught.
NAF spokesperson Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame detailed the devastation: “The Nigerian Air Force intensified its counterterrorism and counter-banditry operations nationwide with a series of precision airstrikes that neutralised ISWAP terrorists in Mallam Fatori and Shuwaram, Borno State, and destroyed bandit enclaves in Garin Dandi and Chigogo, Kwara State, as well as Zango Hill in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.”
He added on the northwest sweep: “Guided by actionable intelligence and ISR surveillance, multiple attack passes were executed, destroying key logistics hubs and neutralising several of the terrorists in one of the most decisive strikes in the region.”
Ejodame credited the push to Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sunday Aneke’s directives, noting: “The operations reflect a sustained counterterrorism effort under the directives of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Aneke.”
Trump’s outburst, posted online amid reports of sectarian violence, painted Nigeria as a “now-disgraced country” and ordered the “Department of War” to gear up for “fast, vicious, and sweet” intervention. “If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now-disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” he thundered.
No casualties were reported among Nigerian forces, but the blitz signals a defiant homefront bid to preempt foreign meddling in a conflict that has claimed thousands since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising.
