Nigerian army claims it killed a Boko Haram commander

The Nigerian army has claimed that it has killed a top Boko Haram commander, Abu Khalid, and 10 other militants, as reported by The New Arab and agencies on February 1st.

A night raid was conducted by the military in the north-eastern Borno State between January 31st and February 1st, where soldiers attacked Boko Haram militants in the Kodunga area, where they also recovered food, medical supplies and weapons from the militants.

Sani Uba, an army spokesperson, said that Khalid, who was the Boko Haram commander in the Sambisa Forest region of Borno State, was a key figure in “the terrorist hierarchy, coordinating operations and logistics in the Sambisa axis.”

News of this raid comes a day after it was reported that jihadists had killed at least 25 people, including nine soldiers, in an attack on construction site labourers in the town of Sabon Gari, in Borno State.

On the same day, in a separate attack, jihadists raided an army base in Sabon Gari, hours before gunmen launched the deadly ambush, where most victims were labourers who had travelled to the town for work.

Since its founding in 2009, Boko Haram, which is affiliated with the Islamic State, has conducted numerous attacks in Nigeria and killed thousands of civilians.

However, Boko Haram is not the only jihadist organisation operating in Nigeria, as its splinter group, Islamic State in Western Province (ISWAP), also engages in violence with the aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria, under which citizens would be subjected to Sharia Law.

Jihadist groups are particularly active in the Borno State, where, as of October 2025, at least 5,000 people have been forced to flee to neighbouring Cameroon after jihadists seized towns, burned homes and attacked civilians.

The presence of Boko Haram has effectively turned some towns into militarised zones, where access to essential resources, such as food and healthcare, is heavily restricted.

However, Nigeria is not the only Sahel nation facing jihadist violence, as the Sahel region has increasingly become the global epicentre for Islamist terrorism and insurgencies.

Similarly, Boko Haram’s influence has expanded into neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, while groups linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, such as the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), have launched insurgencies in Burkina Faso and Mali.

The New Arab and agencies, Maghrebi.org