Nigeria: Jihadists kill eight soldiers in northeast

Nigeria’s fight against jihadist violence has seemingly been undermined once again as militants kill eight soldiers in the country’s northeast, as reported by Africa News via AP on February 18th.

Security sources stated that around 70 fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a Boko Haram offshoot, stormed a military base in the Cross Kauwa village in Borno State on February 16th.

ISWAP and Boko Haram are affiliated with the Islamic State, with the latter being established in 2009; ISWAP broke away from Boko Haram in 2016.

Both groups seek to destabilise the country and impose an Islamic Caliphate in Africa, which would be governed by Sharia Law.

Reportedly, the attack was launched from a camp on Lake Chad. Attackers arrived on motorcycles and launched a gun battle that burned down the military base, destroyed 11 gun trucks and seized anti-aircraft weapons before retreating.

Jihadist groups are particularly active in Borno State, where escalating terrorist violence has forced thousands of people to seek refuge in neighbouring Cameroon, which also faces attacks from Islamists.

On January 29th, a jihadist attack in the town of Sabon Gari, in the Borno State, killed at least 25 people, with the majority being labourers who had travelled to work on a construction site.

The presence of jihadist groups has effectively turned some towns in the Borno State into militarised zones where access to essential resources, such as food and medical care, is heavily restricted.

However, ISWAP and Boko Haram are not the only jihadist groups operating in Nigeria, as the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) also has a presence in the country.

This is despite JNIM primarily operating in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, the latter of which has been under a JNIM-imposed fuel blockade designed to destabilise its junta government since September 2025.

Similarly, the threat posed by Islamist militants is not limited to Nigeria or the Sahel region, as West Africa more broadly has increasingly become a global hub for jihadist violence, particularly for Islamic State-affiliated organisations.

Experts have warned that jihadist groups exploit hardships, such as poverty, to attract recruits, especially young people. Boko Haram has been known to recruit women and children, sometimes forcibly, and use them as suicide bombers.

Africa News via AP, Maghrebi.org