Soldiers in Borno state have killed a Boko Haram commander known as Abatcha.
During an encounter with Nigerian Army troops on Saturday, the commander was shot and killed.
Rann, the KalaBalge Local Government’s headquarters, is about 350 kilometers from Maiduguri and lies on the Chad Republic’s border. Five soldiers were reportedly killed, according to KalaBalge residents.
“We saw the soldiers carrying the bodies of five fallen colleagues after the encounter on Saturday,” one of the community leaders told newsmen in Maiduguri through the Orange network.
Many insurgents died in the fighting, which lasted several hours, according to him. “The insurgents retreated after a top leader, ”Abatcha,’ was killed,” he said. Similarly, in Ajiri on Sunday, the Nigerian Army lost a Commanding Officer and seven soldiers in a fight with militants from the Islamic State of West Africa Province, ISWAP.
Ajiri is a community in Mara Local Government Area of Borno State, which is about 52km from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Locals said the battle was fierce as the militants overran the military base and hoisted their flag.
Meanwhile, an unconfirmed report says that Boko Haram has announced a ceasefire for 10 days to enable Muslims to complete the Ramadan fasting and worship. The insurgents have been fighting almost on a daily basis since the beginning of Ramadan.
Residents in Maiduguri, however, are skeptical about such promise. According to them, Boko Haram has made similar promises before, only to launch deadly attacks.
The insurgency in its eleventh year has displaced over two million people in the northeast region. Over 37,000 people were also said to have been killed since the conflict began in 2009.
