Nigerian security forces have killed two senior members of the jihadist group Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) in a series of bombings carried out on Saturday in the Lake Chad Basin, on the border with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Security sources quoted by the news portal PR News, which has links with the Nigerian Army, have detailed that the dead are Ali Kwaya and Bukar Mainoka, considered to be members of the Shura Council of ISWA.
The attack would have been carried out in the locality of Belowa, one of the strongholds of the jihadist group in the area, after the Nigerian authorities got intelligence information about the presence of high ranking members of the group in a meeting in the area.
«One hour after the bombings, two vehicles carrying thirteen wounded terrorists to another hideout were hit by precision bombing by the Nigerian Air Force,» these sources have detailed.
They stressed that the air strikes came just a day after similar bombings on Friday in Ngwuei Gana, east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state (northeast), as part of operations against ISWA in this area of the African country.
«Reports suggest that the bombing achieved its objective, given that numerous terrorists were neutralized and their structures and vehicles were set on fire,» they said, without giving specific details on casualties in the ranks of the jihadist group.
For his part, the spokesman of the Nigerian Air Force, Edward Gabkwet, confirmed the bombings without commenting on the identities of the dead and stressed that «the road to victory in the northeast and northwest is still on course». «We will not rest until all areas are free of terrorists and insurgents,» he reiterated.
ISWA emerged as a split from Boko Haram after the latter group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, swore allegiance in 2015 to then Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, after which he was removed from office to appoint another leader, resulting in the group’s split and the emergence of ISWA.
Attacks in Nigeria, previously centered in the northeastern part of the country – where Boko Haram and ISWA operate – have spread in recent months to other areas in the north and northwest, raising alarms about the possible expansion of these terrorist and criminal networks.
