Suspected Boko Haram Militants Kill 17 Herders In Northeast Nigeria

Boko Haram militants killed 17 herders and stole their cattle in Borno state of northeast Nigeria, a self-defense militia said Monday.

According to reports, the terrorists attacked herders guarding cattle in a pasture near the Airamne village in Borno state.

"Seventeen herders were killed in the fight and all their cattle were taken away," said militia leader Babakura Kolo, as per Arab News.

"The herders put (up) resistance but were outgunned and outnumbered by the attackers, who had better weapons," he added.

Another militiaman, Ibrahim Liman, said the militants had launched the attack from camps in Gajiganna Forest, where they had relocated after being forced out of Sambisa Forest by their rivals, ISWAP, and the Nigerian army.

Boko Haram and ISWAP recently started targeting civilians, farmers, and herders in the northeast, accusing them of spying on them and further leak the info to the Nigerian army.

The terrorist organization Boko Haram has been wreaking havoc in northeastern Nigeria since 2009 and has since expanded its operations to neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. The group is responsible for thousands of deaths and continues to terrorize innocent civilians.

Boko Haram is particularly opposed to western education, which they say lures people away from Islamic teaching as a way of life. The group has vowed to make Nigeria an Islamic state and has followed up on this vow with numerous attacks on boarding schools, villages, churches, and government facilities.

The kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in 2014 was one of the most notable attacks carried out by the group. The girls, aged 16 to 18, were taken from their boarding school in Borno state in the northeast of Nigeria.

ISWAP is primarily active in the Chad Basin and is engaged in a violent insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. It is an offshoot of Boko Haram, with which it has a rivalry.

Furthermore, the battlefield rivalry between the two terrorist groups spiked when Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, was killed in a clash with ISWAP in 2021.