Description: Militants from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have abducted and killed a Nigerian brigadier general while on patrol in the city of Wajiroko in Nigeria’s Borno State. The general and his unit were ambushed in Wajiroko while their communications were severed which allowed the militants to conduct a coordinated strike, initially abducting the general and eliminating his unit. ISWAP, shortly after the abduction announced that the general has been executed. The group is one of the offshoot organizations of Boko Haram which has experienced significant resurgence in activities and successful operations in the past couple of years. In a separate incident, bandits kidnapped more than 25 schoolgirls from the northwestern Kebbi state in Nigeria. The bandits attacked the school at 04:00AM with sophisticated weapons and killed the principal of the school after seizing the schoolgirls.
Impact: Nigeria’s security crisis continues to expand through the combination of coordinated assaults on military and government outposts perpetrated by larger terrorist organizations such ISWAP and kidnappings for ransom conducted by local bandit groups which have shown a significant level of sophistication in the last couple of months. The bandit groups are adding to the multiple layers of security threats in Nigeria and further debilitating the capacities of the police forces and the military in countering those organizations. ISWAP and other terrorist organizations such as JAS (Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal – Jihad) are directly confronting the military and police forces and successfully prevailing on several occasions in the northwestern parts of the country where the terrorist organizations are known to have had a free reign for operating. Nigeria is part of the local group of countries facing insurmountable threats from terrorist, militant and bandit groups, which are using kidnappings, means of economic warfare, such as the fuel blockade in Mali and asymmetric warfighting to cripple the military and police capacities of the countries. Instability would prevail in the long – term with no significant strategy or coordinated effort to counter the terrorism and insurgency threats across the Sahel and sub – Saharan regions of Africa.