Description

Insurgents loyal to Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) are currently engaged in a heavy gun duel with troops at a military base in Askira/Uba Local Government Area of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria.

POLITICS NIGERIA learnt that the ISWAP fighters were sighted in a long convoy of about 16 gun trucks along Ngude axis towards Askira, on Saturday morning.

It is understood that troops are battling them. But the residents have fled to the bush.

Furthermore, a source said immediately the attackers stormed Askira, they headed to the military base.

The causality figures could not be ascertained as of the time of publishing this report.

ISWAP is a militant group and administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised proto-state. It is primarily active in the Chad Basin, and fights an extensive insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. It is an offshoot of Boko Haram with which it has a violent rivalry; Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau killed himself in battle with ISWAP in 2021. ISWAP is the umbrella organization for all IS factions in West Africa including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), although the actual ties between ISWAP and IS-GS are limited.