ISWAP Attacks: Nigerian Military Arrests 28 Foreign and Local Informants

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Following intelligence, the Nigerian military has arrested 28 informants leaking operational secrets to the Boko Haram terrorists made up of both local and foreign nationals.

The development might not be unconnected with the attacks by the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) on the military post in Diffa, in the Niger Republic, along a border area with Nigeria this week.

The Islamic State’s ‘Amaq News Agency had shown Boko Haram terrorists fighters stormed a Nigerien army post in Diffa and allegedly captured war spoils afterwards in which the terrorists claimed that their fighters killed five Nigerien soldiers and wounded others when they attacked the post on May 3, 2020. It was however gathered that the military camp was virtually empty at the time the terrorists arrived as the troops were out on counter-insurgency operations along the Lake Chad axis.
Sources indicated that the few soldiers on ground retreated because of the large number of the terrorists.
However, based on intelligence, the military arrested 28 notorious informants believed to be leaking the movements of troops to terrorists.

The suspects that are currently under interrogation have made useful information that could lead to major crackdown on local collaborators and supporters in war zone.
This is as it was gathered that Chadian troops have stopped participating in regional Counter-Terrorism joint military operation under the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
President Idris Deby, at the end of a Chadian major offensive against Boko Haram in April said that his troops would no longer take part in military operations outside the country’s borders.
The offensive was launched after about 90 Chadian Army were killed in a terrorists attack on a base at Bohoma in March 2020.
With the seeming withdrawal of Chadian troops, the activities of terrorists have become unabated at the Lake Chad and Sahel regions.

However, the Nigerian and Nigerien troops have sustained aerial attacks and ground operations against the ISWAP and Boko Haram terrorists.