33 Boko Haram fighters, 37 aid workers killed

At least 33 Boko Haram militants were killed by Nigerian troops in a gunfight on Sunday, according to military sources on Tuesday.

Multinational troops fighting Boko Haram along the Lake Chad fringes also joined in the gunfight, said the sources who asked to be anonymous.

The multinational force comprises troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin.The gunfight lasted for about three hours, along the Gamboru-Dikwa road in Borno.

One source said, the Boko Haram militants had laid an ambush for a convoy of military vehicles.

“Many Boko Haram fighters fled with bullet wounds. It was a tough battle,” said the source. 

One other military source confirmed four soldiers, however, sustained injuries during the gunfight. 

Two gun trucks used by the militants were recovered after the gunfight, the source said.

Also in the north east region, 37 aid workers were confirmed killed following the decade-long activities of terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) gave the figure and called for the protection of people engaged in humanitarian services in the country.

Since 2018, attacks on humanitarian workers in Nigeria’s northeast region, the stronghold of Boko Haram, had become even worse, the UN agency said in a statement reaching Xinhua in Abuja on Tuesday.

“As respect for the laws of war weakens, aid workers are increasingly vulnerable, though they are more needed than ever before,” the statement said. “March 2018 has marked a turning point, humanitarian workers are a target in Nigeria.”

The latest of this kind of attacks occurred on July 18, when Boko Haram attacked a convoy of vehicles conveying aid workers to Damasak area of Borno, one of three northeastern states most-hit by the Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria. In that attack, one driver was killed and six others, including four health personnel and two drivers, were kidnapped by Boko Haram.

They were on their way to provide life-saving assistance to individuals and families affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the northeast of Nigeria when they were ambushed by the Boko Haram militants. 

Incidents involving or directly targeting aid workers had persisted unabated in Nigeria’s northeast region since three humanitarians were killed and three women and others abducted in Rann, the location of an internally displaced persons’ camp in Borno, by Boko Haram in March 2018, the UN agency noted.

“I want to say enough to armed attacks against humanitarians; enough attacks against aid convoys, enough kidnappings and enough to lootings of vital assistance meant for the millions in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, who desperately need it,” added the statement by Peter Ekayu, head of UNOCHA in Nigeria. 

The northeast region of Nigeria has been destabilized for over a decade by Boko Haram. Boko Haram is known for its agenda to maintain a virtual caliphate in the most populous African country.

Reported by Xinhua