2015 Fotokol attack | |
---|---|
Part of Spillover of the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria | |
Location | Fotol Cameroon |
Date | 4–5 February 2015 |
Attack type | Massacre, mass shooting, arson |
Deaths | 91 / 100 |
Injured | 500 |
Perpetrators | Boko Haram |
The 2015 Fotokol attack occurred on 4 and 5 February 2015 when Boko Haram militants reportedly killed at least 91 people by shooting and burning, and injured over 500 in Fotokol, Cameroon. The militants, who are based in northeastern Nigeria and active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon, [1] also torched mosques and churches of the town. [2] [3] This attack came a day after the regional forces said it had driven Boko Haram from Gambaru, a Nigerian town close by. [4] This was the second foreign country attack by the militants in 2015. This region of Niger is an area where refugees had arrived by the thousands seeking safety from Boko Haram attacks. [5]
Cameroonian troops and Chadian forces have been deployed as a regional force to fight back. The Chadian army has claimed to have killed around 200 militants. [6] The United Nations had also provided support with weapons, logistics, and operations for this multinational effort against Boko Haram. [4]
Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, is an Islamist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. Boko Haram was the world's deadliest terror group during part of the mid-2010s according to the Global Terrorism Index. In 2016, the group split, resulting in the emergence of a hostile faction known as the Islamic State's West Africa Province.
Abadam is a remote Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria, on the western coast of Lake Chad. It borders Chad and Niger, and it's very close to Cameroon, in 2016 its population is projected to be 140,000 inhabitants, It has its headquarters in the town of Malumfatori. Security, Healthcare, infrastructure, and climate change are some of the major challenges in Abadam Local government.
Fotokol is a town and commune in Logone-et-Chari Department, Far North Region, Cameroon. It is home to Fotokol High School.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid 2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Gamboru is a market town in Borno State, northeast Nigeria, near the Cameroon border. It is the administrative centre of Ngala local government area.
The following lists events from 2014 in Nigeria.
The following lists events that happened during 2014 in Cameroon.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Nigeria.
The 2015 Baga massacre was a series of mass killings carried out by the Boko Haram terrorist group in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Baga and its environs, in the state of Borno, between 3 January and 7 January 2015.
The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) is a combined multinational formation, comprising units, mostly military, from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. It is headquartered in N'Djamena and is mandated to bring an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Chad.
The 2015 Niger raid was an unsuccessful assault on the Nigerien towns Bosso and Diffa, perpetrated by Boko Haram. The incident occurred on 6 February 2015, marking the first major Boko Haram incursion into Niger.
The Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), officially Wilāyat Garb Ifrīqīyā, meaning "West African Province", is a militant group and administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and former unrecognised quasi-state. ISWAP is primarily active in the Chad Basin, and fights an extensive insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Turkey. 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. Until March 2022, ISWAP acted as an 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 were limited.
Starting in late January 2015, a coalition of West African troops launched an offensive against the Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria.
On three days immediately before and during Ramadan, 2015, four attacks struck Chad's capital N'Djamena. Three suicide attacks against two police targets killed 33 people on 15 June, five policemen and six terrorists were killed during a police raid on 27 Jun, and a suicide bomber killed 15 in N'Djamena's main market, on 11 July.
The Battle of Kodunga was a military engagement between the Nigerian Armed Forces and Boko Haram insurgents in Konduga, Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, in September 2014.
The Chad Basin campaign of 2018–2020 was a series of battles and offensives in the southern Chad Basin, particularly northeastern Nigeria, which took place amid the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency. The Chad Basin witnessed an upsurge of insurgent activity from early November 2018, as rebels belonging to the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram launched offensives and several raids to regain military strength and seize territory in a renewed attempt to establish an Islamic state in the region. These attacks, especially those by ISWAP, met with considerable success and resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The member states of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF), namely Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon responded to the increased insurgent activity with counter-offensives. These operations repulsed the rebels in many areas, but failed to fully contain the insurgency.
Since 2015, the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger has been a hotbed for jihadist forces originating from Mali. The insurgency has taken place in two distinct regions of Niger. In southwest, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and the Nusrat al-Islam have carried out attacks in the tri-border area with Burkina Faso and Mali. Meanwhile, in the southeast, the Islamic State in the West African Province has established control in parts of southern Niger.
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.