Mainok attack | |||||
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Part of the Boko Haram insurgency | |||||
![]() Location of Borno State in Nigeria | |||||
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Belligerents | |||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||
33 soldiers killed | Unknown |
On 25 April 2021, a large group of ISWAP insurgents killed 33 soldiers in Mainok, a town 36 miles (58 kilometres) west of Maiduguri in Borno State, Nigeria. [1] [2]
Wearing military camouflage, the militants arrived in four mine-resistant trucks, a scorpion armored personnel carrier, and several gun trucks. They split into three groups before attacking the army base. At the base, ISWAP destroyed a T-55 battle tank, a BTR-4EN, and stole several MRAPs. [3] [4] [5] The attackers fled to their camp around the Lawan Mainari axis, as the air force carried out airstrikes against them. [2] [6] When the ISWAP terrorists were confronted with military planes heading towards them to attack them, they set fire to the police station in Mainok in a rage and then fled to the primary school there. [7]
When soldiers arrived from Damaturu in response, ISWAP ambushed the reinforcements, killing three, injuring nine, and stealing a MRAP. [6] An air force drone accidentally bombed a vehicle belonging to the army, killing 20. [8] [6]
The attack was followed by prolonged and unrelenting fighting in the towns of Geidam, Kumuya and Buni Gari in Yobe province. Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms were deployed in the sky by the NAF. [7]
Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, is a terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. In 2016, the group split, resulting in the emergence of a hostile faction known as the Islamic State's West Africa Province.
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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 takes 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.
Abu Mohammed Abubakar bin Mohammad al-Sheikawi was a Kanuri man known as the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist militant group. He served as deputy leader to the group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf was executed in 2009.
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The following lists events from 2014 in Nigeria.
The December 2014 Cameroon clashes were a number of incidents that occurred between 28–29 December 2014 in variety of locations in Cameroon's Far North Region. The event included attacks on civilians and military positions carried out by Nigeria-based Boko Haram; the attacks were followed by a successful Cameroonian military counter offensive.
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