• The jihadist group’s ambush left eight dead last Friday in the country’s capital.

The Nigerian Armed Forces reported Thursday that they killed 30 suspected terrorists in a “cleaning patrol” in response to last Friday’s attack on the presidential guard in the capital of Africa’s most populous country, Abuja, in which they were killed. eight people.

“The troops successfully cleared the villages of Kawu and Ido. As a result, about 30 terrorists were neutralized and their enclave and hideout destroyed,” Maj. Gen. and defense headquarters spokesman Benard told a news conference Thursday. Onyeuko, as reported by the Premium Times newspaper.

The Nigerian military used ground forces and attack aircraft in its “clean-up operation”.  “Troops from the 7th Guards Battalion and the 167th Special Forces Battalion, along with the Operation Whirl Punch air component, conducted a clearance patrol around the general area of ​​Bwari between July 24 and 26. 2022,” Onyeuko explained.

The spokesman specified that “the ground troops also recovered six motorcycles, two AK47 rifles and a fully loaded LMG magazine among others.”

Ambush

Kogi state governor Yahaya Bello confirmed Tuesday an attack on the presidential guard in Abuja on Friday night in which eight people were killed and three soldiers wounded.

The soldiers, in charge of the security of the president and his family, as well as other high officials, were ambushed while patrolling the area of ​​Bwari,  a local governorate in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

In this area is the Nigerian Law School and the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), the alleged target of the attackers, suspected of belonging to the jihadist group Boko Haram , in the framework of a possible expansion of terrorist networks and criminals in the country, many of whom live by kidnapping students.

Another attack this Thursday

On the other hand, attackers also suspected of belonging to Boko Haram clashed with the military on Thursday night in an exchange of fire at a checkpoint in the Zuma Rock Madalla area, on the Kaduna-Abuja highway.

The attack occurred at 8:00 p.m. (local time) and this Thursday night it was still unknown if there had been any deaths or injuries, according to the Nigerian television channel Channels Television.

This new incident occurs amid growing insecurity in the area, which has forced the closure of all schools with “immediate effect” after a video circulated on social media in which the suspects threatened to kidnap the country’s president. , Muhammadu Buhari, and the governor of the state of Kaduna, Nasir Ahmad al Rufai.

The train that connects Abuja and Kaduna is considered a safer means of transport than the roads that lead to this state, shaken for years by attacks by jihadist groups and criminal gangs that have increased their operations in recent months.

The attacks in Nigeria, previously focused on the northeast of the country – where Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) operate – have spread in recent months to other areas of the north and northwest.

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