Brigadier-General Killed as Insurgents Overrun Military Base in Borno

A senior military commander, Brigadier-General O. Braimah, has been killed alongside several officers and soldiers after militants linked to the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram stormed a military base in Borno State.

The attack occurred on Wednesday night when the insurgents launched an assault on the Joint Task Force base in Benesheikh, located in Kaga Local Government Area along the Damaturu Road. The assailants fired sporadically on the facility, using explosives and heavy gunfire, leading to numerous casualties.

Among the dead are the Brigade Imam, several officers, and a yet-to-be-ascertained number of soldiers. Many others sustained serious injuries, while several personnel remain unaccounted for. The firefight reportedly lasted several hours.

The attack is the latest in a series of deadly, coordinated raids by Boko Haram and its ISWAP faction on military and police installations across Borno State. In recent weeks, these assaults have killed security personnel and civilians, triggering intense gun battles.

In March alone, insurgents targeted three military bases in Baga, Buratai, and Ajilari near Maiduguri, aiming to destabilise forward positions and weaken troop morale. Although reinforcements from the Army, Air Force, and Civilian Joint Task Force eventually repelled those attacks, the raids underscored the insurgents’ capacity to strike on multiple fronts.

Around the same period, ISWAP-linked fighters attacked a forward base near Banki junction along the Bama–Gwaza Road, killing an Army Major and several soldiers after hours of heavy fighting.