The commander of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Abubakar Dan-Buduma, and 19 other fighters have been killed by the troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in Borno State.
Dan-Buduma and his lieutenants were eliminated in an intelligence-led and coordinated aerial and ground bombardment by the Nigerian Air Task Force, under Operation Hadin Kai, and the Multi-National Joint Task Force in Kwalaram Village, in Marte Local Council of the state.
Dan-Buduma, who had replaced Muhammed Ba’ana, was the ISWAP’s Chief Naval Officer commanding the waterways of Kirta, Bakassi, Buningil, and Doron Buhari, in Marte Council.
A security analyst and expert, Zagazola Makama, who made the disclosure, yesterday, in Maiduguri, confirmed that the deceased was appointed in January this year to replace Ba’ana as the naval commanding officer in the lake.
According to him, Dan-Buduma and over a dozen of his lieutenants were neutralised by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets in the Kwalaram community.
Other terrorists were also killed in similar airstrikes in the ISWAP convoy of gun trucks in the Arege/Bukar Mairam axis of the Lake Chad Basin.
According to The Guardian, a top military source in the region said that some of the hideouts in the basin were also destroyed in the coordinated airstrikes.
“The success of the multiple airstrikes were achieved under the ongoing Operation Lake Sanity, and Desert Sanity Phase II,” he said.
He noted that a credible intelligence on fighters’ convergence led to the killing of 20 of them on April 3, 2022.
A top military source said that the terrorists were about to launch attacks when they were decimated.
“The terrorists had converged on an area preparing to launch attacks on the nearest military base in the Lake Chad region,” he said.