The Nigerian army announced on Sunday that it had killed a senior Boko Haram commander, Abu Khalid, along with 10 other militants, during a night operation in Borno State in the country’s northeast. According to Army spokesperson Sani Uba, the raid was carried out on Saturday night in the Kodunga area of Borno.
Abu Khalid, who operated within the Sambisa Forest, was described as a key figure in Boko Haram’s command structure, responsible for coordinating operations and logistics in the Sambisa axis. Troops also recovered weapons, food supplies and medical items from the militants.
The operation follows two deadly attacks earlier this week, in which Boko Haram fighters killed dozens of people at a construction site and a military base in the same region. Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009, seeking to oppose Western education and impose its extremist interpretation of Islamic law.
The conflict has since expanded to include an Islamic State-linked faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and has spilled into neighbouring countries such as Niger. According to the United Nations, the violence has killed about 35,000 civilians and displaced more than two million people.
Security analyst Taiwo Adebayo of the Institute for Security Studies said the military began a more proactive offensive last month, moving into militant hideouts rather than responding to attacks. He described this as a shift from last year’s largely reactive posture, which saw insurgents raid multiple
military camps.
Adebayo also noted that the United States has conducted intelligence-gathering flights over Borno since last November, supporting Nigerian military operations.
In December, the US carried out airstrikes in northern Nigeria targeting Islamic State fighters. Nigeria continues to face a multifaceted security crisis, combining Islamist insurgency in the northeast with a surge in kidnappings for ransom by armed groups across the northwest and north-central regions.