Through an air attack in the north of the nation, near the Niger border, the Nigerian air force claims to have killed more than 70 ISIL (ISIS)-affiliated combatants.
The mission included aircraft from Nigeria and Niger, according to the statement released on Saturday.
The region around Lake Chad, where Nigeria claims to have conducted the air attack, is renowned for housing members from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), an armed organization active since 2016.
In the last decade, the two factions have killed over 40,000 individuals, including elder rivals Boko Haram.
Given the increasing violence, more than two million people have been forced from their homes.
Edward Gabkwet, a spokesperson for the Nigerian Air Force, said “missions over the suspected locations … conducted on 13 April 2022 specifically sighted large number of terrorists, a likely logistics camp.”
He added, as a response, on April 14, air assaults were launched on Tumbun Rego and an adjacent training camp.
“More than 70 ISWAP terrorists were killed or seriously injured,” he claimed.
Before the rainy season begins, Nigeria frequently ramps up its attack.
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As the ground and air offensive in the Lake Chad area intensifies, a multinational military force from Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon announced on Sunday that it has killed more than 100 Islamist terrorists in the preceding few weeks, including 10 commanders.
Colonel Muhammad Dole, a spokesperson for the Multinational Joint Task Force, said forces had gone deep into insurgent-controlled enclaves in the Lake Chad area and collected multiple weapons, food, and illicit substances.
Dole added, “within the period of this operation, well over a hundred terrorists have been neutralised, including over 10 top commanders … following intelligence-driven lethal air strikes in the Lake Chad islands by the combined air task-forces.”
However, Dole did not say how long the operation lasted or how many troops were killed, but he did say 18 soldiers were injured by improvised explosive devices dropped by retreating militants.
For more than a decade, soldiers have led the armed uprising. In the northwest, highly armed gangs are fighting government soldiers, while in the southeast, separatist tensions are rising.
The United States authorized a nearly $1 billion arms sale to Nigeria last week, giving the country a boost.
The transaction had previously been placed on hold in Washington due to worries about suspected human rights violations by the Nigerian government.
After Boko Haram’s commander Abubakar Shekau was killed in inter-factional conflicts last year, ISWAP has mostly taken charge.
Upon kidnapping approximately 300 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014, Shekau international gained notoriety.
