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Dozens of soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack on a major military base this weekend in northeastern Nigeria, security sources said today. On Saturday evening, the insurgents invaded a strong military base of more than 700 soldiers in the state of Yobe, a border region of Niger, in the aftermath of another attack on soldiers in the neighboring state of Borno.
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No official report was released by the authorities after the attack on Saturday, but a military source told the AFP on condition of anonymity: "Until then, we lost 31 soldiers, including 3 officers." "Two militiamen (engaged with the army against Boko Haram, editor's note) were also killed in the attack," the source added, adding that 24 wounded soldiers had been evacuated to hospital for treatment.
Of the hundreds of soldiers present at the base at the time of the attack who had fled, "a number of missing persons have since appeared" in nearby bases, according to the military source. "I do not have the exact number of (soldiers) killed," said AFP an official of the civil militia based in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno. "But yesterday (Sunday), the bodies of the victims were brought in three trucks to the military barracks of Maimalari in Maiduguri, which means that the toll is heavy."
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According to this source, Boko Haram fighters entered the base dressed in military fatigues and driving vehicles in the colors of the Nigerian army. "The soldiers mistook them for colleagues from (the town near) Gubio and opened the doors of the base," the militiaman added. The attack was attributed by militiamen to the Abu Musab Al-Barnaoui faction, affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group, which targets Nigerian forces. Meanwhile, search operations continued in the Bama area of Borno State to find 23 soldiers missing from an ambush on a convoy Friday.
The Boko Haram insurgency to establish an Islamic caliphate in the north Nigeria has left at least 20,000 dead and more than 2.6 million displaced. President Muhammadu Buhari reiterated last week that the insurgency was over and that northeastern Nigeria was now in a "post-conflict stabilization phase". But raids on military bases and checkpoints, as well as deadly suicide attacks against civilians, continue
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