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Boko Haram jihadists killed three soldiers during an attack on a military base in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, near Lake Chad, civil and military sources said.
Fighters from the West African province (ISWAP) driving in several trucks attacked the base of the village of Cross Kauwa on Tuesday and hired troops for several hours of gunfire, officials said Wednesday. AFP sources close to the head of the army.
"We lost three soldiers in the fight," said a military officer who asked not to be named.
"The soldiers fought the terrorists but were controlled and had to withdraw from the base," he added.
A resident of Cross-Kauwa said the Islamists stormed the village on trucks equipped with anti-aircraft guns around 8 pm.
"The insurgents fought the soldiers for three hours and forced them to abandon the base," said the resident who wanted to be identified only by his first name, Bukar, for fear of reprisals.
Buba said his troops withdrew to the garrison town of Monguno, 18 km away, while others stopped at another base near Kekeno, which Boko Haram has repeatedly tried to defeat in recent weeks.
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The news of the attack was slow to appear due to lack of communication in the region as a result of the destruction of telecommunications facilities by jihadists.
In recent months, Boko Haram has intensified its attacks on military targets in Borno and Yobe states in the north-east of the country.
Since July, AFP has traced 17 attacks on military bases, most of which have been claimed by ISWAP.
At the most daring attack on November 18, ISWAP fighters killed at least 43 soldiers when they invaded a base in the village of Metele near the border with Niger, although soldiers who survived the raid reported that more than 100 of their colleagues had been killed.
On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari visited the troops in Maiduguri, the epicenter of the insurgency, and urged the military to show more determination to fight against the jihadists.
The Nigerian leader was due to visit Chad's capital N'Djamena on Thursday for talks with his regional counterparts in a jihadist fighting force.
Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with the promise of ending the violence, has been under pressure following the recent wave of attacks by Boko Haram as he seeks re-election. from February.
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