Troops under the control of Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) are currently fighting the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) for the control of border communities in the Lake Chad basin.

The latest of the faceoff has seen the MNJTF killing 42 members of ISWAP during a clearance operation on the Lake Chad Island on Friday, while several others escaped with gunshot wound.

Hitherto, ISWAP has been providing alternative government around border communities in the Lake Chad Basin and stretching into borders around Adamawa State.

Col. Timothy Antigha, MNJTF Chief of Military Public Information, who confirmed the killing of ISWAP members in a statement on Saturday, said this was the greatest loss suffered by the terrorists in the last six months.

According to Antigha, troops effectively suppressed ISWAP and successfully conducted the clearance operation.

“Unfortunately, the MNJTF lost a soldier while 10 others were wounded in action,” he said.

He said the terrorists also lost equipment as two of their gun trucks, and three motorcycles were destroyed, while troops recovered two light machine guns and two AK 47 riffles from them.

Antigha said earlier in the week, ISWAP also met a similar fate when they attempted to attack MNJTF troops in Sector 1 Forward Operation Base (FOB) in Ngouma in Cameroon.

He said in that engagement, ISWAP lost five terrorists, while one was captured.

The MNJTF spokesman also said that 13 AK 47 riffles and two hand grenades were recovered from the encounter.

Similarly, he said the MNJTF also conducted air interdictions in Arege and Malkorony where several terrorists were killed as the headquarters and logistics base of a top ISWAP commander, Abu Talib, was targeted in that operation.

But Sunday INDEPENDENT gathered that the attempt by ISWAP to set up alternative government in the border communities in the Lake Chad Basin and stretching into borders around Adamawa State, is affecting governance in the communities as smugglers, farmers and cattle herders now pay taxes to the insurgents in exchange of peace to do their businesses.

The development, according to peace and conflict experts, further had imperiled counter insurgency efforts of the Federal Government.

ISWAP, a breakaway faction of the Boko Haram terrorists, which early in 2016, pledged allegiance to ISIS, a major terrorist group holding sway in their Middle East, had begun a mind war to win the support of locals in the area.

“A key area in doing this is providing alternative governance to people by seizing taxes and excise duties. They have also contested monopoly of instrument of violence in the conflict with Federal Government.

“These are key issues of measuring the success or otherwise of a counter insurgency campaign,” explained Dr. Ademola Wahab, a retired colonel, now with Savannah Centre for Development, Diplomacy and Democracy (SCDDD), a sub-regional policy, development advocacy group based in Abuja.

The policy and defence expert stated further: “Absence of killings or reduction in mortality in the battle field does not necessarily indicate the success of a counter insurgency campaign.”

According to him, insurgents normally set out to undermine governance, give people an alternative to governance, stressing, “This is what ISWAP is trying to do.”

The scenario might well be dire for the Federal Government and the country given the reports gathered by Sunday INDEPENDENT from those who claimed to have encountered ISWAP in the course of their activities, as well as other developments as scooped from intelligence in one of the communities.

For instance, a dealer in exotic shoes, smuggled into the country from Cameroon, recently told Sunday INDEPENDENT that with the tightening of borders in the southern part of the country, he had to be bringing in merchandise from Adamawa, Borno and Taraba borders.

“There are far less customs officers in the route and we pay ‘safe passage’ money to an agent who then assures us that our goods will pass through conflict areas without any mishap,” the smuggler told the newspaper.

He added that he was certain the money he paid often ended in the hands of insurgents.

Another source, a farmer in border settlement of Borno State, explained how he had had to pay duties to insurgents to allow him farm onions.

“I left the Army to begin farming. Some locals helped me secure some lands and I paid N200, 000 for both farm logistics and to settle local agents of ISWAP,” he disclosed.

There were other reports of ISWAP helping local cattle herders chase away bandits and cattle rustlers.

These developments may not be farfetched given established and credible intelligence backed by globally recognised security works on ISIS/ISWAP.

ISWAP, it would be recalled, broke away from the Abbakar Shekau-led Boko Haram and swore allegiance to ISIS.

But, rather than adopting wholly ISIS playbook, it resorted to a more flexible, amorphous war with the Nigerian military and state.

ISWAP, by filling gaps in governance and service delivery, had garnered a level of support from local civilians that Boko Haram never enjoyed and had turned neglected communities in the area and islands in Lake Chad into a source of economic support.

This threat was further compounded by defeated ISIS determination to carve out a territory within the Sahel region of the West African sub-region.

This, according to local intelligence, might further aggravate insurgency in the North of the country, especially the Chad Basin.

Rising from a recent briefing in Washington after the fall of ISIS’ strongholds both in Syria and Iraq, leading military and intelligence organisations that broker the global terror franchise decided, based on credible information, that ISIS might be looking to carve territory in the largely ungoverned swath of lands around Southern Mali, Burkina Faso’s northern borders and Niger Republic.

“This will definitely increase insurgencies in the North East of our country,” confirmed a top source in Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Even more, military intelligence in the country revealed that there were sightings of foreign fighters in the ranks of ISWAP.

“They are not just 10 or 20; they are in large numbers as sighted by our troops in the North Eastern borders of the country,” explained the intelligence source to Sunday INDEPENDENT.

agro70:
Ok

vedaxcool:
Well done boys, may Allah grant us victory. Ameen.

BabyApple:
keke napep for sale
https://www.nairaland.com/5260925/keke-napap-sale-n350k#79598319

Oooops:

This is too used to be sold 350k... how much be new one Talk well let’s do business!!!
By d way where is ur location

ijustdey:





https://www.independent.ng/battle-for-control-of-lake-chad-basin-hots-up/