The 15-year-old conflict has killed 40,000 and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast. File
| Photo Credit: AP

“At least 27 Nigerian soldiers were killed in a jihadist suicide attack in the northeast,” two army sources said on Sunday (January 26, 2025).

On Friday (January 24, 2025), troops launched a ground offensive on a stronghold of Islamic State-affiliated militants in a wasteland straddling Borno and Yobe states.

“The suicide attack killed 27 soldiers, including the commander, and left several others seriously injured,” a military officer said, making this one of the deadliest suicide attacks targeting soldiers in recent years.

He said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were in a “critical condition”.

Meanwhile, Eighteen people were killed in a truck accident in south-eastern Nigeria, authorities said on Sunday (January 26, 2025), a week after a petrol tanker explosion left at least 98 dead.

“A total of 31 people were involved in the crash,” said the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) authority following the accident near the town of Enugu.

“Ten were rescued with different degrees of injuries while three got rescued unharmed,” they added.

The FRSC said that those killed had been burnt “beyond recognition”.

“The tanker, which was loaded with premium motor spirit, experienced break failure and the driver lost grip of the wheels before crashing” into 17 other vehicles, sparking a fire, the FRSC added.

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle concealed in thick foliage into a convoy of advancing troops targeting the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Timbuktu Triangle, the two military officers said.

Both officers asked not to be identified as they were not authorised to speak on the incident. Nigerian military officials were not available for comment on the attack.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) split from the mainstream Boko Haram in 2016 to become the dominant militant faction in the northeast.

They seized territory hitherto under Boko Haram control, including the Timbuktu Triangle and Sambisa forest, a game reserve turned jihadist stronghold. The group is notorious for planting roadside mines and rigging vehicles with explosives to target troops.

In July last year, seven troops were killed when their vehicle hit a landmine in a village where ISWAP is active. The 15-year-old conflict has killed 40,000 and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast.

Representative image
| Photo Credit: AP

At least 18 people died and 10 others were injured in southern Nigeria after a gasoline tanker exploded, officials said.

The accident happened along the Enugu-Onitsha expressway in the southeastern state of Enugu after the tanker, laden with gasoline, lost control and rammed into 17 vehicles, and burst into flames, Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps said in a statement Saturday evening.

Those who died were “burnt beyond recognition,” the spokesperson of the safety corps rescue teams, Olusegun Ogungbemide, said. Besides the 10 injured, rescuers extracted three others who were unharmed.

Fatal truck accidents not common

With the absence of an efficient railway system to transport cargo, fatal truck accidents are common along most major roads in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.

Earlier this month, 98 people were killed in a gasoline tanker blast in north-central Nigeria, near the Suleja area of Niger state, after individuals attempted to transfer gasoline from a crashed oil tanker into another truck using a generator. Some bystanders were at the scene to scoop gasoline. Authorities then began a nationwide campaign against the scooping of gasoline from fallen tankers and other practices that could lead to death.

“Gasoline tanker accidents do not have to lead to the loss of lives,” Lanre Issa-Onilu, director-general of the National Orientation Agency, the body tasked with communicating government policy, said at an event close to the Suleja area on Saturday.

The prices of gasoline in Africa’s most populous country have soared after President Bola Tinubu’s government removed subsidies more than a year ago in an attempt to channel resources to more developmental purposes. However, the policy has caused hardship to locals.

Scooping gasoline from a fallen tanker is common in Nigeria as some either use or sell it for a profit.