More Than 100 Insurgents Killed in recent weeks The Joint West African Force Reports

As it intensifies a ground and air offensive in the Lake Chad region, a joint military force from Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon said Sunday it had killed more than 100 Islamist insurgents in the past few weeks, including 10 commanders.

Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have been fighting the Nigerian army for more than a decade in a conflict that has engulfed neighboring states.

Colonel Muhammad Dole, a spokesman for the Multinational Joint Task Force, said troops had gone deep into insurgent-controlled enclaves in the Lake Chad area and recovered several weapons, food, and illicit drugs.

“Well over a hundred terrorists have been neutralized over the course of this operation, including over ten top commanders… following intelligence-driven lethal airstrikes in the Lake Chad islands by the combined air task forces,” Dole said.
Dole did not say how long the operation lasted or how many soldiers were killed, but he did say that 18 soldiers were injured by improvised explosive devices planted by retreating insurgents.

The Islamist insurgency, which is centered in Nigeria’s northeast, has claimed thousands of lives and forced millions of people from their homes into IDP camps.

The United States approved a nearly $1 billion weapons sale to Nigeria last week, giving the country a boost. The deal had been put on hold by US lawmakers due to concerns about possible human rights violations by the Nigerian government.

Boko Haram has been on the defensive since its leader, Abubakar Shekau, was killed in a battle with rival ISWAP last May. Since last year, Nigeria claims that thousands of Boko Haram fighters and their families have surrendered.