Boko Haram insurgents on Thursday ambushed a military convoy, and killed 15 soldier and four militia fighters in Borno, security sources disclosed on Saturday.
It was gathered that the military convoy was attacked by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters near Gudumbali in the Lake Chad region.
The terrorist group have killed over 36,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in northeast Nigeria since it began more than a decade ago.
A military officer who spoke with AFP on the condition of anonymity said, “We lost 15 soldiers and four civilian JTF (militia) in the terrorists’ ambush in the forest near Gudumbali.”
He said 13 government fighters, including 10 troops, were wounded in the ambush.
The 10-vehicle convoy was on its way to Gudumbali from the town of Kukawa in Borno for a military operation against the insurgents when it came under fire, said another military source.
ISWAP on Saturday released a statement claiming responsibility for the ambush, according to the SITE jihadist monitoring agency.
Meanwhile, bandits who kidnapped students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Igabi local government area of Kaduna State, have requested for a ransom of N500 million to release the students.