Nigeria admits soldiers had been killed in Metele ‘terror attack’

Map showing location of Borno state

Nigeria’s army has said for the primary time that infantrymen have been killed in a militant assault ultimate Sunday on a base in Borno state, within the north-east.

It had been stated that at least 40 squaddies died when an Islamist militant team focused the base in Metele.

The military disputes that demise toll however has now not given its personal figure.

With just three months to move to presidential elections, the government are willing to turn they have the protection scenario beneath control.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is operating for a second time period, got here to power in 2015 after promising to defeat Boko Haram militants.

The insurgents, who’ve brought about havoc in Nigeria through a wave of attacks, are fighting to overthrow the federal government and create an Islamic state.

‘Trying occasions’

While the military has retaken such a lot of the territory the militants once managed, they are nonetheless able to perform deadly attacks.

In a press release, released on Friday evening, the army admits that it’s operating in “trying instances”, that is an extraordinary if veiled admission that the military is experiencing severe setbacks within the struggle in opposition to the jihadists, says BBC Africa editor Will Ross.

It introduced that “false casualty figures” and the sharing of faulty movies boost the “propaganda motive of the terrorists”.

Reports of the deaths on the camp vary.

Reuters information company quoted an army officer as pronouncing in advance this week: “The insurgents took us unawares. We lost approximately ONE HUNDRED soldiers. it is a huge loss.”

On Monday, a Boko Haram faction dependable to the Islamic State staff, known as the Islamic State West Africa Province, said it had performed the attack and positioned the dying toll at at least 40.

President Buhari’s political fighters within the Senate mentioned FORTY FOUR soldiers had died.

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