Updated: February 25, 2021
Boko Haram terrorists on Monday massacred at least 18 Nigerian soldiers and left eight others badly wounded. At least 157 soldiers, including six officers, remained missing by Friday.
The soldiers were killed, injured or captured during a deadly gun battle that lasted hours, following an attack on the 157 Battalion in North-eastern Nigerian village of Metele.
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The army first acknowledged the attack on Monday but gave a deflated casualty figure.
On Friday, online newspaper, Premium Times, reported that the death toll was much higher, according to multiple military sources.
The newspaper said “heavy military equipment including at least two T-72 tanks, two armoured personnel carriers and two gun trucks were either set ablaze or rendered “unserviceable” by the insurgents”.
Why it matters: President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian military have repeatedly claimed that the war against Boko Haram had been long won, but daily reports of massacres seem to negate those claims. Since the insurgency began in Borno state in 2009, the state government there says at least 100, 000 people have been killed and millions displaced.
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