Nigeria Says Boko Haram Defeated, But New Groups Conduct Attacks

(Bloomberg) -- The Islamic militant group Boko Haram, which has killed tens of thousands of people over more than a decade, has largely been defeated in Nigeria, but attacks are now being perpetrated by other terrorist groups, the nation’s presidency said.

“What we have now is a mixture of the remnants of Boko Haram, fugitive criminals, and the Islam in Maghreb” working together with West African terrorists, the Abuja-based presidency said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “This is a fallout of the collapse of the Libyan state, and from farther away, of the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They are taking advantage of our porous Sahelian borders.”

In 2015, Boko Haram was active in almost half of Nigeria’s states, controlling a territory the size of Belgium with systems of administration and taxation of its own, the presidency said. The group is now confined to the remote, rural agrarian areas of Borno state and pockets of the Adamawa and Yobe regions, it said.

Boko Haram has staged deadly attacks against both the military and civilians in recent months. Suspected members of the group killed at least 60 people and injured 11 others in Badu village of Nigeria’s northern Borno state last week. It also killed three officers and 25 soldiers in separate ambush attacks in Borno and Yobe states, Nigeria’s ThisDay newspaper reported on July 19, without naming its source.

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