Eleven militia fighters were tragically killed in Nigeria’s northeast on Saturday when their vehicle hit a landmine on a highway near the border with Cameroon. The fighters were working alongside Nigeria’s military to battle jihadists in the region, where the militants have increasingly resorted to planting mines on highways to target military and civilian convoys.
The militia fighters were escorting a civilian convoy from Gamboru to Maiduguri when their vehicle drove over a landmine suspected to have been planted by jihadists at Damno village. The explosion resulted in the death of eleven fighters, while two others sustained injuries.
The victims were removed from the wreckage and returned to Gamboru for burial, highlighting the dangers faced by those fighting against the jihadist insurgency in Nigeria. The conflict has claimed the lives of 40,000 people and displaced around two million since 2009, with violence spilling over into neighboring countries.
The reopening of the Gamboru to Maiduguri highway in 2016 was seen as a positive development, but the continued attacks and ambushes by Boko Haram and ISWAP militants have underscored the ongoing threat in the region. The recent military coups in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, as well as the withdrawal of French and US troops from the Sahel to Nigeria’s north, have raised concerns about regional instability and the potential for violence to spread further into coastal West African states.