Nigerian Military Kills 50 Terrorists in Drone-Backed Counterattack

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Nigeria’s military says it killed 50 terrorists in air and ground operations after drone-backed attacks on army bases in Borno and Yobe states. Over 70 insurgents were wounded, several soldiers injured, and weapons recovered. The Boko Haram conflict has lasted 16 years, killing over 40,000 people.

Nigeria’s military announced on Thursday that it had successfully neutralized 50 terrorists in a series of coordinated operations involving both ground troops and air power after militants launched simultaneous attacks on multiple army bases in the volatile northeastern region.

The military said the counteroffensive was carried out with the aid of drones and fighter jets, which played a decisive role in breaking the momentum of the insurgents. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and one of its regional powerhouses, has been locked in a brutal conflict against the Boko Haram terrorist group and its splinter factions for the past 16 years. The violence has left tens of thousands dead and millions displaced across the northeast.

According to the army, the assaults began in the early hours of Thursday when armed terrorists attempted coordinated attacks on military installations in the towns of Dikwa, Mafa, and Gajibo in Borno State, as well as in Katarko in neighboring Yobe State. In a statement, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Sani Uba said the combined response from ground troops and aerial support “resulted in the neutralisation of over 50 terrorists across all the locations.”

Uba explained that pursuit operations were still underway to capture or eliminate more than 70 insurgents who had been wounded in the clashes and were attempting to flee. He added that troops recovered a significant number of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), during the mop-up operations.

The Nigerian Army later posted images on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, showing soldiers standing over the bodies of what it described as jihadist fighters, alongside the seized weapons. The statement also confirmed that several soldiers sustained injuries in the fighting, though it did not specify how many.

According to Uba, the attackers used armed drones and RPGs during the assault, which led to fires that destroyed some vehicles and buildings, particularly in Mafa and Dikwa. He said parts of the military defenses in those towns were briefly breached before troops regained full control. The use of armed drones by insurgents, he noted, has become increasingly common, with many groups modifying commercially available drones to drop small bombs or grenades.

Residents of Mafa told AFP that several trucks were burned during the attack. A local man shared videos and photos showing the charred shells of the vehicles, which he said were mostly loaded with cement and destined for Chad. The drivers had parked overnight, fearing terrorist attacks along the highway, before the militants struck and set the trucks ablaze.

The insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced nearly two million people since it began in 2009. It has also spread beyond Nigeria’s borders into neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition aimed at countering the militants.

Earlier in October, at least 14 Nigerian soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in Borno State attributed to terrorists—one on an army base and another in which a military convoy was ambushed.

In recent years, the Nigerian army has changed its counterinsurgency strategy, closing smaller, vulnerable bases and relocating troops into larger, fortified garrisons known as “super camps.” The goal of this consolidation is to strengthen defensive capacity and improve coordination during large-scale attacks by extremist groups operating across the region.