ISWAP Abducts About 30 Passengers, Kills Soldier Along Maiduguri Road

About 30 passengers were abducted on Friday by ISWAP fighters at a checkpoint mounted by the insurgents along the main route leading to Borno State capital, Maiduguri.

The attack happened at Kondiri village near Jakana town in Konduga Local Government Area of the state, Northeast Nigeria.

Vehicles and personal belongings were of the abducted persons left on the road.

According to Daily Trust, Modu Usman an eyewitness who narrowly escaped the attack said the insurgents dressed in military camouflage with two Toyota Hilux mounted with anti-aircraft gun station by the roadside in the manner similar to that of Nigerian troops.

“God saved us, our driver has experienced that road, when we are approaching them,” Usman said.

“Already a hummer bus and two golf cars have been intercepted and motorists stopped, so they started shooting and we made a u-turn into the bush.”

“So they allowed golf cars to go but all the passengers. We returned to Benishek town to pass the night. This morning we saw four vehicles including a truck with the marking of Dangote company conveying cement burnt down,” he added.

HumAngle also learnt that a soldier was killed and three wounded by insurgents who attacked the military contingent along the road.

The road connecting the towns in Yobe and Borno states is about 130 kilometres, with a number of villages along the axis.

The Jakana-Auno-Maiduguri section of the road is considered dangerous and risky due to the bad nature of the road and frequent ISWAP interception of passengers and attacks on security forces.

In February, at least 30 people were killed when insurgents set fire on stranded travellers caught in a roadblock in Auno.

Civilians and aid workers have been abducted and killed by the insurgents.

Those abducted have suffered different fates – while some have been released others have been executed or being kept interminably in captivity.

Insurgency in the Nigerian northeast has led to at least 30,000 deaths and displaced over 2.3 million people, a large proportion of whom are living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) within garrison towns established by the Nigerian military.