Twin jihadist attacks across Lake Chad killed at least 22 people in Nigeria, sources told AFP Friday, with Boko Haram killing more than a dozen civilians and Islamic State West Africa Province raiding a military base.The attacks come as Nigeria’s embattled northeast — facing an insurgency that since 2009 has killed 40,000 and displaced two million — has witnessed renewed attacks in recent weeks.While violence has fallen from its 2014-2015 peak, the governor of Borno recently warned that the military was losing ground to jihadists. A spate of attacks killed 100 people.Militants from Boko Haram killed at least 17 fishermen and farmers on Thursday, local anti-jihadist militia members told AFP, warning that the toll may rise.The assailants seized an unknown number of people in Malam Karanti village near the fishing town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad, militiamen assisting Nigerian troops in the region said.Separately, in a pre-dawn raid Friday, fighters with jihadist rival ISWAP killed five troops from a multinational coalition, two military sources said.The militants stormed the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) base housing Nigerian and Cameroonian troops in the town of Wulgo, engaging troops in a gunfight, the sources said.Four Nigerian soldiers, a Cameroonian soldier and “nine of the terrorists” were killed in the fighting, the officer said.The militants forced the troops to abandon the base after overwhelming them, said a second officer, who gave the same toll.The attack comes two months after a similar raid on the same base killed 25 Cameroonian soldiers.- Defence chief promises order – Nigeria’s top military officer was in the region Thursday, telling troops in Borno capital Maiduguri, that the increase in unrest would be quickly resolved.”Actions have been taken to ensure that we address the series of attacks,” chief of defence staff General Christopher Musa said, promising new material was being drafted in.Musa said conflict in the wider Sahel, including Mali, Chad and Niger, “has put a lot of pressure on Nigeria”.”Whatever is going on is just for a short while,” he added.The MNJTF’s operations have been hampered in recent months by the withdrawal of Niger and threats by Chad to do the same.- Fishermen, farmers killed – In the Thursday attack on fishermen and farmers, Babakura Kolo, a militia leader, told AFP that Boko Haram militants accused the victims of supporting ISWAP.Boko Haram thinks “fishermen and farmers around the lake support ISWAP, who are more lenient to them — though they also kill fishermen and farmers when it suits them”, he added. Boko Haram and ISWAP have been locked in in-fighting since their split in 2016 over ideological differences.”Boko Haram now controls Lake Chad and they are wary of a potential comeback by ISWAP,” Kolo said.Militia member Umar Ari gave the same toll for the attack.Both Boko Haram and ISWAP have increasing targeted farmers, fishermen, loggers, herders and metal scrap collectors in the region.Both groups accuse them of spying and passing information to the military and anti-jihadist militias.In January, ISWAP killed at least 40 farmers in the community of Dumba, also on the shores of Lake Chad, for trespassing into its territory to farm without the armed group’s permission, according to Borno state authorities.A Nigerian intelligence report seen by AFP suggested the toll could be more than 100.Last month, Boko Haram killed 14 farmers in a raid on farmlands outside the town of Pulka, in Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, according to local officials.
