Boko Haram kill one colonel a captain and three other troops at checkpoint in Borno

BOKO Haram have shot dead a serving colonel and a captain in the Nigerian Army and four soldiers  in Borno State after they ambushed at a military checkpoint along the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road near Jakana village.

Apparently the terrorists waylaid some commercial vehicles along the road near a military checkpoint and using them as a cover to open fire on the soldiers at around 6.30pm. During the attack, one villager was killed in the gunfire while two others were injured, while five soldiers said to be at the checkpoint also died while trying to repel the terrorists’ attack.

It is believed that the soldiers, who also included a captain, were attached to the 29 Task Force Brigade in Benisheik under the Seventh Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri. Their corpses are reported to have been deposited at the morgue of the Nigerian Army medical facility in Maiduguri.

One military source said: “On Wednesday during the Boko Haram attack, there were commercial vehicles on the road. A regimental sergeant major (RSM), who was travelling to Maiduguri, was intercepted during the attack, and they killed him.

“Actually, the fighters also attacked some soldiers who were on duty at a checkpoint, bombarding their formation and killing some of them in Jakana. The RSM was on leave and he was just coming in a casual dress, returning to Maiduguri as the fighters attacked some commercial vehicles, even burning a Toyota Hilux."

 Apparently, one hospital guard confirmed that injured villagers were brought to his medical facility and one of them died on Thursday. He added that the fighters did not attack the village but the military formation and three villagers were injured in the attack, with one of them dying on Thursday.