Boko Haram Beheads Soldiers In Borno

Boko Haram insurgents have stormed a Nigerian Army base along the Mandara–Buratai Road in Borno State, beheading at least eight soldiers.

Military sources confirmed that the assault on the 162 Battalion was carried out in the early hours of Friday, exploiting heavy rainfall to approach the facility undetected.

“They attacked us at 4 a.m. on Friday when it was raining,” a source at the base told SaharaReporters, which first reported the incident.

A second military source said the attackers overran portions of the base, killing and decapitating eight soldiers before retreating.

“They killed eight soldiers and beheaded them.

Several others were injured during the attack,” the source said, adding that the insurgents stormed the position in large numbers, catching the garrison off guard.

Reinforcement teams have since been deployed to the area as authorities work to assess the full scale of casualties and retake the base. No official statement had been issued at the time of filing.

The attack follows a sustained campaign of violence against Nigerian military installations that has intensified dramatically since the start of 2025.

Security analysts have documented more than a dozen terrorist attacks on military outposts in Borno and Yobe states since January, with the assaults killing dozens of soldiers and multiple high-ranking officers.

However, THE WHISTLER contacted the Nigerian Army’s Acting Director of Public Relations, Lt. Col Appolonia Anele, following its findings, but messages sent via WhatsApp and calls made received no response.

Among the most significant of those strikes, ISWAP fighters attacked the military base in Monguno on April 13, killing the base commander, Colonel I.A. Muhammed, and four soldiers.

A week earlier, an attack on a base in Benesheikh killed an unconfirmed number of soldiers along with Brigadier General Oseni Omoh Braimah.

The pace of attacks has been relentless. By mid-May 2025, Rann had become the tenth base to be attacked by jihadists in the space of two months, according to an AFP tally.

On May 11, ISWAP overran the 50 Task Force Battalion in New Marte, Borno State, with attackers stealing ammunition and at least 45 vehicles, abducting soldiers and destroying key military assets.

Days later, ISWAP fighters stormed the Multinational Joint Task Force base in Wulgo in a pre-dawn attack, killing four Nigerian soldiers and one Cameroonian soldier.

Security analysts have described security in northeastern Nigeria as deteriorating rapidly amid a surge in violent, coordinated attacks by jihadist factions, with ISWAP intensifying operations since January 2025 and exposing what observers characterise as the broader collapse of Nigeria’s counterterrorism strategy.

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, speaking in April 2025, said Boko Haram had recently escalated its attacks and was compromising military formations throughout the state, leaving residents subjected to almost daily kidnappings and violence.

The broader toll of the insurgency since its outbreak in 2009 remains catastrophic.

The Boko Haram insurgency has killed an estimated 35,000 civilians and displaced more than two million people, according to the United Nations.

While ISWAP has continued to concentrate attacks on military personnel and assets, the JAS faction of Boko Haram resumed targeted assaults on civilians, with a resurgence that has followed the reported death of its leader Abubakar Shekau in 2021.

Among the deadliest single attacks on Nigerian troops in recent history, ISWAP fighters killed at least 118 soldiers and left 153 others missing after overrunning a military base in Metele, Borno, in November 2018.

In July of that year, insurgents had also swarmed the 81 Division Task Force Brigade in Jilli, Yobe, killing three officers and 28 soldiers.

In April 2021, ISWAP killed 33 soldiers in Mainok, a town west of Maiduguri, arriving in military camouflage aboard mine-resistant trucks and armoured carriers.

In March 2025, ISWAP launched a renewed offensive in Borno State, carrying out sophisticated assaults on military installations, towns and roadways and seizing control of strategic sites.

Under the campaign name “Holocaust of the Camps,” the group’s latest offensive began around the turn of the year and has been growing in strength since, with events accelerating sharply from March through May.

Friday’s attack on the 162 Battalion adds to an already grim toll, and underscores the continuing vulnerability of forward military positions in Borno State despite ongoing counterinsurgency operations under Operation Hadin Kai.