By Chinelo Obogo

No fewer than 596 persons among them 337 soldiers, 29 police officers and Joint Task Force have been killed in ambush attacks by various terrorists groups in the North East and North West since 2019.

A report compiled by SBM Intelligence, a geopolitical intelligence platform from data derived from media reports said the casualty figure also involved 92 terrorists and 111 others.

Borno recorded the highest deaths with 45 victims, Zamfara had seven, Yobe, four, Kaduna and Katsina, two each while Kebbi and and Sokoto recorded one death each.

Last week, Brigadier General Dzarma Zirkusu became the highest ranking officer to be killed in an insurgent ambush. Army spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu said troops had encountered Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters in Borno state’s Askira Uba local government area, where a fierce battle took place and several militants were killed.

Zirkusu and three soldiers were also killed during an attack by ISWAP militants. The terrorist group split from Boko Haram five years ago and pledged allegiance to Islamic State and has been fighting against the Nigerian armed forces.

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Military sources and residents said ISWAP fighters attacked Askira on Saturday morning with at least 12 gun trucks, burning houses, shops and a school and forcing some residents to flee. Askira is about 150 kilometres south of Borno state capital Maiduguri and lies along the fringes of Sambisa Forest, the operational base of both Boko Haram and ISWAP.

Security sources said ISWAP fighters had also separately attacked troops near Maiduguri town but the army said last month it had killed the new ISWAP leader in a military operation, weeks after announcing the death of the group’s former head Abu Musab al-Barnawi.

Daily Sun had earlier reported that not less than 2,287 people were killed in Nigeria between July and September of 2021 during violent incidents involving attacks from Boko Haram, militia herdsmen, abductions, gang clashes and bandits.

In a report compiled by SBM Intelligence and EIE Nigeria, a civil society organisation, from data derived from media reports, 1,153 civilians were killed during this period while 176 security personnel from Customs, Department of State Services, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Police and the military lost their lives within this period.

A further breakdown of people killed shows that 1,153 civilians, 675 bandits, 170 Boko Haram terrorists, 27 cultists, 105 soldiers, 67 police officers, 29 Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) members, 10 vigilante members, 24 armed robbers, 23 kidnappers, one NSCDC officer, one custom officer and two immigration officers fell victim to attacks.

A breakdown of deaths by geopolitical zones showed that 961 persons were killed in the North West, 867 in the North Central, 336 in the North East, 137 in the South East, 105 in the South South and 102 in the South West.