Africa-Press. A spokesperson for the national police announced that at least 17 officers were killed in Yobe State, northeastern Nigeria, following an attack by suspected militants on a military school that also trains police officers.
The police spokesperson, Anthony Okon Placid, stated in a statement that the 17 officers were killed during an assault on the Nigerian Army’s Special Forces School in Buni Yadi, Yobe State.
Placid said, “The officers, who were undergoing specialized operational training at the facility, lost their lives when the militants launched a coordinated attack on the establishment from multiple directions.”
He added that several soldiers were also killed, but did not specify the number of military casualties. The Nigerian Army has not issued an immediate comment. In another area of northeastern Nigeria, specifically in the Lake Chad Basin, the second most important figure in ISIS worldwide was killed in an operation carried out by American and Nigerian forces early Saturday, according to announcements by the American president and his Nigerian counterpart.
Violence in northeastern Nigeria began with the Boko Haram uprising in 2009. The armed group later split, forming a faction known as the West Africa Province of the Islamic State, which has intensified attacks on military bases and security forces. The Nigerian government has established specialized military institutions, such as the training school that was attacked, in an effort to combat the terrorist threat.
