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For nearly two decades, Nigeria fought Boko Haram and its offshoots, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Ansaru, largely with bombs, bullets, and casualties announced in press briefings. However, the slow process of delivering justice through prosecution was the part of the counterterrorism machine that never quite got built properly. Thousands of suspects, […]
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For two weeks, the fate of Major General Rabe Abubakar (rtd) had become a barometer for testing whether Nigerian authorities could secure the release of a high-ranking military officer from the hands of terrorists operating in the northwestern region. The answer came on Saturday, June 13, in a press statement by Nasiru Muazu, Katsina’s Commissioner […]
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For the Islamic State (IS) and its West Africa Province (ISWAP), the third week of May 2026 began with a compound disaster and ended with a theology lesson. The group faced one of its most shocking moments, at least in West Africa or, more specifically, Nigeria. With its headquarters in Nigeria, ISWAP has been the […]
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Let us begin with what has been forgotten. There is a field, roughly 22 kilometres southwest of Sokoto, between the Dange Shuni and Bodinga local government areas in North West Nigeria, that carries no particular weight to the eye. Grass grows there. Wind moves through trees at predictable intervals. The surrounding bush is in full […]
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Two years ago, Bashir Muhammad received an invitation to attend a journalism summit in Niamey but declined. That decision, and the argument it provoked, told him everything he needed to know. He runs one of the growing number of Hausa-language digital news platforms that have emerged across northern Nigeria in the past decade, serving local […]
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By the time the announcement that Abu Bilal Al-Minuki was killed reached the outside world, the strike itself was already hours old. In the early hours of Saturday, May 16, somewhere in Metele, in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, a compound had been hit. First, US President Donald Trump posted a statement on Truth Social. Another […]
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Aichatou often heard of insecurity for most of her life, but never experienced it herself. She had relatives who had either been killed or displaced in places like Bosso, a village close to Lake Chad that was ravaged by Boko Haram insurgency in 2015. But the violence that festered along the Sokoto and Kebbi flanks […]
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As Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, prayer, and reflection, entered its second week, specifically on March 5, terrorists from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked multiple military positions in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, in a single night. The attacks killed at least 16 soldiers and officers. The following day, a suicide […]
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Audu Danbaba is in his fifties but trudges like someone in his eighties. He walks carefully, sometimes raising his hands as if they were scales calibrating his body’s equilibrium. As he emerged from his house on Feb. 25, he moved with visible effort – his feet swollen – counting each step as if needles were […]
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How do you comfort a man who has just watched years of his life turn to smoke? Sulaiman Mustapha remained seated inside the mosque after the dawn prayer, long after others had left. He put both hands on his head as if trying to hold his brain in place. He could not speak. No wailing. […]
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What Bashir Haruna would later remember was only the ordinariness of that cold morning. He had prepared to go out early, and the day had not announced itself as a tragedy. His wife, Fatima Abubakar, was quietly arranging the clothes she planned to wash while he stood watching her. There was no hurry, no sense […]
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On December 25, 2025, the United States launched strikes on some specific targets in Sokoto State, northwestern Nigeria. Fired from its naval assets in the Gulf of Guinea, approximately 16 GPS-guided precision munitions, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, were launched. Some landed in the Bauni forest near Nigeria’s border with the Niger Republic, while others struck […]
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