Boko Haram members have reportedly ended the lives of thirty-five Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) fighters in Lake Chad.
A fierce battle between the two rival terror groups resulted in the dislodgement of ISWAP from two of its Lake Chad region enclaves.
A source told The Punch on Sunday, 8 January that the clash took place on Saturday, 7 January, 2023.
He continued that the clash followed a series of intensive attacks by Boko Haram combatants led by five of the group’s commanders, most notably Abu Umaimah, on the ISWAP strongholds.
In the attacks, which began in the Lake Chad island of Toumbun Gini, Boko Haram also seized a large number of weapons from the ISWAP fighters while chasing them out of their enclaves.
Another reliable source said that the sustained attacks by Boko Haram necessitated high-profile ISWAP leaders to hold a meeting at Tumbun Murhu to discuss the inability of the group to carry out major attacks during the Yuletide as earlier planned.
The inability, according to the sources, was caused by the clashes and attacks on its camps by Boko Haram.
The two sources added: “ISWAP has now resolved to carry out a series of attacks on Boko Haram strongholds in the Lake Chad and Sambisa forest axis.”
