Authorities in northeastern Nigeria have confirmed that suspected members of Boko Haram, an armed extremist group operating across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, carried out a coordinated attack on the Malari community in the Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State in the early hours of Monday. According to security officials, the assailants abducted two residents during the raid, which took place around midnight.
Okay News reports that eyewitnesses described the attackers as arriving on motorcycles and moving swiftly through the community shortly after 12 o’clock in the morning. The operation lasted for about thirty minutes before officers from the Borno State Police Command’s crack response team intervened, preventing the attackers from gaining full control of the area.
The Public Relations Officer of the Borno State Police Command, Nahum Daso, confirmed the incident and emphasized that law enforcement agents were able to repel the group without casualties. He stated, “There was an attack around 12am this morning in Malari, Konduga Local Government Area. The police crack team did a good work by preventing them from invading the town.”
Daso further confirmed that two residents were taken away by the attackers. “From what I have currently, two men were abducted. I am still doing findings, when concluded, we will make public the comprehensive report,” he noted. He added that the police recorded neither fatalities nor injuries during the confrontation, saying, “On our part, we did not record any death and no police officer was injured.”
Residents who spoke with reporters described the act as “coordinated,” and although officials confirmed only two abductions, local accounts suggested that the number of victims might be higher. A community source remarked, “From the information currently circulating in town, more than two persons were kidnapped because while disembarking, they passed through residential homes which we could not verify yet if they took people along with them from their homes.” Authorities stated that this claim remains unverified.
The incident occurred barely days after troops of Operation Hadin Kai, the counterterrorism initiative of the Nigerian Armed Forces designed to combat insurgency in the northeastern region, rescued twelve girls who had been abducted from farmlands in the Askira-Uba area of Borno State. The Nigerian Army said the rescue was the result of a swift intelligence-led operation carried out on November 29.
A statement from the Army listed the rescued girls as Fatima Shaibu (17), Fatima Umaru (15), Hauwa Abubakar (18), Saliha Muhammed (15), Sadiya Umaru (17), Amira Babel (15), Zara Adamu (17), Nana Shaibu (15), Zainab Musa (18), Zainab Muhammed (17), Jamila Saidu (15), and Hauwa Hamidu (17).
