Soldiers of the Joint Task Force (JTF) engaged Boko Haram gunmen in a fierce shootout in Maiduguri, Borno State. The clash occurred in Bulabulin and Bayan Quarters of the city. At least 13 Boko Haram fighters were killed, while the JTF lost one soldier and had two others wounded.
1 Jan 2013 · Bulabulin and Bayan Quarters, Maiduguri, Borno
Deaths
14
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
14
Perpetrators
Boko Haram
Response
The JTF Operation Restore Order conducted extensive sweeps of the surrounding neighborhoods immediately following the clash.
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Rejection of the Gregorian calendar/Western holidays, attempt to disrupt military morale at the beginning of the year, and continued contestation for control over Maiduguri’s urban center.
Trajectory
This New Year's Day engagement was part of an intensified military campaign against Boko Haram following a particularly violent December 2012.
Cycle notes
Mirrors earlier urban checkpoint gunfights in the city, including the 13 December 2011 bomb-and-gun battle (about 10 killed, 30 injured), the 17 January 2012 clash (two soldiers and four militants killed), and the 23 April 2012 shootout (five militants killed by their own explosives), all reflecting Boko Haram’s pattern of ambushing security posts and triggering brief but intense engagements with higher militant casualties than security forces.
Pattern
Urban Armed Clashes
Related — Armed Attack
At approximately 5:30 pm, dozens of ISWAP fighters in trucks fitted with machine guns attacked the military base in Marte town and a nearby checkpoint, overrunning the facility after a fierce battle. The attack came just two months after the government had resettled some 2,870 people in the town, which had been abandoned for six years. Residents said the gunmen torched buildings, looted food stores and military equipment, and hoisted their flag over the captured barracks. Hundreds of civilians fled into the surrounding bush, while surviving troops and police officers retreated to Dikwa, about 25 km away. A previously repelled attack had served as a probe, enabling the insurgents to mobilise reinforcements for the decisive raid.
At about 5 pm on Saturday, dozens of ISWAP fighters in multiple gun trucks launched a coordinated assault on the garrison town of Damasak, headquarters of Mobbar LGA in northern Borno State. The insurgents split into two groups: one attacked the military 'super camp' housing the 5 Army Brigade and 145 Battalion, while the second group stormed the town, setting fire to a UN hub (which housed multiple agencies), gutting an office of the Norwegian Refugee Council, and destroying a police station. The attackers also looted a warehouse of the World Food Programme, carted away drugs from a general hospital, and torched an ambulance. A military source said the garrison was overrun and that a soldier was killed and two others wounded before air support from the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole drove the insurgents back. At the end of the three‑hour battle, ISWAP fighters had destroyed five of their own gun trucks
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen dressed in military camouflage attacked Bulabulin Ngaura village in Konduga LGA, Borno State, at about 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. The insurgents mounted a roadblock on the Maiduguri-Biu Road and ambushed residents on their way to the mosque for morning prayers, opening fire indiscriminately. Governor Kashim Shettima‘s aide, Alhaji Mohammed Sani (alias A. Banje), was among the dead. A family of five (husband, wife and three children) was abducted from a Peugeot 406 vehicle on the same road. The attackers also shot and killed five civilians going to prayers and injured several others. The assault occurred simultaneously with a separate attack on Gajiram town (Nganzai LGA) that killed 15 people.