Hundreds of Boko Haram insurgents, numbering between 200 and 500 fighters and dressed in military uniforms, launched a coordinated, multi-pronged assault on multiple military installations in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and birthplace of the insurgency . The attackers, arriving on motorcycles and in approximately 20 pickup vans and captured military vehicles, targeted the Nigerian Air Force base, the 33 Battalion army barracks, military checkpoints, and the Maiduguri International Airport. They also attacked a trailer park, police stations, shops, petrol stations, and residential and public buildings, leaving a path of destruction several kilometers long
2 Dec 2013 · Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno
Kidnapped
0
Perpetrators
Boko Haram
Response
24-hour curfew imposed across Maiduguri . Flights at Maiduguri International Airport briefly suspended, later resumed . President Jonathan convened emergency security meeting with top military and security officials
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
The attack was a direct challenge to military claims of success and a deliberate propaganda victory, as evidenced by Shekau's video claiming responsibility . The insurgents' ability to assemble hundreds of fighters, coordinate a multi-pronged assault, and penetrate heavily fortified military installations demonstrated sophisticated planning and intelligence-gathering
Trajectory
The assault on Maiduguri—the first major breach of the city since the emergency declaration—demonstrated that insurgents had not been "decimated" as claimed by military officials, but had instead regrouped, rearmed, and adapted their tactics
Cycle notes
Mirrored earlier large-scale assaults on military installations such as the 26 August 2011 UN building and police headquarters bombings in Abuja, the 25 November 2012 Jaji military cantonment bombing, and the 14 March 2013 Giwa barracks raid in Maiduguri, and foreshadowed later base overruns including the 16 October 2014 Giwa barracks attack and the January 2019 Rann and Baga military base assaults, reflecting Boko Haram’s evolving capacity to deploy hundreds of fighters, disguise themselves as soldiers, destroy air assets, and directly challenge state military control of strategic urban centers.
Pattern
Attacks on Military Bases
Related — Armed Attack
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Militants from the al-Qaeda aligned Ansaru group attacked a Nigerian military base at Polwire (also spelled Polewire), near Birnin Gwari town in Kaduna State. The attackers, arriving in large numbers on motorcycles and armed with AK-47 rifles and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), engaged the soldiers in a fierce battle lasting approximately two hours. They overpowered the troops, killed seventeen soldiers and three civilian vigilantes, and injured twenty-three soldiers. The militants burned three armoured personnel carriers (APCs), looted weapons and armaments, and forced the surviving soldiers to flee the base.