Boko Haram fighters on motorcycles attacked a group of loggers collecting firewood in Maiwa village. The assailants, numbering sixteen on six motorcycles, opened fire on the loggers without warning. They killed at least 20 loggers. The gunmen also set fire to three vehicles laden with firewood that were destined for Maiduguri
30 Dec 2017 · Maiwa, Maiduguri, Borno
Deaths
25
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
25
Perpetrators
Boko Haram
Response
Ibrahim Liman, a leader of a militia force fighting Boko Haram, confirmed the attack and noted the attackers' origin from Sambisa Forest
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Boko Haram increasingly targeted loggers, accusing them of spying for the military and the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF). This was part of a broader pattern of attacks on civilians engaged in economic activities near insurgent enclaves.
Trajectory
The pattern demonstrated Boko Haram's sustained campaign against civilians engaged in economic activities near their hideouts.
Cycle notes
Mirrors earlier Boko Haram attacks including the 13 May 2017 assaults on farmers in Borno fields, the 19 November 2017 Dimge farmers’ execution and beheading in Mafa, the 2013–2015 wave of Sambisa-adjacent village raids targeting rural livelihoods, the 10 February 2017 Mussa village attack involving killings and destruction of economic assets, and the 15 June 2016 Kau–Tuva raid combining killings, arson, and displacement, reflecting a recurring pattern of targeting rural economic actors such as farmers and loggers to disrupt subsistence livelihoods, sever supply chains into urban centers like Maiduguri, and consolidate territorial control by criminalizing everyday survival activities in insurgent-peripheral zones.
Pattern
Loggers Targeting
Related — Armed Attack
Boko Haram militants raided Alau village, attacking a group of ethnic Fulani herdsmen. According to Amadu Kusuri, northeast coordinator of the Fulani Miyetti Allah Association, only one herdsman escaped alive and confirmed the attack. The insurgents kidnapped women and children and stole livestock during the raid .
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen dressed in military fatigues attacked the Fulatari ward of Gamboru Ngala town, Borno State, in the early hours of Wednesday. Around 50 insurgents on motorcycles called residents to come out of their homes under the guise that they had arrested Boko Haram members, but opened fire indiscriminately once victims emerged. At least four civilians were killed (three by gunfire, one strangled when a weapon jammed) and eight others were seriously injured. The attack was a reprisal for the arrest of one of the group’s members the previous week by youth vigilantes (Civilian JTF), who had handed him over to the military.
A group of heavily armed men, suspected to be members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), attacked the Kwari neighborhood. The assault began at a local nightclub, where the terrorists opened fire sporadically, killing several partygoers. After the initial club attack, the assailants moved into the surrounding residential area, where they burned houses, vehicles, and a church, and shot residents, including the local pastor of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), as he tried to escape.