A large contingent of ISWAP fighters arrived in approximately 20 gun trucks and launched a coordinated assault. Troops were initially dislodged from the base before it was reclaimed with aerial support, though some sources said the village remained under insurgent control . The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, and AK-47 rifles. ISWAP claimed to have carted away four tanks and other vehicles
18 Nov 2018 · Matele, Guzamala, Borno
Deaths
23
Injured
31
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
54
Perpetrators
ISWAP
Response
Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai moved the annual Army Conference from Benin City to Maiduguri to be closer to troops
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
ISWAP’s strategy of using large mobile convoys with heavy weapons to overrun isolated bases and temporarily seize territory, showcasing strength after the 2016 faction split.
Trajectory
November 2018 marked a peak in ISWAP’s conventional-style assaults using gun trucks and captured equipment, allowing temporary control of towns before Nigerian air support forced retreats.
Cycle notes
Mirrored earlier attacks including 03 January 2015 – Baga military base and town overrun, 14 March 2014 – Giwa Barracks assault in Maiduguri, 10 December 2017 – Damboa base attack using massed firepower, 18 June 2018 – Gajiram assault with gun truck convoys, and 08 September 2018 – Gudumbali overrun by insurgents, collectively reflecting a recurring pattern in which Islamic State West Africa Province conducts large-scale, conventional-style assaults using heavily armed mobile columns to overwhelm isolated military bases, seize equipmentsand territory, and demonstrate battlefield superiority before withdrawing under aerial counterpressure.
Pattern
Military Base Assault
Related — Armed Attack
Armed Bandits stormed the weekly Goronyo market in eastern Sokoto State on Sunday night. Riding on over 100 motorcycles, they surrounded the market and opened fire indiscriminately on traders and buyers. The attack left at least 49 people dead (some reports cite higher figures). The massacre came just days after a similar attack on Unguwan Lalle market in Sabon Birni LGA that killed 22 traders.
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.
Approximately 15 suspected Boko Haram insurgents on camels ambushed a group of wood loggers working at a charcoal site near Bale, a remote village in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State. The terrorists surrounded the victims and, refusing pleas for mercy, killed six of them instantly, reportedly by butchering and beheading them. The attackers pursued others as they fled, but the slower camels allowed several to escape. The mutilated bodies of the six initial victims were recovered at the scene that evening. The following morning (Tuesday, 28 November), five more bodies were recovered, bringing the total confirmed death toll to 11.