A squad of Boko Haram terrorists riding on motorcycles and in vans opened fire on a large group of people returning to Badu Kuluwu after attending a funeral in Goni Abachari. After the initial attack, angry mourners attempted to chase the attackers but were fired upon by the fleeing convoy, resulting in additional casualties. The attack was a reprisal for villagers killing 11 Boko Haram fighters and recovering 10 AK-47 rifles two weeks earlier when the jihadists attempted to attack Badu village
27 Jul 2019 · Badu Kuluwu / Goni Abachari, Nganzai, Borno
Deaths
65
Injured
10
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
75
Perpetrators
Boko Haram
Response
President Muhammadu Buhari directed the air and army forces to scour the area for the attackers, stating "those who committed these killings will pay a big price for their action"
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
To crush civilian resistance.
Trajectory
By 2019, as communities began successfully defending themselves, the group shifted to Mass Punitive Strikes designed to prove that civilian resistance would lead to total communal annihilation.
Cycle notes
Mirrored earlier attacks including 20 June 2014 – Kautikari reprisal attack following local militia resistance, 10 January 2015 – Baga massacre triggered after community defense efforts, 15 February 2016 – Dalori reprisal killings after civilian alerting of troops, 23 March 2017 – Rann retaliatory raid following vigilante resistance, and 14 May 2018 – Gudumbali punitive attack after local pushback, collectively reflecting a recurring pattern in which Boko Haram conducts collective punishment operations against civilian populations—particularly funeral gatherings, markets, and returning mourners—after communities resist, kill, or repel fighters, reinforcing deterrence through mass casualty reprisals intended to suppress local self-defense initiatives and reassert control over contested rural areas in northern Borno.
Pattern
Funeral Targeting
Related — Armed Attack
In a coordinated nighttime assault, an estimated 15–20 suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked the Birniwa Divisional Police Headquarters in Birniwa Local Government Area, Jigawa State. The attackers threw an explosive device into the police station (which failed to detonate) and engaged officers in a heavy shootout, using the chaos to gain entry. The assailants set the police building ablaze before fleeing. A teenage girl living in the vicinity was killed by a stray bullet, and a police officer suffered a gunshot wound to his leg.
Elements of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists attempted to attack Geidam town, the headquarters of Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State, at about 11:30 AM. Troops of 159 Battalion in Sector 2, in conjunction with the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole, intercepted the terrorists and engaged them in a fierce exchange of fire
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