ISWAP militants attacked Damasak, resulting in a gun battle with troops. During the attack, two civilians were killed, including a five-year-old child, and several others were injured. A UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) helicopter was hit by bullets during its approach to Damasak, sustaining serious damage. The helicopter was able to turn around and safely return to Maiduguri; no aid workers were on board, and the crew were unharmed.
2 Jul 2020 · Damasak, Mobbar, Borno
Deaths
2
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
2
Perpetrators
ISWAP
Response
Following the attack, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Edward Kallon announced an immediate pause on UNHAS rotary operations in the northeast for an initial period of one week to conduct new risk assessments. Life-saving medical and security evacuations were to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
To achieve a total siege of garrison towns by cutting off the only safe supply route—the air.
Trajectory
The attack on the UNHAS helicopter marked a significant escalation in ISWAP‘s targeting of humanitarian infrastructure. Prior to July 2020, the group had focused on abducting and executing aid workers (e.g., the July 2019 kidnapping of ActionAid staff near Damasak, who were later killed). However, shooting a moving aircraft represented a qualitative shift: it was a direct assault on the logistical backbone of the entire humanitarian response in northeast Nigeria. The attack forced the UN to suspend air operations for a week, during which nine local government areas became inaccessible, affecting over 120,000 IDPs in Gamboru‑Ngala alone. This operational pause demonstrated how a single attack could multiply the humanitarian crisis, potentially killing more people through starvation and lack of medical care than the attack itself.
Cycle notes
Mirrored earlier insurgent attacks—including the 18 July 2019 Damasak aid convoy ambush and abduction of humanitarian workers; the 27 August 2019 Wajirko attack on telecom infrastructure to disrupt state systems; the 9 June 2020 Goni Usmanti raid disrupting rural economic and supply systems; and the 13 June 2020 Monguno attack that burned a UN humanitarian hub—collectively reveal a recurring strategic logic by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). This pattern is further reinforced by earlier assaults on humanitarian assets: the 18 January 2020 attack on the Ngala hub, where an entire section was burned and vehicles destroyed; the 13 June 2020 Monguno UN hub assault, where an unexploded projectile was found at the gate and ISWAP distributed leaflets warning residents not to cooperate with Western NGOs; and the July 2019 ISWAP abduction of ActionAid workers near Damasak (later executed after failed negotiations). Even the 1980‑1985 Maitatsine uprisings in Kano, Kaduna, and Yola—where the Yan Tatsine movement, a marginalised Quranist sect, targeted not only state security forces but also the few humanitarian actors attempting to provide relief—established a foundational template for anti‑aid violence in northern Nigeria. Across these decades, a consistent insurgent strategy emerges: deliberately attack humanitarian infrastructure, including clearly marked UN aircraft, aid hubs, and worker convoys, as a coercive tool to force the withdrawal of international assistance. This isolation of garrison towns disrupts aid delivery, creates a security vacuum that accelerates state withdrawal, and exploits the resulting civilian suffering for recruitment and territorial control. The state’s response—short-term suspensions, risk assessments, and eventual resumption of flights without meaningful security improvements—replicates the same inadequate crisis management documented after previous attacks on aid assets, perpetuating a cycle of vulnerability.
Pattern
Deliberate targeting of humanitarian assets
Related — Armed Attack
Boko Haram jihadists attacked two fishing islands in Lake Chad in a coordinated operation. The attackers first struck Duguri island, killing 12 fishermen and wounding two others who later died (bringing the Duguri toll to 14). The attackers then split into two groups; while the first group attacked Duguri, the second went to nearby Dabar Wanzam island, where they lay in wait for fishermen who fled the first attack, killing 17 there. The attackers spared one fisherman in Duguri, loading the 12 bodies of those killed into a canoe and ordering him to take them to Baga as a warning. They also instructed the spared man to "inform the troops in Baga that they were waiting for them on the islands."
Children of a supporter of Gov. Zulum were killed in Maiduguri after criticizing political cabals and politicians.
Boko Haram jihadists launched a raid on the IDP camp. The attackers entered on bicycles and on foot, using ladders to scale a protective ditch dug around the camp perimeter. They opened fire, killing four IDPs and injuring four others. The gunshots drew the attention of soldiers and police stationed outside the camp, who engaged the militants in an hour-long gun battle. Two terrorists were killed in the firefight, while the rest fled. The attackers were believed to have come to steal food supplies . Hours later, two soldiers were wounded when their patrol vehicle struck a landmine planted by the fleeing jihadists at Freetown village, nine kilometers (five miles) away