ISWAP Militants Claim Life of Police DPO In Borno

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The Divisional Police Officer of New Marte in Marte Local Government Area of Borno State has been killed by members of the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP).

According to reports, the DPO, a Superintendent of Police, was killed on Monday night while defending the police station at the resettled community from the terrorists who sneaked into the community on foot in the middle of the night.

Confirming the death on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Borno State Police Command, Nahun Kenneth, said the Command is still gathering details of the attack.

However, a military personnel serving in New Marte disclosed that the terrorists targeted one of the residents of the community who got hint and ran to the police station for protection.

The military personnel further mentioned that the terrorists entered the town on foot without their usual motorcycles and vehicles.

New Marte, situated 93 kilometers from Maiduguri at the fringes of the Lake Chad region, is a resettled community which was initially overrun by the terrorists but was rebuilt by the administration of Professor Babagana Zulum.

ISWAP and rival group Boko Haram still launch sporadic ambushes on convoys from their hideouts and plant landmines along the highway.

In January, 17 people were killed along the highway in two separate mine blasts that were blamed on jihadists. Ten more people were killed by a landmine in April.

Nigeria’s grinding conflict has killed 40,000 and displaced around two million from their homes in the northeast since 2009. The violence has spilled over into neighbouring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.