After a raging gun battle that involved air and ground support, Nigerian soldiers managed to thwart an extremist attack on a military base in Tamsukawu Village along the infamous Maiduguri-Damaturu highway in Borno State on Monday, November 8.

The insurgents – thought to be members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and reportedly dressed in military uniform – mounted the attack at about 11.45am. They blocked the road between the Benisheikh and Mainok communities, the area in which the village is located.

Security sources told RNI that soldiers on patrol had come across the extremists and a fierce gun battle, including air support, ensued. The extremists were roundly defeated, they said.

The number and extent of casualties from either side had not yet been announced and the Nigerian military had not responded.

After hearing about the gun battle, RNI visited the Borno State Transport Union and spoke to one of the drivers.

“The attackers did not target travellers. They only wanted to get to the military base. A military vehicle was burnt but the soldiers fought back with heavy gunfire and defeated the insurgents,” he said, adding that a few hours after the attack, the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway was cleared and declared safe for travellers.

ISWAP extremists had recently been targeting mostly military bases and other security agents in their reign of terror. Civilians victims had been those mostly caught in the crossfire.

• The Maiduguri-Damaturu highway has been a hot spot for extremist attacks since the insurgency started in 2009, first by members of the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), more commonly referred to as Boko Haram, and joined later in 2016 by members of ISWAP, an offshoot of JAS.

Thousands of people have been attacked, abducted and many have been killed on what has been described as “the highway to hell”.