Terrorists in northeast Nigeria murdered a brigadier general in an attack on a military base, a local government chairman informed AFP on Thursday. This is the second killing of a high-ranking officer in the area within five months.

Since the 2009 emergence of Boko Haram, Nigeria has endured 17 years of terrorist insurgency. The conflict has grown increasingly complex with the rise of powerful splinter groups, including Islamic State West Africa Province.

An intelligence source informed AFP that unidentified terrorists launched an overnight raid on a military base in Benisheikh, located approximately 75 kilometres from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. The assault resulted in the deaths of at least 18 soldiers and the destruction of several vehicles by fire.

“Unfortunately, the brigade commander, Brigadier General O.O. Braimah, lost his life,” Kaga Local Government Chairman Zannah Lawan Ajimi told AFP in a phone interview.

Two sources confirmed Braimah’s death to AFP.

His death comes on the heels of Brigadier General Musa Uba's death by ISWAP in November. He was the highest-ranking military official to die in the long-running conflict since 2021.

“They overran the brigade,” one of the intelligence sources reported, giving the death toll as “at least” 18.

The source noted that “the terrorists killed several troops” and “burnt vehicles and buildings before they withdrew", without giving a toll.

The army and Nigeria’s defence headquarters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

– Growing terrorist threats –

According to reports, violence has been on the rise since 2025.

Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has seen two suicide bombings since December. The type of bloody, urban attacks reminiscent of the insurgency’s peak a decade ago.

Due to a recent security situation, the US State Department said in a notice on Wednesday it was authorising “non-emergency US government employees” to leave Abuja.

Although insurgency is concentrated in the rural northeast part of the country, terrorists from Nigeria and the neighbouring Sahel have made inroads in western Nigeria, where organised crime gangs known as “bandits” have been raiding villages and extorting farmers and artisanal miners for years.

Bandits killed at least 90 persons across several remote villages in northwest Nigeria this week, according to an AFP tally of tolls given by local and humanitarian sources.

Among the raids was an assault in Kebbi State, where security forces blamed a local terrorist group known as Mahmuda, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.

Kebbi is situated along Nigeria’s border with Benin and Niger, and since 2025 it has experienced a rising number of terrorist attacks.

According to conflict monitoring organisation ACLED, there has been a surge in violence in the area carried out by militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

In nearby Kwara State, in October, fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM claimed an attack after years of researchers warning that the terrorist conflict ravaging the Sahel risked spreading south towards coastal West African states.

Last December, the United States, with Nigerian assistance, conducted an airstrike in northwest Sokoto State, targeting Islamic State Sahel Province fighters usually found in neighbouring Niger, along with Mali and Burkina Faso.