{"id":52902,"date":"2026-03-16T15:38:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52902"},"modified":"2026-03-16T15:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:38:05","slug":"nigeria-repels-first-attack-in-years-on-northern-city-maiduguri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/16\/nigeria-repels-first-attack-in-years-on-northern-city-maiduguri\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria repels first attack in years on northern city Maiduguri"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Jihadist fighters attempt to storm a military base near Maiduguri but security forces repel them after midnight gunfire.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Suspected jihadists launched an overnight attack on a Nigerian military post on the outskirts of Maiduguri, a key northeastern city that had not seen such violence in years, police, emergency services and residents said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Fighters from Boko Haram and rival jihadist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have recently stepped up attacks on military bases in northeastern Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>Their 16-year campaign to establish a caliphate in the country has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million.<\/p>\n<p>The attack occurred around midnight in the Ajilari Cross district, a southwestern suburb of Maiduguri and just a few kilometres (miles) from the city\u2019s airport.<\/p>\n<p>Residents and emergency services said the military quickly repelled the attackers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <strong>Nigeria allegedly paid Boko Haram millions to free schoolchildren<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The neighbourhood was calm on Monday morning, AFP journalists saw.<\/p>\n<p>Another attack was reported in Damboa local government area, south of Maiduguri.<\/p>\n<p>Police said the incidents followed \u201cwidespread reports of sporadic gunshots and explosions\u201d and were a result of \u201cattempted infiltrations by suspected\u201d Boko Haram\/ISWAP militants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a swift and coordinated response, joint security operatives who were already on heightened alert engaged the insurgents and successfully repelled the attacks, forcing the terrorists to retreat,\u201d police spokesman Nahum Kenneth Daso said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>He said no casualties were recorded among the military or civilians, adding the insurgents were believed to have suffered casualties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <strong>\u2018Nigerian suspect shot\u2019 during ActionSA\u2019s Xolani Khumalo anti-drug operation in Joburg suburb<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An emergency services spokesman in Borno state, whose capital is Maiduguri, told AFP they had received \u201creports of attacks\u201d by non-state armed groups and that these had been \u201crepelled by the military\u201d, with no civilian casualties reported.<\/p>\n<p>Residents reported four deaths on the attackers\u2019 side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt about 12:15 am this morning, we started hearing gunshots coming from the military base. Later, we realised it was an attack by insurgents believed to be Boko Haram,\u201d Ajilari Cross resident Mustapha Aminu told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe counted four corpses of the attackers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Another resident, Yakaka Ali Gana, said: \u201cThis is the first time attackers have stormed our community and attacked the military base.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <strong>Nwabali breaks silence on surprise Chippa exit<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The military has yet to comment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-fragile-calm-ruptured\">Fragile calm ruptured<\/h2>\n<p>Maiduguri, once the scene of shootings and bombings, had been relatively calm in recent years, with attacks peaking in the mid-2010s.<\/p>\n<p>The last major attack dates back to 2021, when Boko Haram jihadists fired mortars at the city, killing 10 people.<\/p>\n<p>In December, an unclaimed bombing killed at least seven people in a city mosque.<\/p>\n<p>But in the countryside surrounding Maiduguri, violence has continued.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <strong>Reported Kaizer Chiefs target Nwabali leaves Chippa United<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last week, the army confirmed \u201ccoordinated attacks\u201d on several military bases in the northeast, which killed at least 14 people, including 10 soldiers, according to local civilian and military sources.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the United States began deploying troops to Nigeria to provide technical and training support to the country\u2019s soldiers in fighting jihadist groups.<\/p>\n<p>The US Africa Command said 200 troops were expected to join the deployment overall.<\/p>\n<p>The deployment came after US President Donald Trump said the violence amounted to the \u201cpersecution\u201d of Christians \u2014 a framing long used by the US religious and political right wing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> <strong>Gunmen kill at least 67 in new Nigeria attack<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s government and many independent experts say Christians and Muslims alike are the victims of the country\u2019s violence.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Nigeria #repels #attack #years #northern #city #Maiduguri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jihadist fighters attempt to storm a military base near Maiduguri but security forces repel them after midnight gunfire. Suspected jihadists&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52904,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52902\/revisions\/52904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}