At least 20,000 people have fled the town of Marte in northeastern Nigeria following a surge in attacks by Islamist militants, according to Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum.
Marte, near the border with Cameroon, had been resettled four years ago after years under insurgent control, but was recently overrun again by suspected Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters.
Zulum visited Marte after militants briefly seized a local army base last week, killing at least five soldiers. He also toured nearby Rann, where another base was attacked, and plans to visit Kalawa Balge, where 23 farmers were reportedly killed.
The region has seen a rise in militant activity in 2025, raising fears that extremist groups are regaining ground. Over the past 16 years, the insurgency has displaced more than two million people and killed thousands.
Zulum warned that relocating displaced residents to camps, like the one in Dikwa, could expose young people to recruitment by militants. Residents of Marte fear more violence could force them from their homes once again.
The governor of the state of Borno, in the north-east of Nigeria, visited the refugee camp of Muna on Monday and announced its closure in the next few weeks.
Muna was the biggest camp for displaced people in the region, with more than 10,000 families listed in early 2024.
Over the past 15 years, official refugee camps welcomed more than 80% of the 2 million people displaced by the conflict between the Nigerian army and jihadist group Boko Haram.
Authorities give refugees between €20 and €50 for them to return to their hometowns, or to relocate to so-called safe zones.
But human rights groups say the government has provided insufficient support to help families live with dignity.
“The Borno State government is harming hundreds of thousands of displaced people already living in precarious conditions to advance a dubious government development agenda to wean people off humanitarian aid”, said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch in a 2022 press release.
“By forcing people from camps without creating viable alternatives for support, the government is worsening their suffering and deepening their vulnerability.”
Improvised explosive devices detonated on a road in northeastern Nigeria killing at least 26 people in several vehicles, including women and children, police said Tuesday. An Islamic State group affiliate in the West African country claimed responsibility for the Monday attack.
The blasts happened on a busy road connecting the towns of Rann and Gamboru in Borno state, near the border with Cameroon, Nigerian police spokesperson Nahum Daso told The Associated Press. Multiple explosives planted along the route ripped into several civilian commercial vehicles coming from Rann, killing at least 26 people, he said.
Most of those killed were local farmers and traders crowded in a Toyota pick up van that drove over a land mine, Daso said. He said the mine was buried by suspected militants from the Islamic State affiliate known as IS West Africa Province. Besides the dead, at least three people were injured and were taken to nearby medical facilities for treatment. Security forces have since secured the area and begun clearance operations.
Abba Modu, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a vigilante group that supports the military in the fight against Islamic militants, said the explosives may have been intended for security operatives who regularly patrol the highway. “Terrorists often plant IEDs in craters or under sand on severely damaged sections of roads, typically targeting soldiers,” Modu said.
The Islamic State West Africa Province, also known as ISWAP, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday. The IS-linked group is an offshoot of Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis who took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. In 2016, ISWAP broke away from Boko Haram following a dispute over leadership and the strategy of attacking civilian targets such as mosques and marketplaces. The conflict between Nigeria and Islamic extremists is Africa’s longest struggle with militancy.
It has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbours Chad, Niger and Cameroon, and has left some 35,000 civilians dead and more than 2 million displaced, according to the U.N. Nigeria’s northeastern region has been particularly hard hit by Islamic militant violence. Earlier this month, a roadside bomb suspected to have been planted by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria struck a passenger bus and killed eight people. On Tuesday, the Nigerian military appointed a new commander, Maj. Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, in the fight against Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province insurgencies in the northeast, the spokesperson for the operation said in a statement.
BORNO-(MaraviPost)-Months after President Muhammadu Buhari took charge of affairs of the nation in 2015, the Nigerian Army leads as well as the Commander in Chief, declared that Boko Haram, the terrorist group that has plagued the North East of the country since 2009, has been technically defeated.
However, observers on ground are of a different opinion, they stated that not only is Boko Haram still waxing strong in the region, reports claim that the terror group has even evolved an economic and tax system in some remote communities in the troubled region.
Prominent Peacemaker and Human Rights activist, Hamsatu Al’amin is one of those not in-sync with the Federal Government’s claims, to her, the success claimed by the Buhari administration is an alien concept to the long-suffering masses of the North East and Borno State in particular.
“Some people will just sit down in Abuja in their comfort zone and tell us that the war has been won, they are entitled to their own opinion, however, people like me who see what is happening every day, who hear from people that are directly affected, victory over Boko Haram is far from achieved,” Al’amin said.
Al’amin whose work in trying to negotiate peace between the Nigerian authorities and Boko Haram is well renowned further revealed that the group, though split into several factions, has more or less spread its net into every facet of society, she claimed that citizens living in remote communities in Borno State have devised means of living with the insurgent group.
The communities most vulnerable to Boko Haram attacks mostly have little or no government presence, therefore they submit themselves to the powers of the terror group, they pay taxes to the group, in turn, Boko Haram let them be.
“Two years ago, while on research I visited a remote community, in that area, there was no government presence, no police, no schools no soldiers nothing, but the people who are mainly women and young boys stated that they are comfortable with life there.
“Asked if the Boko Haram militants don’t disturb them, they said they do but when they come they ask for food or money and they will give the villagers time to organise what they asked for, after which the militants will come and take it,” Al’amin said.
“Also, they inform us that when their animals were stolen, they have to report it to the Boko Haram, the Boko Haram went after those who stole the animals, retrieved it and brought it back to them.
Then I asked what the villagers give them back in return, they said they pay them taxes,” She added.
The Buhari administration further claimed that the terror group currently don’t control a single inch of land in Nigeria, however, in what seems like a shocking revelation, Al’amin revealed that not only is a faction of the terror organisation holding a sizable portion of land around the Lake Chad region, economic activities are booming in an area she stated Boko Haram refers to as Daula, meaning Empire in Arabic.
“This faction moved from the Sambisa Forest to the Lake Chad region, they created their own community within the Lake Chad area, they occupy the area and called it Daula, Daula mean empire in Arabic.
“Also, women in the IDP camps actually moved willingly to the Daula to do business, they say as long as they pay taxes they can fish and smoke their fish, and sell it in Cameroon, Nigeria and other countries.
“They stated that in the Daula economic activities is going on, food is cheap and they are free to do what they have to to survive, this is much better than life in the IDP camp,” Al’amin revealed.
The renowned educator and award-winning Human Rights activist further stated that the government should look into the plight of those living in the IDP camps stressing that conditions in those places are not suitable for human habitation.
She called on the Federal Government to move fast and end the conflict in the region so that the long-suffering people of the North East can finally sleep with both eyes closed.
