Terrorists in northeast Nigeria killed a Brigadier General in an assault on a military base, a local government chairman told AFP on Thursday, the second killing of a high-ranking officer in five months.

Africa’s most populous country has been fighting a terrorist insurgency for 17 years, since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising, which has seen the emergence of powerful splinter groups, including Islamic State West Africa Province.

In an overnight attack, unidentified terrorists killed at least 18 soldiers and torched vehicles at a base in Benisheikh, about 75 kilometres from Borno State capital Maiduguri, an intelligence source told AFP.

“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 intelligence sources confirmed Braimah’s death to AFP.

His death follows the killing of Brigadier General Musa Uba 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 said, giving the death toll as “at least” 18.