CRIME

ISWAP Camp In Bloodbath,Disarray Over Leadership Tussle In Lake Chad Region

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>ISWAP Camp is in disarray&period; David Otto&comma; a writer&comma; in this piece made available to NAOSRE&comma; gives clinical details on how ISWAP terrorists&&num;8217&semi; camp has been thrown into confusion and bloodbath over &OpenCurlyQuote;governorship’ tussles<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that ISWAP terrorists&&num;8217&semi; camp is in disarray<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A deadly mutiny broke out at <strong>ISWA<&sol;strong>P terrorists&&num;8217&semi; self-proclaimed Headquarters&comma; located at Koyowa&comma; a remote camp in the fringes of the Lake Chad Basin&comma; West and Central Africa region&comma; with routes stretching towards the Sahel via the Niger Republic&period; Impeccable sources confirmed that the ISWAP jihadist clash occurred on Sunday&comma; December 13th 2020&comma; less than 24 hours after reports emerged of the appointment of a new ISWAP terrorists&&num;8217&semi; Governor of the Lake Chad region&comma; Amir Aliyu Chakkar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to reports&comma; more than 50 jihadists have died and several others seriously injured&semi; from both loyalists and opposing units of the new Governor in a bloody shoot-out that lasted over half an hour&period; The chaotic but deadly gunfight began in the presence of ISWAP supreme leader&comma; Amir Ba-Lawan&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; reports indicated he had to be whisked out of the fighting location by his bodyguards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The newly appointed Governor of the Lake Chad Basin region&comma; Amir Aliyu Chakkar&comma; also narrowly escaped assassination&period; However&comma; he was saved by his loyalist commanders&comma; including <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Mohammed Maluma<&sol;a>&comma; Ali Hussaini and Ali Musak&comma; all high-ranking ISWAP field Commanders staunchly loyal to him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>The Immediate Trigger<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sources say the bloodbath was triggered by bitter disapproval of the process and selection criteria employed in the appointment of Amir Aliyu Chakkar by the Shura&period; Some ISWAP commanders were not happy with the little-known Amir Aliyu Chakkar to lead what has been described as the most powerful command and control position&period; They envisage that by implications&comma; he would control ISWAP operations in the entire fringes and countries of the Lake Chad Basin States&semi; Cameroon&comma; Nigeria&comma; Niger&comma; and the Chad Republic also expand into the Sahel region via the Niger Republic&period; The opposing unit commanders fiercely argued that the appointment of Amir Aliyu Chakkar by the Shura Council was not based on merit&comma; with some commanders pointing fingers on tribal affiliations&comma; friendship and outright collusion pattern within the ISWAP leadership style&period; The bitter rejection of Aliyu Chakkar as the new Governor by commanders of opposing units turned into a bitter brawl and an ensuing gunfight&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Background to the Crisis<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It will be recalled that the ISWAP Shura council had recently appointed Aliyu Chakkar as its new Governor of the Lake Chad region&period; The newly appointed &&num;8220&semi;Governor&&num;8221&semi; in his determined effort to consolidate his position&comma; he went to Koyowa&period; He was spotted en route to see their supreme leader&comma; Amir Ba-Lawan&comma; the ISWAP leader at Koyowa&comma; along with three of his trusted lieutenants&semi; Mohammed Maluma&comma; Ali Hussaini Ali Musak&comma; all high-ranking ISWAP field Commanders&period; Very reliable sources stated that while at Koyowa&comma; the ISWAP Headquarters&comma; Ba-Lawan handed over the Lake Chad region&&num;8217&semi;s mantle of leadership to the new &&num;8220&semi;Governor&period;&&num;8221&semi; On receiving his official appointment&comma; Chakkar has sworn to consolidate on the command and control successes recorded by late Goni Maina&period; He promised to sustain previous plans of launching indiscriminate attacks in the coming months&semi; presumably December 2020 and January&sol;February of 2021 on unconfirmed military and civilian targets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chakkar and his group of loyalists fighters returned to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Sabon Tumbu and Jubularam<&sol;a> for a familiarisation tour&period; He is reported to have proceeded to his newly established command and control base at a location named as Doron Buhari&period; It is situated around the north of Kirta and east of Bakkassi town&comma; where he was received by some other key ISWAP leaders including Malam Abubakar Dan Buduma&comma; Amir Bin Umar&comma; and Commander Hakilu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The announcement of his leadership tour at Doron Buhari&&num;8217&semi; command and control&&num;8217&semi; hideout camp&comma; led to bitter disapproval and petition by some key ISWAP commanders forcing ISWAP leader &&num;8211&semi; Ba Lawan to summon Aliyu Chakkar back to Koyowa for clarification&period; While there&comma; fighting broke out as opposing ISWAP commanders refused to pay respect to the new warlord&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some commanders loyal to Ba-Lawan&comma; the newly appointed &&num;8220&semi;Governor&&num;8221&semi; and Abu Musab Al-Barnawi&comma; one of the surviving sons of Boko Haram terrorists group&&num;8217&semi;s founder Muhammed Yusuf&comma; blamed the incident on commanders who still retain connections and loyalty to the disabled veteran JAS leader&comma; Abubakar Shekau&comma; the &&num;8216&semi;mother group&&num;8217&semi; of ISWAP&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It will be recalled that Amir Aliyu Chakkar replaced Amir Goni Maina after the ISWAP then &&num;8220&semi;Governor&&num;8221&semi; was eliminated in a Nigerian Army and Nigerian Air Force coordinated military bombardment&period; Goni Maina was killed alongside more than 100 jihadists in an intelligence led parallel operation while in the process of conducting a strategic leadership and operational meetings at Sabon Tumbu&comma; Ingilwa&comma; Tundun Wulgo&comma; Jubularam and Abbaganaram fringes of the Lake Chad on December 1st&comma; 2020&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Immediate Impact<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fierce leadership disagreements leading to bloody infighting amongst ISWAP jihadist-leads to confusion&comma; distrust&comma; temporary suspension of coordinated planning&comma; and a limited engagement in violent activities&period; Depending on the severity of the rupture and the influence of the shura council on unit commanders involved&comma; splinter units could emerge with enthusiasm and or desperation to launch soft and hard target attacks useful for structural setup&period; This could lead to kidnapping for ransom&comma; setting up of illegal road blogs&comma; cattle rustling and other locally viable organised crime activities in their areas of operation and control&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Advisory notes<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The appointment and leadership of Amir Aliyu Chakkar by the Shura council and the ensuing bloody infighting will undoubtedly trigger a wave of planned and directed attacks against soft civilian and hard military targets&period; This is to consolidate his controversial appointment amongst the leadership at least&period; Deliberate attacks could target military positions&comma; routes and vulnerable towns around the Timbuktu triangle and the Lake Chad basin states&period; New alliances are likely to be forged with external jihadists units in the Sahel via links with Niger Republic units&period; From a counter-insurgency perspective&comma; there is no better time for the Nigerian security services and regional lake chad basin states to pounce on ISWAP leadership headquarters than now&period; The group was experiencing low morale&comma; confusion and operational disarray and were busy burying their dead and licking big self-inflicted wounds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you see something- say something immediately&period; This is the people&&num;8217&semi;s war &&num;8211&semi; the security services can only win if the people are willing and protected to play an active role in timely information sharing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Share This
Openlife Reporter

Recent Posts

Emirates Marks Significant Milestone, Becomes First Airline Cargo Carrier To Deploy The Boeing 777-300ERSF

Emirates Marks Significant Milestone OpenLife Nigeria reports that Emirates is marking a significant milestone in…

12 hours ago

Bandits Allegedly Scam Governor Makinde Of Oyo State Over Kidnapped School Children {Video}

Bandits Allegedly Scam Governor Makinde Of Oyo State Over Kidnapped School Children {Video}   OpenLife…

19 hours ago

Jayeola Olalekan Azeez Interviews Randy Peter Akah On His NDC Political Ambition, Vision For A Better Nigeria

Jayeola Olalekan Azeez Interviews Randy Peter Akah On His NDC Political Ambition   OpenLife Nigeria…

1 day ago

Alleged N400 Million Appointment Bribe In Abuja: Falana To Defend Adeyemi

Alleged N400 Million Appointment Bribe In Abuja: Falana To Defend Adeyemi   OpenLife Nigeria reports…

2 days ago

Consumer Exploitation: Fuel marketers Dares Government Over High Prices, Threaten To shut Down Filling Stations

Consumer Exploitation: Fuel marketers Dares Government Over High Prices     OpenLife Nigeria reports that…

3 days ago

Why We Paid Over $2 Billion To The Nigerian Government In 2025…Ronald Adams, Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration And Production

Why We Paid Over $2 Billion To The Nigerian Government In 2025…Ronald Adams, Managing Director,…

3 days ago

This website uses cookies.