Boko Haram fighters linked to the Islamic State on Friday killed 15 security personnel in an ambush on the convoy of the Borno State governor, Babagana Umara Zulum.
Three security said, eight policemen, three soldiers and four members of a government-backed militia were killed in the attack on vehicles carrying Zulum near the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad.
The insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades as the convoy was passing through a village close to the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a military coalition of troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
“The governor escaped unhurt but 15 security men on the convoy were killed in fierce battle with the terrorists”, one source said.
Zulum was on an assessment tour of Baga in preparation for the return of thousands of residents displaced from the town by the jihadists in 2014, said the sources.
In July Zulum’s convoy came under gun attack from ISWAP outside Baga, forcing him to cancel his trip to the town.