Nine soldiers, 56 insurgents killed in failed Maiduguri invasion

The attack on the town began at about 12.30am and could not be totally suppressed until about 11am.

It was gathered that hundreds of heavily armed insurgents tried to gain entrance into the town through Jinikin-Moronti, on the road linking Maiduguri to Damaturu along the Jos-Kano highway and close to two major housing estates, 1000 and 707.

The suspected terrorists were confronted by the soldiers and other security operatives of the 33 Battalion Barrack at the entrance to the town.

The battle initially raged from 12.30am to about 3.30am, when the attack was thought to have subsided.

Other security operatives and members of the youth vigilance group joined in the exercise as the insurgents were successfully repelled.

Just when everyone thought the insurgents had retreated, the militants came back with renewed vigour, throwing the residents of the state capital into panic.

As the confusion deepened, the residents could not venture out of their houses, let alone going to church for the Sunday worship service.

The second phase of the gunfight between the soldiers and members of the terror group, which started around 5.40am, was successfully repelled at 11am.

Heavy shelling ricocheted all around the town as the military had to deployed both ground and aerial battle to suppress the determined insurgents.

At the end of the siege, nine soldiers were believed to have been felled as the insurgents were reduced by 56 men.

They were said to have equally lost in equipment, three armoured tanks and two Hilux jeeps to the attack.

Some members of the youth vigilance group, who were involved in repelling the attack, revealed that nine soldiers, who were killed in the attack, were conveyed by a military patrol van from the scene of the attack to the Garrison Command along the Pompomari area near the Military Anti-Bomb Squad around 12.30pm.

Air Force surveillance jet continued to hover over the town as some pockets of insurgents, who were believed to be in the town, were still been trailed.

A member of the youth vigilance group, Modu Baana, who spoke to journalists, said, “It was around 2am when we were alerted of the deadly move by the terrorists to enter Maiduguri through the Jimtilo outskirts. We learnt that over 100 heavily armed men with armoured tanks and Hilux jeeps were about coming into the town.”

Baana added that the fighter jets helped the ground troops as the combined operation scattered the insurgents, forcing some to flee into the neighbourhood having been overwhelmed.