In a failed attempt to keep his enclave safe from repressive Nigerian troops, Awana Gaidam, chief bombmaker for Boko Haram insurgent group planted some Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) around his camp but he became a victim of his devilish plan.
According to Zagazola Makama, a Counter-Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in Lake Chad region, the 39-year-old Gaidam was said to be responsible for plotting many IEDs attacks on troops of Operation Hadin Kai during fighting patrols, along major highways between Maiduguri to Damboa, Bama to Pulka and Bita as well as Banki to Darajamal’s general area.
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Zagazola said intelligence told him that the bombmaker’s vehicle got trapped by the IEDs he planted along Njumia and Arra in the Sambisa forest, on March 27. Unfortunately for him, he was blown off and torn apart by the explosives. He said the sources narrated that Gaidam had planted bombs in strategic positions to fortify his camp within the Sambisa forest.
Since 2022, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) had carried out more than 90 indiscriminate attacks in the North East using Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), Zagozola stated, adding the insurgents resorted to the use of IEDs as a result of the increased and sustained pressure by the joint efforts of the Nigerian Army, Air Task Force, Operation Hadin Kai with support of the combined troops of the Multination Joint Task Force (MNJTF), Niger, Cameroon and Chad in the LakeChad sub-region.
