At least ten people have been killed in a string of suspected Boko Haram assaults in northeastern Nigeria, security volunteers and police confirmed on Friday.
The dead include nine members of the state-backed Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and a farmer who was reportedly murdered on the outskirts of Warabe village in Gwoza Local Government Area, near the Cameroon border.
According to a senior CJTF commander, the vigilantes were ambushed on Thursday while responding to the farmer’s killing.
“I personally counted seven CJTF members and one farmer,” he said. “This morning, during a search of the bush, we found two more bodies.”
A police officer in Gwoza also confirmed the death toll at ten.
The ambush comes just a week after Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters killed a brigadier general in the region — the highest-ranking military officer to die in the conflict since 2021.
Another CJTF operative, Musa Iliya, blamed Boko Haram for the attack and noted that “eight others are missing.”
Warabe, situated near the Mandara Mountains, lies in a corridor long dominated by Boko Haram and ISWAP militants who move freely across the Nigeria–Cameroon border.
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, in Washington on Thursday. Hegseth urged Nigeria to take “urgent and enduring action” to stem rising violence against Christians, according to the Pentagon.
The meeting followed remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump, who warned that Christianity faces “an existential threat” in Nigeria and cautioned that the United States could act swiftly if the killings persist.
Nigeria, home to more than 230 million people, remains sharply divided between its predominantly Christian south and Muslim-majority north. The country continues to battle multiple security crises, from jihadist insurgencies to recurring farmer–herder clashes driven by land pressure, population growth and climate change.
