Joint task force kills ‘two ISWAP leaders’ in Borno

The multinational joint task force (MNJTF) says its troops have killed two prominent leaders of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), identified as Bako Gorgore and Aba Ibrahim, in Abadam LGA, Borno state.

Abadam is one of the LGAs in Borno state, located on the western coast of the Lake Chad region.

The MNJTF operates in the Lake Chad basin of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.

According to Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency expert in Lake Chad, the ISWAP leaders were killed in a week-long ground and aerial bombardments by the air task force of MNJTF.

In May 2021, Both Aba-Ibrahim and Bako Gorgore led a major onslaught against the faction of Boko Haram known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād (JAS).

The onslaught led to the killing of Abubakar Shekau, while 17 of Skekau’s commanders were forced to surrender and paid allegiance to the ISWAP faction.

Aba Ibrahim became the leader of ISWAP after he took over the mantle of leadership from Abu-Dawud, while Gorgore was a member of the Shura council of ISWAP.

Following the death of Aba-Ibrahim, he was replaced by Sani Shuwaram, a 45-year-old who became the fifth officially recognised ISWAP figure in the West African ISIS command structure.