ABUJA: Extremists militants have killed hundreds of soldiers in attacks in northeastern Nigeria in recent weeks, security and military sources say, forcing a turnaround in the course of an insurgency which the government has frequently claimed to have vanquished.
The fatigued, ill-equipped government troops have reached breaking point, they said.
The setback in the war against Daesh in West Africa (ISWA) and the Boko Haram insurgency from which it split in 2016 comes as President Muhammadu Buhari seeks a second term in elections next February.
Buhari came to power in 2015 on a promise to defeat Boko Haram, and security has once again emerged as a main campaign issue.
In the past three weeks, according to military and security sources, ISWA killed 48 soldiers at a military base and, in a separate attack, left 32 dead in Gudumbali — a town to which thousands of refugees were ordered to return in June.
“The situation in the northeast is deteriorating,” said one security source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They are running out of weapons, ammo and basic equipment. They are exhausted.”
Now, ISWA is winning almost all its battles with the military, security sources said.
That marks a contrast with the situation in early 2015 when the Nigerian army, backed by troops from neighboring countries, pushed Boko Haram off a swathe of land that the insurgents controlled.
Before the insurgency, Nigeria’s northeast, sitting in the arid Sahel that skirts the Sahara’s southern border, had for centuries been a hub of cross-continental trade through the desert and one of the country’s agricultural breadbaskets.
ISWA’s influence extends from the Lake Chad region, including in Niger and Chad itself, and stretches about 100 miles into the Nigerian states of Borno and Yobe, where government has in many areas all but vanished after a decade of conflict. It was not immediately clear how control of that territory has changed in recent months.
Military denies
A military spokesman denied the army was losing most of its clashes with ISWA.
“It’s not true,” said Brig. Gen. John Agim, adding that no soldiers had died at Gudumbali.
Agim declined to show battle reports or comment on the rest of the situation, other than saying the military did not have enough equipment.
In one of the army’s biggest defeats since Buhari came to power, an ISWA attack on a base in July killed at least 100 soldiers, according to people familiar with the matter. Many of the dead were interred in a mass burial, two sources said.
Other gruelling battles have been fought — at least 45 soldiers killed in Gajiram in June, scores dead and missing after a convoy ambush in Boboshe in July, and 17 killed in Garunda in August. These are just some of the recent attacks, according to military and security personnel, that are taking a heavy toll on the military.
With each victory, ISWA gets stronger, collecting weapons, ammunition and vehicles abandoned by fleeing troops. Its tactics have also improved, using trucks mounted with heavy guns to pin down ill-equipped troops, as well as suicide-bombing vehicles.
“Sitting ducks“
“The military are a bit like sitting ducks, waiting for a very mobile and versatile enemy to strike at a weak point or another,” said Vincent Foucher, who studies Boko Haram at the French National Center for Science Research.
The military has kept details of its most recent challenges and defeats close, rarely acknowledging them or any loss of life, say security sources who have sought briefings.
Buhari’s administration and the military continue to issue statements about victories against an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate that dates back to 2009. Normality is returning to the northeast, it says.
“The country has been stable for the past three years,” Defense Minister Mansur Dan Ali told Reuters last month.
However, the minister, discussing the Jilli attack, acknowledged that a strong and well-equipped insurgent force was capable of wiping out as many as 200 soldiers.
“A crisis morale“
Soldiers have become terrified of the insurgents, afraid to leave their bases, said a security source and a diplomat. While hundreds have died recently, hundreds more have deserted.
One retired general, speaking on condition of anonymity, described “a crisis of morale,” linking the frequent allegations of human rights abuses — rape, torture, shake-downs and extra-judicial killing — to broken spirits.
The Nigerian military denies such accusations, though it set up a panel last year to probe allegations. Its findings have not been made public.
Last month, Nigerian special forces mutinied at an airport, refusing to be deployed after learning that after years in the northeast they were being rotated to another, more dangerous part of the region.
“Many of our troops have been in the theater for over two years,” said one captain. “They don’t know how their families, their wives and children, are.”
Some soldiers said though they do get a few days of leave, it is often barely enough time to go from the field to their families before they must return.
Others said their wages and rations are often embezzled by their commanders, there is too little equipment, and many vehicles are broken and gathering rust. One said his men had to buy blankets from refugees for 300 naira ($1) each to keep warm.
The United States, Britain and France support the military, mostly through training and information-sharing, but it has struggled to secure arms supplies due to human rights concerns.
The United States and Nigeria this year finalized a $500-million deal for 12 Super Tucano fighter planes. British Prime Minizer Theresa May, on a visit to Nigeria last month, promised to increase military support in the war against the extremists.
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Nigerian military struggles against Daesh in West Africa
Nigerian military struggles against Daesh in West Africa
- The fatigued, ill-equipped government troops have reached breaking point
- Daesh killed 48 soldiers at a military base and, in a separate attack, left 32 dead in Gudumbali
A macabre dispute has kept the body of Zambia’s former president unburied for months
LUSAKA: More than eight months after his death, former Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s remains are still in a South African funeral home, the subject of a macabre fight between his family and the longtime rival who succeeded him.
A graphic symbol of the dispute: an unfilled, coffin-size hole in a cemetery in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, where the current president, Hakainde Hichilema, had hoped Lungu would be buried in a state funeral. But Lungu, in his last days, told his family members that Hichilema, even as a mourner, should never go near his body.
The matter has gone to the courts, which have repeatedly sided with Zambian authorities over Lungu’s wishes. Lungu’s family persists in seeking a burial that sidelines Hichilema.
So the body lies frozen in South Africa, where Lungu died, while Zambia endures a scandalous saga that offends traditional beliefs and raises many questions in a country where it is taboo to fail to bury the dead promptly and with dignity.
Behind the impasse is a long-running feud between two political rivals. It also reflects a spiritual contest between Hichilema, who is up for reelection in August, and Lungu, who is said to be fighting back from the dead, according to scholars and religious leaders who spoke to The Associated Press.
A spiritual battle
“It has shifted from the physical, it has shifted from politics, and it is now a spiritual battle,” said Bishop Anthony Kaluba of Life of Christ congregation in Lusaka.
Hichilema’s supporters see Lungu’s will as casting a curse, while they say a state funeral attended by Hichilema would be an act of generosity toward Lungu and his family.
The fight over a corpse can seem bizarre to others, but Lungu’s directive resonates with many Zambians.
Some have barred their enemies from attending their funerals, often blaming them for misfortune. Those quarrels are usually more private, not like the public drama of a former president who, facing death, retaliates against his rival in the harsh language of his ancestors.
Across Africa, last words are a “vital force” to enhance life or block it, said Chammah J. Kaunda, a Zambian professor of African Pentecostal theology who serves as academic dean of the Oxford Center for Mission Studies.
Elders facing death can impose curses or give blessings, and Lungu’s case shows that curses “can acquire a life of their own,” he said.
A vibrant democracy with traditional beliefs
Zambia is a vibrant democracy. Its founding president was the genial, handkerchief-waving Kenneth Kaunda, who was voted out of power in 1991, despite his status as an independence hero.
Like Kaunda, subsequent presidents have been civilians lacking the military strength of various authoritarians elsewhere in Africa, giving Zambia’s presidential hopefuls the opportunity to run on their own merits.
Even so, there’s a perception that some political leaders — like many of their compatriots — worry they might be bewitched. The feeling is widespread in a country where traditional religion thrives alongside Christianity, and a spoken curse is dreaded by many as spiritually enforceable if provoked by injustice.
“It is a weapon,” said Herbert Sinyangwe of WayLife Ministries in Lusaka. “We believe in our culture that curses work.”
In the case of three recent presidents — Michael Sata, Lungu and Hichilema — suspicion was rampant. The official presidential residence is now thought by many to be under a deadly spell because all the six former presidents are now dead. Hichilema works there but sleeps elsewhere.
Sata, who was president from 2011 to 2014, worried that Hichilema, then an opposition figure, was victimizing him even as he asserted that charms from his own region were stronger. Zambian authorities last year had two men convicted and jailed for allegedly plotting to kill the president by magic. Lungu’s family doesn’t trust Hichilema.
An empty tomb
The spot in Lusaka that would be Lungu’s tomb was quickly dug and built before it was known that Lungu’s family had objections, said cemetery caretaker Allen Banda. He warned that a tomb without a corpse was akin to digging “your own grave.”
“If nobody goes there, culturally it’s your body that’s going to go there,” he said.
That Hichilema is willing to risk public anger in opposing Lungu’s family has reinforced the views of those who see a spiritual battle between him and Lungu.
“On the one hand, nearly everything done by the Lungu family so far seems to have been designed to deny Hichilema access to Lungu’s body,” said Sishuwa Sishuwa, a Zambian historian who is a visiting scholar at Harvard. “On the other, Hichilema’s conduct so far suggests that he will do whatever it takes to secure access to Lungu’s corpse, perhaps because the president sees the issue as a matter of life and death.”
Lungu died June 5, 2025, after surgery-related complications. He was 68, and was treated for a narrowing of the esophagus.
A fight in court
To organize a state funeral, Zambian authorities would need to take custody of Lungu’s remains until they were interred. But Lungu’s family resisted Hichilema’s plans during negotiations over funeral proceedings.
They preferred to transport the corpse by private charter and had hoped to keep it at Lungu’s residence at night. They picked three people to look after it during the state funeral that never happened.
When Lungu’s family concluded that their wishes were not likely to be followed, they opted for a private funeral in South Africa. They were moving ahead with that ceremony when they found out that Zambian authorities had blocked it.
A South African court ruled in August that Zambian authorities could take Lungu’s body home for burial.
Bertha Lungu, the former president’s sister, was inconsolable in the courtroom after the ruling, wailing and cursing at Mulilo Kabesha, Zambia’s attorney general, who said it was time to take the corpse home. She asserted that Hichilema wanted the corpse for ritual purposes.
Hichilema denies malice toward Lungu, and has said his Christian faith forbids belief in traditional religion.
A bitter rivalry
Lungu rose to power after Sata’s death in 2014. Sata’s vice president, Guy Scott, was ineligible to seek the presidency in a 2015 vote and Lungu was picked to finish Sata’s term.
His main opponent was Hichilema, a wealthy businessman. It was a close race — Lungu won by under 28,000 votes.
After the 2016 election, won again by Lungu, Hichilema faced treason charges and was jailed for four months for allegedly failing to yield to the presidential motorcade.
Five years later, Lungu lost to Hichilema and said he would retire from politics. He changed his mind in 2023, and Zambian authorities withdrew Lungu’s retirement benefits.
Lungu faced more pressure after his wife and daughter were arrested in 2024 over fraud allegations tied to property acquisition.
When he fell sick, Lungu found it hard to leave Zambia. The government restricted his travels. He managed to slip away to South Africa early in 2025, buying a ticket at the airport counter. The incident was reported by the local press as a security lapse over which an airport manager was fired.
Lungu is “still influencing our politics from the grave,” said Emmanuel Mwamba, a Zambian diplomat who speaks for Lungu’s party. “His issues remain. How he was treated in life and how he was treated in death.”
A graphic symbol of the dispute: an unfilled, coffin-size hole in a cemetery in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, where the current president, Hakainde Hichilema, had hoped Lungu would be buried in a state funeral. But Lungu, in his last days, told his family members that Hichilema, even as a mourner, should never go near his body.
The matter has gone to the courts, which have repeatedly sided with Zambian authorities over Lungu’s wishes. Lungu’s family persists in seeking a burial that sidelines Hichilema.
So the body lies frozen in South Africa, where Lungu died, while Zambia endures a scandalous saga that offends traditional beliefs and raises many questions in a country where it is taboo to fail to bury the dead promptly and with dignity.
Behind the impasse is a long-running feud between two political rivals. It also reflects a spiritual contest between Hichilema, who is up for reelection in August, and Lungu, who is said to be fighting back from the dead, according to scholars and religious leaders who spoke to The Associated Press.
A spiritual battle
“It has shifted from the physical, it has shifted from politics, and it is now a spiritual battle,” said Bishop Anthony Kaluba of Life of Christ congregation in Lusaka.
Hichilema’s supporters see Lungu’s will as casting a curse, while they say a state funeral attended by Hichilema would be an act of generosity toward Lungu and his family.
The fight over a corpse can seem bizarre to others, but Lungu’s directive resonates with many Zambians.
Some have barred their enemies from attending their funerals, often blaming them for misfortune. Those quarrels are usually more private, not like the public drama of a former president who, facing death, retaliates against his rival in the harsh language of his ancestors.
Across Africa, last words are a “vital force” to enhance life or block it, said Chammah J. Kaunda, a Zambian professor of African Pentecostal theology who serves as academic dean of the Oxford Center for Mission Studies.
Elders facing death can impose curses or give blessings, and Lungu’s case shows that curses “can acquire a life of their own,” he said.
A vibrant democracy with traditional beliefs
Zambia is a vibrant democracy. Its founding president was the genial, handkerchief-waving Kenneth Kaunda, who was voted out of power in 1991, despite his status as an independence hero.
Like Kaunda, subsequent presidents have been civilians lacking the military strength of various authoritarians elsewhere in Africa, giving Zambia’s presidential hopefuls the opportunity to run on their own merits.
Even so, there’s a perception that some political leaders — like many of their compatriots — worry they might be bewitched. The feeling is widespread in a country where traditional religion thrives alongside Christianity, and a spoken curse is dreaded by many as spiritually enforceable if provoked by injustice.
“It is a weapon,” said Herbert Sinyangwe of WayLife Ministries in Lusaka. “We believe in our culture that curses work.”
In the case of three recent presidents — Michael Sata, Lungu and Hichilema — suspicion was rampant. The official presidential residence is now thought by many to be under a deadly spell because all the six former presidents are now dead. Hichilema works there but sleeps elsewhere.
Sata, who was president from 2011 to 2014, worried that Hichilema, then an opposition figure, was victimizing him even as he asserted that charms from his own region were stronger. Zambian authorities last year had two men convicted and jailed for allegedly plotting to kill the president by magic. Lungu’s family doesn’t trust Hichilema.
An empty tomb
The spot in Lusaka that would be Lungu’s tomb was quickly dug and built before it was known that Lungu’s family had objections, said cemetery caretaker Allen Banda. He warned that a tomb without a corpse was akin to digging “your own grave.”
“If nobody goes there, culturally it’s your body that’s going to go there,” he said.
That Hichilema is willing to risk public anger in opposing Lungu’s family has reinforced the views of those who see a spiritual battle between him and Lungu.
“On the one hand, nearly everything done by the Lungu family so far seems to have been designed to deny Hichilema access to Lungu’s body,” said Sishuwa Sishuwa, a Zambian historian who is a visiting scholar at Harvard. “On the other, Hichilema’s conduct so far suggests that he will do whatever it takes to secure access to Lungu’s corpse, perhaps because the president sees the issue as a matter of life and death.”
Lungu died June 5, 2025, after surgery-related complications. He was 68, and was treated for a narrowing of the esophagus.
A fight in court
To organize a state funeral, Zambian authorities would need to take custody of Lungu’s remains until they were interred. But Lungu’s family resisted Hichilema’s plans during negotiations over funeral proceedings.
They preferred to transport the corpse by private charter and had hoped to keep it at Lungu’s residence at night. They picked three people to look after it during the state funeral that never happened.
When Lungu’s family concluded that their wishes were not likely to be followed, they opted for a private funeral in South Africa. They were moving ahead with that ceremony when they found out that Zambian authorities had blocked it.
A South African court ruled in August that Zambian authorities could take Lungu’s body home for burial.
Bertha Lungu, the former president’s sister, was inconsolable in the courtroom after the ruling, wailing and cursing at Mulilo Kabesha, Zambia’s attorney general, who said it was time to take the corpse home. She asserted that Hichilema wanted the corpse for ritual purposes.
Hichilema denies malice toward Lungu, and has said his Christian faith forbids belief in traditional religion.
A bitter rivalry
Lungu rose to power after Sata’s death in 2014. Sata’s vice president, Guy Scott, was ineligible to seek the presidency in a 2015 vote and Lungu was picked to finish Sata’s term.
His main opponent was Hichilema, a wealthy businessman. It was a close race — Lungu won by under 28,000 votes.
After the 2016 election, won again by Lungu, Hichilema faced treason charges and was jailed for four months for allegedly failing to yield to the presidential motorcade.
Five years later, Lungu lost to Hichilema and said he would retire from politics. He changed his mind in 2023, and Zambian authorities withdrew Lungu’s retirement benefits.
Lungu faced more pressure after his wife and daughter were arrested in 2024 over fraud allegations tied to property acquisition.
When he fell sick, Lungu found it hard to leave Zambia. The government restricted his travels. He managed to slip away to South Africa early in 2025, buying a ticket at the airport counter. The incident was reported by the local press as a security lapse over which an airport manager was fired.
Lungu is “still influencing our politics from the grave,” said Emmanuel Mwamba, a Zambian diplomat who speaks for Lungu’s party. “His issues remain. How he was treated in life and how he was treated in death.”
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