At least 17 police trainees were killed after suspected Islamist militants launched an assault on a military training facility in northeastern Nigeria’s Yobe state, authorities said, marking another deadly attack in the country’s long-running insurgency.
The attack targeted the Nigerian Army Special Forces School in Buni Yadi on Friday, according to police spokesperson Anthony Okon Placid, who said the facility was hosting police officers undergoing specialised operational training at the time.
“The officers, who were undergoing specialised operational training at the institution, lost their lives when the militants launched a coordinated attack on the facility from multiple directions,” Placid said in a statement issued late Saturday.
The attack killed at least 17 police officers. Authorities also confirmed military casualties, though no official figure was immediately released.
The Nigerian military had not commented publicly on the incident at the time of reporting.
The assault underscores the continuing threat posed by militant groups operating in northeastern Nigeria, where the insurgency launched by Boko Haram in 2009 has evolved into a wider conflict involving splinter factions and regional extremist networks.
Boko Haram later fractured, giving rise to the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which has intensified attacks on security forces and military installations across the Lake Chad region.
The attack came as Nigerian and U.S. forces announced a major counterterrorism success elsewhere in the northeast. Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Donald Trump confirmed that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, described as ISWAP’s second-in-command globally, was killed during a joint operation in the Lake Chad Basin earlier on Saturday.
Nigeria has established specialised military institutions, including the Buni Yadi training school, to strengthen counterinsurgency capabilities as security forces continue to battle insurgent groups across the northeast.