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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Militants killed at least 63 people in northeastern Nigeria while storming a town whose residents had been returned from a displacement camp, the state governor said.
The Friday night assault struck the town of Darul Jamal, which hosts a military base on the Nigeria-Cameroon border in a zone ravaged by militant attacks.
Babagana Zulum, governor of the embattled Borno state, said that five soldiers were among the dead, a figure confirmed to AFP by a security source.
The latest attack raises questions about Nigeria’s push in recent years to close down camps for internally displaced persons and return their inhabitants to the countryside.
“It’s very sad, this community was resettled some months ago and they went about their normal business,” Zulum told journalists at the scene of the attack.
“As of now, we confirm that 63 have lost their lives, both the civilians and the army.”
While militant violence has waned since the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency, from 2013-2015, militants including rival Daesh West African Province (DWAP) continue to launch attacks across rural areas in the northeast.
“The numerical strength of the Nigerian army is not enough to contain the situation,” Zulum said, adding that a newly established force called the Forest Guards was set to augment security personnel in the region.
Residents said the attack began around 8:30 p.m. (1930 GMT), when dozens of fighters arrived on motorbikes, firing assault rifles and torching homes.
“They came shouting, shooting everyone in sight,” Malam Bukar, who fled into the countryside with his wife and three children, told AFP. “When we returned at dawn, bodies were everywhere.”

- Air force says it killed ‘terrorists’ -

Earlier, civilian militia commander Babagana Ibrahim said at least 55 people were killed, while an NGO worker, who asked not to be named, gave AFP a toll of 64.
Neither the army nor the air force responded to an AFP request for comment.
However, in a statement picked up by local media, the air force said it killed 30 “terrorists” who had engaged in a gun fight with ground troops in the town, also known as Dar-El-Jamal.
Many of the victims were families recently relocated from the Government Secondary School displacement camp in Bama, which authorities shut down earlier this year.
“The government told us we would be safe here,” said Hajja Fati, a mother of five who lost her brother in the attack. “Now we are burying our people again.”
The area is known to be under the control of a Boko Haram commander, Ali Ngulde. A security source told AFP he led the attack.

- Militant resurgence -

Boko Haram has been waging a bloody insurgency to establish an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria since 2009, leaving around 40,000 people dead and forcing more than two million people to flee their homes.
Rival DWAP split from the group in 2016.
According to a tally by Good Governance Africa (GGA), a non-profit group, the first six months of 2025 saw a resurgence in militant activity.
There were some 300 militant attacks that killed some 500 civilians, mostly by DWAP, which has gained ground in recent years over the more fractured remnants of Boko Haram.
DWAP overran at least 17 Nigerian military bases in that period, aided by an increased use of drones, night-time attacks and foreign fighters, according to GGA.
The resurgence in militant violence comes as neighboring Niger has pulled back from a key multinational task force and the Nigerian military has become stretched by a separate banditry crisis in the northwest.
A biting economic situation under Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has reinforced the grievances that many armed groups feed off in rural areas, some analysts say.

LONDON: Police on Saturday arrested some of the hundreds of protesters who gathered outside Parliament in London on Saturday to defy a ban on the group Palestine Action, which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the government.

Defend Our Juries, the campaign group organizing the protest, said 1,500 people were taking part, holding signs reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

Within minutes, police began arresting the demonstrators, as bystanders chanted “Shame on you” and “Met Police, pick a side, justice or genocide.” There were scuffles and angry exchanges as officers dragged away demonstrators who went limp as they were removed from the crowd.

“Expressing support for a proscribed organization is a criminal offense under the Terrorism Act,” the Metropolitan Police force said on social media. “Where our officers see offenses, we will make arrests.”

More than 700 people were arrested at earlier protests, and 138 have been charged under the Terrorism Act.

Mike Higgins, 62, who is blind and uses a wheelchair, was arrested last month but returned to demonstrate on Saturday.

“And I’m a terrorist? That’s the joke of it,” he said. “I’ve already been arrested under the Terrorism Act and I suspect I will be today.

“Of course I’ll keep coming back. What choice do I have?”

Direct action protests

The government proscribed Palestine Action in July after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and vandalized planes to protest against what they called Britain’s support for Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The activists sprayed red paint into the engines of two tanker planes and caused further damage with crowbars.

Proscription made it a crime to publicly support the organization. Membership of, or support for, the group is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Palestine Action has carried out direct action protests in the UK since it formed in 2020, including breaking into facilities owned by Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems UK, and has targeted other sites in Britain that participants believe have links with the Israeli military.

The group has targeted defense companies and national infrastructure, and officials say their actions have caused millions of pounds in damage that affect national security.

Banning the group, then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said, “The assessments are very clear, this is not a nonviolent organization.”

Palestine Action has won approval from the High Court to challenge the ban, a ruling the government is seeking to overturn. The case is ongoing, with a hearing scheduled for Sept. 25.

Supporters say the ban stifles free speech

The UN human rights chief has criticized the British government’s stance, saying the new law “misuses the gravity and impact of terrorism.”

The decision to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist group “raises serious concerns that counterterrorism laws are being applied to conduct that is not terrorist in nature, and risks hindering the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms across the UK,” Volker Türk warned.

He added that according to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to crimes such as those intended to cause death or serious injury or the taking of hostages.

Huda Ammori, Palestine Action’s co-founder, has condemned the government’s decision to ban it as “catastrophic” for civil liberties, leading to a “much wider chilling effect on freedom of speech.”

The group has been supported by prominent cultural figures including bestselling Irish author Sally Rooney, who said she planned to use the proceeds of her work “to keep backing Palestine Action and direct action against genocide.”

Israel — founded in part as a refuge in the wake of the Holocaust, when some 6 million European Jews were murdered — vehemently denies it is committing genocide.

Britain’s government stressed that proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist group does not affect other lawful groups — including pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel voices — campaigning or peacefully protesting.