In a decisive response to recent drone attacks on military installations, Nigeria’s armed forces have reportedly eliminated more than 50 Boko Haram militants. The operation, which took place on Thursday, targeted insurgents who had launched simultaneous assaults on military bases in Borno and Yobe states. According to Army spokesperson Sani Uba, the militants initiated their attacks from northern Cameroon and Katarko, a village in Yobe State. The Nigerian military employed a combination of ground and aerial tactics to neutralize the threat, with ground troops and the Air Component continuing to pursue over 70 wounded militants in a coordinated effort. This counteroffensive follows a brutal nighttime attack by Boko Haram last month in Darul Jamal, a northeastern Nigerian village, which claimed at least 60 lives. Boko Haram, a jihadist group that emerged in 2009, seeks to impose its radical interpretation of Islamic law and opposes Western education. The decade-long insurgency has not only devastated Nigeria but also spilled into neighboring countries like Niger, resulting in approximately 35,000 civilian deaths and displacing over 2 million people, according to the United Nations. The group has since fractured into two factions following the death of its longtime leader, Abubakar Shekau, in 2021. One faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province, aligned with the Islamic State group, has intensified its attacks on military positions. In a related development, the U.S. has approved a potential $346 million arms sale to bolster security in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.