Nigeria: Army Chief, Ten Others Killed In Plane Crash
The incident occurred as the plane was landing at Kaduna airport ‘due to inclement weather’, the army says.
Tish 
The Nigeria’s top-ranking army commander Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru and other military officers have all been killed when their plane crashed in the country’s north, according to officials. The incident on the Friday occurred due to inclement weather as the airplane was landing at the Kaduna International Airport, the armed
forces said in a statement and then also adding that the crash claimed the lives of 10 other officers including the crew and there was no immediate information provided about what may have also caused the plane crash, but Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima said more details would also be released soon. The names of all the other
military officials who died were not made public. Chief of Army Staff Attahiru was only appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in January as part of a shake-up of the top military command and then to also better fight surging violence, including the more than decade-long battle against the Boko Haram armed group. Buhari, a
former general first elected in the 2015, has been under increasing pressure from allies and critics alike over his government’s handling of mounting security problems in the country. In a statement, the president stated the crash was one mortal blow to our underbelly, at a time that our armed forces are poised to end all the security
challenges facing the country. United states diplomatic mission to Nigeria called Attahiru’s death a tremendous loss to Nigeria on Twitter, adding: We join Nigerians in in mourning the tragic loss of lives from today’s airplane crash. Nigeria’s military has been battling Boko Haram in the northeast since 2009, in a conflict that has killed
more than forty thousand and displaced some 2 million. Attahiru also died as reports emerged that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been seriously wounded or possibly killed after clashes with a rival faction. The army chief had once been in charge of leading the front-line offensive against Shekau’s fighters in the northeast
in the 2017. Local intelligence sources said Shekau had been seriously wounded this week when the ISIL-linked Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked his stronghold in the Sambisa forest in the northeastern state of Borno. The sources said Shekau was wounded when he shot himself to try to evade capture. The Boko
Haram leader has been reported killed several times on since the conflict began, only to reappear later. Nigeria’s army has said it was still investigating the reports and neither the ISWAP nor the Boko Haram had issued any statements also about the Sambisa attack or Shekau’s whereabouts.
