The Islamic State West Africa Province
(ISWAP) has been forced to confirm the death of one of its most senior leaders, Abu Yahya Al-Muhajir, a member of its ruling Shura Council, an acknowledgment
that the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Michael Onoja,
described on Tuesday as a landmark testament to the irreversible impact of
military operations on the terror group's command structure.
Addressing journalists at a First Quarter
Press Briefing held at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, on 31 March 2026, Major
General Onoja said the confirmation by ISWAP itself of the senior leader's
death underscored the sustained effectiveness of kinetic operations by the
Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) in degrading the group's internal hierarchy.
“This confirmation by ISWAP of the death of their senior Shura
Council member attests to the irreversible impact of AFN's sustained kinetic
operations on the group's command structure.”
Al-Muhajir's elimination was achieved
through the unrelenting aerial and ground offensive campaign conducted by
troops of Operation HADIN KAI across Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba, and
Gombe States throughout the first quarter of 2026. The operations, bolstered by
aerial reconnaissance, air interdiction missions, and close air support,
targeted insurgent strongholds in remote and border terrains, denying
terrorists safe havens and dismantling their command networks with precision.
Military analysts have noted that the loss
of a Shura Council member represents not merely the elimination of a single
fighter but the decapitation of a key decision-making node within the
organisation. The Shura Council, functioning as ISWAP's governing body,
oversees strategic direction, operational planning, and resource allocation
across the group's theatre of operations in the Lake Chad Basin.
Major General Onoja affirmed that the AFN
would sustain and intensify its operational pressure across all theatres to
consolidate these gains and ensure that no space remains for terrorist
regrouping or resurgence. He reiterated that troops remain on the offensive and
that the current trajectory of operations reflects the Nigerian military's
determination to bring a decisive end to insurgency in the North East.
The elimination of Al-Muhajir comes amid a
broader first-quarter campaign in which troops of Operation HADIN KAI
neutralized several other terrorist leaders and scores of fighters, arrested
274 suspects, rescued 168 kidnapped victims, and facilitated the surrender of
90 insurgents and their families. Figures that Major General Onoja said
collectively demonstrate the accelerating degradation of ISWAP and affiliated
groups.