Jihadists are plotting attacks on Abuja airport and a prison on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, according to an internal memo prepared by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) seen by AFP on Thursday.
The memo, dated April 13, calls for an “enhanced level of security within the Federal Capital Territory and its environs”, after the NCS received a “credible report” that Boko Haram and its rival Islamic State West Africa Province splinter group were planning a “series of coordinated attacks”.
Potential targets include the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and Kuje prison, both on the outskirts of Abuja, and the Wawa military prison in neighbouring Niger state, according to the memo.
Kuje prison was the site of a massive jailbreak orchestrated by ISWAP in 2022.
Earlier this month, the Kuje area council in Abuja had instituted a dusk-to-dawn curfew in at least four villages “following credible intelligence regarding a potential kinetic assault” on the prison, according to a separate report by the council seen by AFP.
Nigeria has been fighting a jihadist insurgency since 2009, though violence has ticked up in the last year.
Earlier in April, the US embassy in Abuja told “non-emergency” staff they could leave the country “due to the deteriorating security situation”.
Nigerian government officials insisted the capital was safe and was not under any imminent attack.
The country’s information minister dismissed the US government’s advice as a “precautionary measure based on internal protocols”.
According to the customs memo, “ISWAP operatives have already infiltrated the (Federal Capital territory) to facilitate the attacks.”
The Wawa attack is “reportedly being orchestrated” by Boko Haram’s Niger state cell, “in collaboration with elements of” the Nigerian jihadist group Ansaru and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM, which is active in the neighbouring Sahel.
The plot against the airport “reveals a concerning correlation between… recent large-scale attacks on aviation facilities in Niger”, including an attack claimed by the Islamic State Sahel Province on the airport in the capital Niamey, the memo said.
Hundreds of prisoners, including suspected IS and Boko Haram jihadists, escaped after ISWAP fighters attacked the Kuje prison in 2022.
It is located on the far outskirts of the capital, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Nigeria’s presidential villa.
Boko Haram and ISWAP have recently intensified attacks on bases in the country’s northeast as their 17-year campaign to establish a caliphate grinds on.
The conflict has killed more than 40,000 and displaced around two million, according to UN figures.
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