The Nigerian Air Force has carried out a series of precision airstrikes that destroyed key terrorist hideouts in the Southern Tumbuns area of Borno State, dealing a fresh blow to insurgent networks operating around Lake Chad.

According to the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame, the operation was executed over Ali Sheriffti, a notorious terrorist enclave in the Southern Tumbuns, after credible intelligence revealed renewed insurgent movements and logistics activities in the area.

Air force surveillance platforms were first deployed to build a clear picture of the target zone. During this reconnaissance phase, several armed fighters were observed moving along concealed tracks and converging on structures hidden beneath dense foliage, a tactic insurgents have long used to evade detection from the air.

Once the locations were positively identified as hostile, Nigerian Air Force combat aircraft were vectored to the area. The pilots then conducted a coordinated strike, releasing precision munitions on the clustered structures and movement corridors used by the terrorists.

Ejodame said the strikes achieved their intended effect, with multiple terrorist structures destroyed and secondary explosions observed, indicating the presence of weapons or ammunition caches. The operation, he added, has further degraded the insurgents’ ability to regroup, store supplies, and move freely within the Southern Tumbuns.

The air campaign in this sector is part of a broader push by the Nigerian military to deny terrorists safe havens in the difficult marshland and island terrain of the Lake Chad basin, where insurgent factions have historically exploited the geography to stage attacks and retreat across porous borders.

Ejodame stressed that the latest mission underscores the air force’s emphasis on intelligence-led, precision-driven operations designed to minimise collateral damage while maximising impact on terrorist infrastructure and leadership.

The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sunday Aneke, reaffirmed the force’s resolve to sustain unrelenting pressure on terrorist cells across the North-East. He said ongoing and future operations would intensify, with a focus on disrupting command nodes, logistics routes, and staging areas used to launch attacks on civilian communities and security forces.

Aneke pledged that the Nigerian Air Force would continue to pursue and dismantle terrorist networks “with unwavering precision and relentless force,” insisting that no enclave would be allowed to remain beyond the reach of air power and joint security operations.