| 2021 Sagme attack | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Boko Haram insurgency | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Cameroon |  ISWAP | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | 90 men 6 pick-ups Several motorcycles | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 8 killed 13 injured | 13–20 killed | ||||||
On July 24, 2021, jihadists fromIslamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked a Cameroonian outpost inSagme, Cameroon, sparking a battle that killed eight Cameroonian soldiers and twenty jihadists.
In 2016, Boko Haram founder and commanderAbubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to theIslamic State and renamed the groupIslamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP), although the central Islamic State command installedAbu Musab al-Barnawi as the leader of ISWAP. This started a schism that culminated in theBattle of Sambisa Forest in May 2021, where Shekau killed himself and ISWAP effectively became the dominant jihadist group in theLake Chad region, which includes northern Cameroon.[1]
Boko Haram fighters attacked the town of Sagme in northern Cameroon in 2018, killing six soldiers and 15 jihadists.[2][1] Throughout 2021, ISWAP attempted to establish ore influence in northern Cameroon, with several attacks on Cameroonian military posts that summer.[3]
Cameroonian authorities stated that around 90 jihadists on six vehicles and several motorcycles entered Sagme from the Nigerian border.[4] The jihadists attacked the Cameroonian outpost in Sagme around 4:00 a.m., and all were well-armed with some donning military camouflage.[5] An anonymous Cameroonian soldier who survived the attack said that the post's commander and six other soldiers were killed, and that they had died fighting bravely.[5]
The attack killed eight soldiers, and Cameroonian authorities assessed that twenty jihadists were killed.[6] Six of the Cameroonian soldiers were killed during the battle, and two died en route to a hospital inMaroua.[7] Cameroonian officials added that the ISWAP fighters fled carrying the bodies of their comrades, so the death toll was hard to determine.[7][8] TheUnited States later assessed that 13 jihadists were killed, citing several accounts.[9][7] Thirteen soldiers were wounded as well.[7]
Several hundred civilians fled Sagme during and following the attack.[7] The governor of Far North Region, where Sagme is located, urged the civilians to return to their homes and reiterated a prior statement fromPaul Biya that reinforcements would arrive in the town.[7] The attack in Sagme was the deadliest day for the Cameroonian army in over ten months.[5]
ISWAP attacked Far North Region again on July 26, killing five soldiers and a civilian during an attack atZigue. Around 17 jihadists were killed in the attack as well.[6][9]