Abuja, May 17, 2026 (Reuters) — At least 17 police trainees were killed after suspected Islamist militants attacked a specialised military training centre in Nigeria’s northeast, police said.
The attack occurred on Friday at the Nigerian Army Special Forces School in Buni Yadi, Yobe state, where the victims were undergoing specialised operational instruction, national police spokesman Anthony Okon Placid said. Militants struck the facility from multiple directions in a coordinated assault, he added. Placid said several soldiers were also killed but did not provide a number for military casualties.
The Nigerian military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The assault comes amid an Islamist insurgency that has plagued Nigeria’s northeast for more than 18 years. The unrest began with Boko Haram’s uprising in 2009 and later fragmented, producing the offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which has stepped up attacks on military bases and security personnel in recent years.
In a separate development in the Lake Chad Basin early on Saturday, a joint U.S.-Nigerian operation killed a senior ISWAP commander identified by leaders as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki. U.S. President Donald Trump and Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu both confirmed the strike and described the slain militant as a high-ranking ISWAP figure with ties to the broader Islamic State network.
The Nigerian government has established specialised schools and units to improve counterinsurgency capabilities and better train security forces. Authorities said investigations into the Buni Yadi attack were ongoing as officials sought to determine how the militants were able to penetrate the facility and inflict heavy losses on trainees.
