Independence Day, Under a Truce Nobody Admits

The age of prosperity

On October 1, Nigeria turned 66. In an address titled "From Reform to Prosperity", President Bola Tinubu declared the age of reform over and the age of prosperity begun. In November 2025, he had declared a nationwide security emergency. This time, security mostly appeared as a condition for prosperity, notes the analyst Kabir Adamu in ThisDay. The president even described what it would look like:

"A Nigeria in which the farmer can cultivate his land safely."— President Bola Tinubu, Independence Day address, October 1, 2026

Safe fields, Borno edition

The night before, in the Marte area of Borno State, some 130 kilometres north-east of Maiduguri, suspected Boko Haram fighters ambushed villagers who were tending their crops and gathering firewood. According to residents quoted by AP, young men and village elders were tied up and executed. The police counted 15 dead and three missing. The bodies were buried on the evening of Independence Day. By Sunday, after 13 more bodies were found in the bush, the head of an anti-jihadist militia put the toll at 28, according to AFP.

Amnesty International called the killings a grave violation of international humanitarian law and urged the authorities to protect rural communities. The president had promised as much the day before. In January, Human Rights Watch had already pointed to the authorities' failure to protect communities, as Boko Haram resumed deadly attacks on civilians in Borno.

Sixteen neutralised, hundreds on foot

That same night, in Adamawa State, fighters attacked army posts at Garaha and Garkida. The army says it lost three soldiers and "neutralised" 16 attackers near Boima. According to the Hong council chairman, quoted by TruthNigeria, a forest guard was also killed and ten soldiers were wounded. The site adds that four women and an eight-year-old child were abducted, and that hundreds of villagers walked up to 35 kilometres through the night to reach the town of Gombi.

In Borno, the victims were buried according to Islamic rites. In Adamawa, the villages that emptied were Christian, says TruthNigeria. Boko Haram does not discriminate.

A truce, allegedly

In September, The New Humanitarian reported that Abuja had been observing a secret ceasefire since June with the Boko Haram faction led by Bakura Doro, after the release of 360 villagers abducted in Ngoshe, reportedly for a ransom of five billion naira. The government denies paying, and the presidency refers questions to the national security adviser and the defence ministry. Boko Haram's own sharia judge denied any truce in a video. A truce with one faction remains a war with the others.

The age of prosperity has begun, the president said. In Marte, it began with a burial.