Brigadier General Victor Ezugwu escaped an ambush by suspected Boko Haram insurgents that killed one of his men as he was traveling to visit troops in the northeastern town of Bama on Tuesday.
Two other soldiers were also injured in the attack at about 8:30 a.m., army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said in an e-mailed statement. An unconfirmed number of “terrorists” were also killed and troops recovered weapons and a Hilux vehicle from the militants, he said.
While Boko Haram is in the seventh year of a violent campaign to impose its version of Islamic law in Nigeria, its capacity and hold on territory in the northeast has been pushed back by the military in the past year. Yet the group continues to instigate massacres in remote areas along with suicide bombings in towns and cities in the region.
In a separate incident, Boko Haram fighters attacked the Nigerian army’s 113 battalion in northeastern Borno state on Monday morning, injuring 24 soldiers.
