The existing rivalry between Jihadist duo of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram has led to a full-scale territorial warfare along riverine settlement routes in Abadam and Kukawa Local Government Areas of Borno State.

According to Counter Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in the Lake Chad Region, Zagazola Makama, revealed that the fight took a new turn for the worse when Boko Hara launched a fierce coordinated assault on its rival faction, Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP.ISWAP fighters were forced to abandon their river camps, scrambling for their lives.

A decent source confirmed that JAS deployed several motorised watercraft in a multi-axis assault, overrunning ISWAP clusters and pushing surviving fighters off the island perimeter into mainland hideouts around Ali Jillimari, Metele, Kangarwa, and Gudumbali in northern Borno. Recall ISWAP had dominated these islands since 2021, after the death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. But water levels have receded this season, opening new land routes and exposing old fishing settlements.

At the core of this escalation is not ideology, but dominance. Boko Haram has vowed to “eliminate ISWAP presence in the Lake Chad islands”, and seize ISWAP’s lucrative supply corridors interfacing Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Besides, JAS reportedly plans to push further south toward ISWAP headquarters within Marte and Ngala LGAs, a strategic move that, if successful, would reverse ISWAP’s dominance for the first time since 2021.

Once ISWAP regroups on the mainland, it will retaliate violently to reclaim the islands. The group has never allowed a territorial defeat to stand. Zagazola reports that the clashes represent a transition from sporadic skirmishes to a full territorial campaign. More ambushes, roadside bombs and abductions along access routes linking Metele, Kangarwa and the Maiduguri–Damasak MSR, should be anticipated.

The emerging trend suggests that both factions will now launch retaliatory raids on each other’s strongholds, attacking supply lines, including river transport. Communities in Kukawa and Abadam, particularly fishermen, boat operators, and seasonal farmers, will bear the immediate consequences.

The Lake Chad Basin has always held strategic value as a place where borders blur and armies struggle to manoeuvre. But this new insurgent rivalry marks a turning point. For the first time in years, Boko Haram and ISWAP are not just fighting the state.

Both terror groups are fighting over who gets to rule the shadows. And somewhere in the middle, caught between gunboats, ideology and hunger are the civilians of the Lake Chad islands, whose lives continue to be shaped by a war they did not choose and cannot escape