Akahi News learnt that troops of Operation Hadin Kai have arrested a 15-year-old suspected Islamic State West Africa Province logistics courier in Ngamdu, Borno State. The teenager, identified as Tijjani, has been linked to recent terrorist attacks and ongoing military airstrikes on insurgent enclaves in the Jilli axis.

Security sources told Zagazola Makama that the suspect was apprehended on Sunday while allegedly attempting to procure logistics for insurgent fighters operating within the Ngamdu–Benisheik corridor. A boy of 15, caught in the web of terror, moving money and supplies for men who should never have recruited him.

What drives a 15-year-old to become a logistics courier for ISWAP? Is it poverty? Coercion? Or the slow erosion of childhood in a region where the insurgency has stolen an entire generation?

Teenager Confesses: ‘I Was Among the Terrorists’

Akahi News gathered that the suspect confessed during preliminary interrogation that he participated in the attacks on Benisheik and Ngamdu carried out on Thursday. His words are chilling in their directness.

“My name is Tijjani, I am 15 years old. I was arrested today in Ngamdu. I was among the terrorists that attacked Benisheik and Ngamdu,” the source quoted him as saying.

He reportedly disclosed that the group mobilised from Jilli, a known insurgent stronghold in Gubio Local Government Area, before executing the attacks and subsequently returned to the enclave.

“Before the attack we came from Jilli and returned there after the attack,” he said.

It was alleged that the suspect further revealed that he was redeployed from Jilli on Saturday with the sum of N850,000 to procure supplies for other fighters. That is not pocket money. That is operational funding. A teenager trusted with nearly a million naira by a terrorist network speaks to the level of responsibility—and danger—placed on young shoulders.

“I was sent from Jilli yesterday with N850,000 to collect some logistics from Ngamdu, but I was arrested by troops,” he reportedly stated.

He added that he left behind other fighters at the Jilli enclave but could not confirm their fate following the recent military airstrikes on the area. “I left my colleagues at Jilli yesterday. I don’t know what has happened to them there,” he said.

Airstrikes Hit Jilli Enclave, Destroy Logistics Base

Military sources said the arrest of the suspect provides further insight into the operational and logistics network of ISWAP within the region, particularly the central role of Jilli as a staging ground and supply hub.

The development comes barely 24 hours after the Air Component of OPHK conducted precision airstrikes on the Jilli axis, destroying a major terrorist logistics base and neutralising scores of insurgents.

The strikes, which followed sustained Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions, targeted a convergence of motorcycles and vehicles identified as belonging to insurgents and their logistics handlers. Field reports indicated that at least two motorcycles and one vehicle were destroyed, while several terrorists were killed in the operation.

Some insurgents were said to have taken cover upon hearing the approaching aircraft but later returned in the evening to evacuate casualties. That is the cat-and-mouse reality of the North-East conflict. The military strikes. The insurgents hide. Then they return to count their dead and plan their next move.

Akahi News had earlier reported on the military’s sustained campaign against terrorist enclaves. Jilli has long been described by military authorities as a “no man’s land” under insurgent control, where activities such as the so-called weekly market serve as logistics and coordination points for terrorist operations.

The arrest of the teenage suspect, who admitted to moving funds and facilitating supplies, underscores the reliance of insurgent groups on logistics couriers, including minors, to sustain their operations. This is not new. But it remains devastating. Children should be in school, not moving N850,000 for terrorists.

Security experts say disrupting such supply chains is critical to weakening the operational capacity of insurgent groups in the North-East. Money is the oxygen of terror. Cut the oxygen, and the fire suffocates.

The military has reiterated its commitment to sustaining pressure on terrorist enclaves through coordinated air and ground operations, aimed at dismantling logistics networks and preventing further attacks on both security forces and civilian communities.

It is not a child’s play to arrest a 15-year-old and call him a terrorist courier. But it is also not a child’s play to allow teenagers to be radicalised, armed, and deployed against their own communities. Tijjani is both a suspect and a victim. He is responsible for his actions, but he is also a product of an environment where insurgency has become a brutal alternative to hopelessness.

Investigations into the suspect’s activities and possible accomplices are ongoing. The military will likely try to extract more intelligence from him—about Jilli, about the network, about future attack plans. But beyond intelligence, there is a human question: what happens to a 15-year-old boy who confesses to terrorism?

Does he face the full weight of the law? Does he get a chance at rehabilitation? Or does he disappear into a detention facility, another forgotten casualty of a war that has lasted too long?

The people of Benisheik and Ngamdu, who suffered attacks on Thursday, will want justice. The military will want actionable intelligence. But somewhere in the middle stands a 15-year-old boy who told his interrogators: “I was among the terrorists.” Those words should haunt not just the suspect, but the nation that failed to protect him from becoming a monster.

Key Summary Box

What happened: Troops of Operation Hadin Kai arrested a 15-year-old suspected ISWAP logistics courier, Tijjani, in Ngamdu, Borno State.
His confession: The teenager admitted to participating in the Thursday attacks on Benisheik and Ngamdu and said he was sent from Jilli with N850,000 to procure logistics for other fighters.
Military context: The arrest came barely 24 hours after precision airstrikes on the Jilli axis destroyed a major terrorist logistics base and neutralised scores of insurgents.
Jilli’s role: The enclave in Gubio LGA is described as a “no man’s land” under insurgent control, serving as a staging ground and supply hub for ISWAP operations.
Why it matters to Nigerians: The use of minors as logistics couriers highlights the insurgency’s recruitment of children and the critical need to disrupt terrorist supply chains.
Bottom line: A 15-year-old boy, N850,000, and a network of terror. The military struck Jilli from the air and caught Tijjani on the ground. But the war is far from over.