At least six suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked Baga Market in Maiduguri, Borno state, in Nigeria at around 1:30 p.m. Feb. 20, killing at least 30 people, local medics reported. According to witnesses, the gunmen accused market traders of collaborating with the military the previous week to turn in a member of Boko Haram, then fired at vendors and customers in the market. The Nigerian military claimed that it immediately responded to the situation, killing several Boko Haram members and neutralizing three improvised explosive devices in the area. The military also claimed that no civilians were killed in the incident. Although the Feb. 20 attack appears to have inflicted dozens of casualties, it was not as tactically complex as the car bombings and other attacks seen in 2011. Since the Jan. 20-22 Kano attacks in which at least 187 people were killed, the Nigerian State Security Service, most likely with the support of local northern Nigerian politicians, has cracked down heavily on elements of Boko Haram in the group's base of operations in Maiduguri. Regional branches of the group have remained active, but there have been no successful vehicle-borne improvised explosive device or other elaborate attacks in the past month, which could mean that the crackdown is dismantling parts of Boko Haram's internal structure — the parts that would coordinate such attacks — in its core in northeast Nigeria. However, the group's basic network remains intact, so it could re-emerge at any time.
