FILE - Nigeria Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja salutes during a funeral ceremony for officers in Abuja, Nigeria, Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga, File)

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s army chief who led soldiers through a critical period in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African nation's hard-hit northeast has died, President Bola Tinubu said Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, who served as army chief since June 2023, died Tuesday night in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos after a “period of illness,” Tinubu said in a statement issued by his office without elaborating further. Lagbaja was 56.

The late army chief had not been seen in public in nearly two months, fueling rumors that he had died, which the Nigerian army first denied more than two weeks ago. He has already been replaced by Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, whom Tinubu appointed in an acting capacity a week ago.

His death comes at a crucial time as Nigeria continues fighting one of Africa’s longest wars on militancy in its northeastern region, where Boko Haram extremists launched an insurgency nearly 15 years ago.

Lagbaja is the second Nigerian army chief to die in office in less than four years. Ibrahim Attahiru served as army chief for only four months before he died in a military air crash in 2021.

The country’s military, long underfunded and outgunned, has been fighting to slow the expansion of the extremists in the region and beyond.

While the frequency of violent attacks has decreased over the years, analysts say extremists have sought to recruit more fighters and consolidate their strongholds in the Lake Chad basin.

With the army often deployed across the country, Nigeria's security crises also persisted on various fronts during Lagbaja's tenure, including rampant killings and kidnappings for ransom by dozens of armed groups in the northern region.

At least 11,600 people, including security forces, were killed during his time as army chief, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit.

Lagbaja had promised to entrench discipline and professionalism in the Nigerian army as one of his key priorities, seeking to rebrand an institution often accused of mistreating civilians and extrajudicial killings in conflict zones.

Nigeria's Defense Chief Gen. Christopher Musa described his death as a “tremendous loss” to the military and Nigeria. He commended Lagbaja's “sterling performance, courage and steadfast commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s sovereignty.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2024