Suspected Boko Haram gunmen shot
dead at least 42 people in two separate attacks in northeast Nigeria, with no
let-up in sight to the Islamist group’s targeting of civilians. The attacks in
the remote villages of Debiro Hawul and Debiro Biu in Borno state on Monday and
Tuesday came before at least 10 people were killed in a suicide attack in
neighbouring Yobe.
Boko Haram, which has been fighting
to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria since 2009, has
intensified its campaign of violence in the last month.
In all, nearly 250 people have been
killed in Nigeria since Muhammadu Buhari became president on May 29 vowing to
crush the militant uprising that has claimed at least 15,000 lives.
The latest attacks saw some 30
militant fighters storm Debiro Biu on Monday and Debiro Hawul the following
day, with reports taking time to emerge because of the villages’ remote
location. “We received reports of attacks by suspected Boko Haram gunmen on the
two villages, in which 42 deaths were recorded,” one police officer told AFP
from the town of Biu.
Umaru Markus, who fled Debiro Hawul,
said the attacks were carried out by some 30 Islamists in a convoy of pick-up
trucks and motorcycles. The rebels shot dead their victims after looting homes
and shops and setting fire to buildings, he added. “They came around 12:30 am
and opened fire on the village, which sent people scampering into the bush to
escape the attack,” he said.
“The gunmen slaughtered 22 people
who were not fast enough in fleeing and went about looting homes, grains silos
and drug stores.” The attack on Debiro Biu left 20 people dead, he said. “It
never occurred to us we would be the next target,” he added.
Soft
targets
BOKO HARAM VICTIMS—A relation of one
of the officers and soldiers killed in Borno, Yobe states and Unamid weeping
during their burial at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja,
yesterday.Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.
Both attacks again indicated the
threat posed by Boko Haram, who have been pushed out of captured towns and
villages by a four-nation military offensive since February. But deadly raids,
shelling, explosions and suicide attacks on “soft” targets such as markets and
mosques have continued.
On Tuesday, 10 people were killed
when explosives carried by a girl thought to be aged just 12 detonated at the
weekly market in the village of Wagir, south of the Yobe state capital,
Damaturu.
Thirty others were injured in the
attack, which bore all the hallmarks of the Islamists, who have used women and
young girls as human bombs since the middle of last year.
Security analysts studying the
phenomenon have suggested that younger girls may have their explosives
detonated remotely by a third party. Ending the insurgency is a priority for
Buhari and his administration. The new president has already visited Chad and
Niger to secure sustained regional support for the fight-back.
On Tuesday, his office said he had
accepted an invitation to go to Cameroon, whose far north region has been
increasingly hit by the violence. A new regional fighting force comprising
8,700 troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin is due to deploy at
the end of next month.
But there will be pressure to
counter Boko Haram’s urban guerrilla tactics to which it has reverted after it
captured swathes of territory last year.
- See more at: www.vanguardngr.com
Boko Haram members in action
No comments:
Post a Comment