At least 200 villagers
may have died in Borno State after gunmen believed to be members of the
extremist Boko Haram sect, but dressed in military uniforms attacked villages
in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State, government officials and
eyewitnesses have said.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered from
reliable sources that the villages of Attagara, Agapalawa and Aganjara, all in
Gwoza Local Government Area, were on Monday attacked by gunmen who pretended to
be soldiers.
Commenting on the attack, the
senator representing the area, Muhammed Ndume, said his constituents were under
the siege of the Boko Haram insurgent group.
The residents of these
communities had suffered several attacks including the shooting of nine worshippers
in a church in Attagara Village during a church service last Sunday. The
killing sparked off reprisal from emboldened villagers who chased the attackers
and got killed four of them while three others were arrested.
On Monday, while the
villagers were mourning the loss of those who died on Sunday, information
dribbled around the neighbourhood that the insurgents might attack again.
The villagers said they
informed the military personnel in Gwoza town but were not taken seriously,
even though the soldiers promised to follow up on the report.
“When the attackers came,
most residents of the community actually thought they were military personnel.
It didn’t occur to them they are Boko Haram. Over 200 corpses are laying in the
villages now yet to be buried,” said one Ngalamuda Ibrahim, a resident of
Gwoza.
Another resident of Attagara
whose four younger brothers were killed during the Monday carnage said “they
came in military Hilux; and we all thought they were the soldiers that we
earlier reported that the insurgents might attack us.”
“When they came in over 10
Hilux vehicles, we all felt relieved that at last the military had arrived, so
we went to them and they told us that ‘we are soldiers and we are here to
protect you all.’
“They then urged all of us to
converge at a particular spot at the centre of the village; we all complied;
but when they saw that a sizeable number of us had converged, they began to
shout ‘Allahu-Akbar, Allahu-Akbar’ on top of their voices, then they began to
fire at the people continuously for a very long time until all that gathered
were all dead”, said the source who is a community leader but would not say his
name for fear of his personal safety.
“I lost four of my blood
brothers in the massacre”, the source added. “I was lucky to escape because I
was not very close by when the gunmen started shooting at our people, I was
going round to inform people that the soldiers had come and they wanted to
address us; I managed to escape through villages in Adamawa State and later
made it to Maiduguri.”
Mr. Ndume, who represents
that part of Borno State in the senate, confirmed the incident even though he
did not mention the casualty figure.
“We are under siege in
Gwoza”, said Mr. Ndume, who is also a native of Gwoza local government. “Over
six wards of Gwoza local government have been taken over by insurgents, who
also mount their flags in those areas.
“We had a meeting with the
governor and the GOC (General Officer Commanding of the Nigeria Army 7
Division); and the GOC assured us that troops would be sent there immediately
to go rescue the situation; the Borno state governor gave the military all the
needed logistics at his disposal to assist them go rescue the villagers,
especially where the insurgents were said to have hoisted flags.
“It is sad that we have to
wait till now that people are being killed for government to take action. We
know that for long, the road to Gwoza from Maiduguri had been a no-go area even
for the soldiers.
“It is a known fact that
soldiers of the Nigerian army have been overstretched in both human and
material capacity; the federal government has to rise to the occasion to give
these soldiers the needed support to work. Two major federal government bridges
leading to Gwoza have been bombed and no one seemed concerned about this,” he
said.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that
most of the survivors of the attacks, especially women and children, fled to
the neighbouring Cameroon territories as most villages around Gwoza town had
either been attacked or sacked by the Boko Haram insurgents.
The attacks on Borno
communities have continued despite an emergency rule in place in the state.
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