The number of deaths resulting from the Friday early morning attack by
Boko Haram insurgents in a Borno village has risen to 100 just as the
terrorists hoisted a black and white flag in the remote village.
On Saturday, survivors claimed the insurgents had attacked the town of
Damboa before dawn on Friday, firing rocket-propelled grenades, throwing
locally produced bombs into homes and gunning down people as they tried to
escape the ensuing fires.
As reported by the Associated Press, many houses were burnt down by the
marauding terrorists.
According to a human rights advocate, who pleaded not to be named, the
insurgents struck again as people were trying to bury their dead, and that the
toll was probably much higher than 100.
While there were no soldiers to repel the attack, Gava said the only
defence the villagers had came from vigilantes who were armed with clubs and
homemade rifles.
According to a spokesman for the Nigerian Vigilante Group, Abbas Gava,
hundreds of people in another village, Askira Uba, are fleeing after they got
letters from the Islamist terrorists threatening to attack and take over their
villages.
He said, “Nine major villages are on the run.”
The town had been under siege for two weeks, since Boko Haram dislodged
soldiers from a new tank battalion camp on its outskirts.
The defence ministry claimed to have repelled the attack and killed at
least 50 insurgents for the loss of six soldiers, including the commanding
officer, but residents in the area said many soldiers had been killed and that
the military had been driven from the base.
According to residents, the extremists had in the past week twice
ambushed military convoys trying to reach the base.
The militants cut off access to the town on Monday, when they blew up a
bridge to the south of it. Damboa is on the main road south from Maiduguri, the
Borno state capital, and at a strategic crossroads for farmers bringing their
produce to market.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been driven from their land by the
five-year-old insurgency, and the government officials in the worst-hit areas
have been warning of imminent food shortages.
Boko Haram has attracted international condemnation for the abduction of
more than 200 schoolgirls who have been held hostage for more than 90 days.
The insurgents have increased the number and ferocity of their attacks
this year, particularly in their north-eastern stronghold.
The Human Rights Watch published a report last week which claimed the
extremist Islamist group had killed more than 2,000 civilians in an estimated
95 attacks during the first half of 2014.
This figure, the HRW said, was close to an estimated 3,600 people killed
in the first four years of the insurgency.