Adamawa University Closed Over Impending Boko Haram Attack

A University was shut yesterday and students sent home as Boko Haram fighters continued their incursion into Adamawa State.

To prevent an attack on students, the Adamawa State Government shut the state university in Mubi as the insurgents overran Uba, a town five kilometres from Mubi.

Other towns taken at the weekend by Boko Haram fighters are: Michika and Bazza.

Both towns, along with Uba, are in Hong Local Government Area .

But the sect suffered a major setback, with no fewer than 50 of its men killed in a military raid in Borno State. The army said yesterday that security forces raided a “hideout” of suspected Boko Haram members in Kawuri, a village about 37km from Maiduguri, the state capital, on Saturday.

The suspected fighters were planning an attack, the military said.

Heavy artillery, including anti-aircraft guns and an armoured vehicle, were seized in the raid. Three soldiers were injured, the army said.

But the sect’s fighters seized more towns in Adamawa State, following the success they recorded in attacks on some villages on Friday when they took Gulak, the headquarters of Magadali Local Government, Kirchinga, the hometown of Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, Duhu and Shuwa.

Uba, a town five kilometers to Mubi was also overrun by the sect.

Some Michika residents, speaking on the telephone, said the insurgents commanded some of the youths to join them for the “work of Allah”.

Another resident said: “When the insurgents met me on the road in Michika, they said I should follow them to work for Allah. They asked me to go home and prepare to follow them to fight the cause of Allah but I decided to run and hide.”

A resident of Bazza spoke of how the sect’s fighters stormed the town, “shooting sporadically, using artillery gun and other heavy weapons but from time to time Air Force jets were dropping bombs”.

The Adamawa State Government on Saturday confirmed that the government had lost to the insurgents many towns, including Gulak and Michika.

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Boko Haram fighters seized more towns along Nigeria’s northeastern border with Cameroon. They were adopting a new strategy of encouraging civilians to stay, witnesses told the news agency.

“They assured us that they will not attack us, but people began to run for their lives. Some of us have fled for fear that after subduing the soldiers, the insurgents will turn their [gun] barrels on us,’’ Michael Kirshinga, a resident of Gulak, said after the town was attacked.