ABUJA, July 21 – Boko Haram hoisted its black al- Qaeda-inspired flag above the strategic town of Damboa in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, with an estimated more than 100 of the town’s residents killed by the militant group since Thursday.
The fall of the town to Boko Haram marks a swift expansion of the extremist group’s territorial control over Nigeria’s northeast. The town is 85 kilometers from Maiduguri, the state’s capital, which was reportedly left unguarded by the military, a civil defence spokesman and a human rights advocate said.
The attack caused a cascade, as hundreds of villagers in Askira Uba are currently on the run for safety, after receiving letters from the Islamic extremists threatening attacks. A confirmation of the attack came from Abbas Gava, spokesman of the Civilian Vigilante group.
The latest attack on Borno comes on the heels of an assurance by the Nigeria Police that insurgency in Nigeria is nearing an end. This is, however, with a prize, as the Force Headquarters have also said there are bound to be more terror attacks.
Nigeria Police Spokesman, Frank Mba, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Sunday Independent in Abuja, at the weekend said the likely upsurge in attacks from terror groups like Boko Haram is a sign of desperation, which he said is rising from the fact that terrorists are being choked out of their comfort zone by the combined efforts of the military, police and international assistance.
The weekend Borno attack has reportedly sacked nine major villages, as survivors recounted how insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs into homes, gunning down people as they tried to escape the fires in the attack on Damboa town launched before dawn Friday.
Also at the weekend, leaders of Damboa town, led a delegation to the Shehu of Borno, with a request for him to intervene to save them from further attacks from the deadly sect that has killed tens of thousands in the area.
The vigilante’s spokesman reportedly said that the only defence to the insurgents came from his colleagues, who were armed with clubs and homemade rifles. Damboa has been under siege for two weeks. Mba said: “We have stepped up the war against terrorism from all fronts. There is equally a very strong synergy among the security agencies now.
“There is also a global alliance, a global coalition and conscious efforts to mobilise countries around Nigeria and even beyond to join the battle. And so it is obvious that Boko Haram does not have a hiding place now.
“But we expect to see some desperation on their part. It is also our job and that of all Nigerians to put down all forms of desperate actions or activities they may embark on. “So, we will continue to do what we doing.
We will continue to consolidate on our achievements and continue to explore new ways of getting a stronger and upper hand over them and continue to work together with the government, citizens and international community to bring a permanent end to their activities.”
Damboa came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns on Thursday, with a large number of residents losing their lives, according to a band of vigilantes tasked with defending the roadside town.
A chairman of the vigilante group, Abba Aji Khalil, said that at least 100 people had been killed and that this number would almost certainly rise. The Associated Press cited a human rights advocate who put the toll far beyond 100.
For a year, Boko Haram had executed sporadic assaults on the town. Now, Khalil said: “The area has been taken over by them as their new camp.” After years of hit-and-run attacks, Boko Haram is starting to hold new ground.
The mountains nearby that stretch to the Cameroonian border are dotted with towns where Boko Haram has recently raised its flag, forcibly recruiting young
men as fighters and young women as slave wives, officials say.
Damboa, in contrast, had been a bulwark of civilian control along a perilous route. It sits about 90 kilometers south of Maiduguri, the largest city in northeastern Nigeria; the roads that cross here connect both to Boko Haram’s nearby base in a nearby forest—as well as Chibok, the town where several hundred girls were kidnapped from a school in April.
Fruit and vegetable farmers brought their crops to Damboa, where truckers drove them north to Maiduguri, the nearby city of 1 million. The town had also been home to a guild of men who assemble muskets sold to local hunters.
Increasingly, ordinary Nigerians had been coming here to buy their own muskets, forming vigilante groups that they’d hope would deter Boko Haram from attacking. Instead, those efforts appear to have prompted this week’s attack.
– BERNAMA
