My Heart Bleeds for Borno State
The mob that attacked officials of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency at the scene of a suicide bomb attack in London Ciki area of Maiduguri on Monday is a reflection of extreme frustration of the residents of this town. The youth, who attacked the team dispatched to evacuate corpses and render assistance to the victims, were angered by recent spate of suicide bombings in Maiduguri and the failure of government to curtail the terrorists. Some of them chanted slogans against the relief officials, saying, “leave, we do not need your assistance.” The youth, armed with sticks, smashed one of SEMA’s vehicles and prevented the team from carrying out its mission. The Civilian Joint Task Force had to swiftly rescue the SEMA officials.
Inhabitants of this town have suffered greatly in the hands of terrorists since 2009, but the last two years have been most painful, with Maiduguri becoming a killing field. In recent months, suicide bombers strike virtually on a daily basis, hitting mosques, markets, camps for those displaced by the conflict and other civilian soft targets. The London Ciki attack claimed eight lives. Just on Tuesday, six powerful multiple explosions rocked Maiduguri, with casualty figure unknown. Last week, 23 persons were killed in multiple suicide attacks in this town. The University of Maiduguri has also been repeatedly attacked. In the last six months, these terrorists have attacked the university nine times, killing innocent people, including a professor of veterinary medicine, Aliyu Usman Mani. Never in the history of this institution has this much pain been inflicted on its staff and students. It is even more dis- heartening that no single top official of the federal government deemed it necessary to pay a solidarity visit to the university. Where is the Education Minister, Adamu Adamu? He is simply sleeping while precious human lives are being wasted at this university. Adamu’s inaction on the precarious security situation in this school is giving a boost to Boko Haram’s ideology.
Tales from other towns and villages in Borno State are not palatable. The terrorists are everywhere. This is why millions of IDPs in the 27 camps across the state can’t return to their homes. This week, the terrorists boldly showed a video of 14 women from Dalwa village that were abducted on June 20. They ambushed the women, alongside Mobile Police men, mourners and several vehicles on Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu Highway on June 20, as they were conveying the corpse of one Sergeant Rahila Antakirya to Askira for burial.
Right now, there is so much fear in and around Maiduguri. For how long will Borno State remain a killing field? For how long will millions of Nigerians remain in squalid IDP camps across this state? There is an urgent need to rejig this war against Boko Haram.