In Failed Attack on Maiduguri, Boko Haram Kills Scores, Injures Others

24-hour curfew imposed on state capital Five Boko Haram members killed in Iraq Soldiers on red alert

In what appears like a resumed effort to launch attacks on Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, Boko Haram insurgents Wednesday night struck again in the city, this time killing some 52 persons in various attacks on some communities within the precinct of the state capital.

Speaking on the casualty figure in the attack, a member of the youth vigilante group told THISDAY on phone in Maiduguri yesterday that 13 persons were killed near the Giwa military Barracks in the town Wednesday evening when six women who pretended to have escaped from Boko Haram captivity detonated the explosives strapped on them.

The Boko Haram terrorists who had been routed in recent times by the re-invigorated Nigerian military along with the troops from Niger, Chad and Cameroun had suffered massive attacks as their abodes including the notorious Sambisa forest had been bombarded by the co-ordinated attacks by the

military. As a result, they have been unable to plan and execute any significant attack in weeks.

The insurgents suffered another setback when some of their members were reportedly killed in far away Iraq; an incident which has confirmed the touted link between Boko Haram and Islamic State (IS). The five Boko Haram members who went for training, according to The Cable News were killed on been confirmed on Wednesday by the Mosul Youth Resistance Movement, Iraq. The movement, which was formed to fight IS in Mosul, reportedly killed the five Boko Haram insurgents according to BasNew. Saed Mamuzini, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Mosul spokesperson, told BasNews that the youth movement killed the insurgents in the Dargaza neighbourhood of eastern Mosul. Mamuzini said: “The Nigerian Boko Haram militants were in Mosul to take part in a military training course conducted by Islamic State.”

A few days ago, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a school in Yobe State.

According to the youth vigilante member, the six adult females who carried out the attack, were seen by soldiers and some members of the youth vigilante group near the Army barracks.

He said they were approaching the checkpoint near the barracks when the military and the youth vigilantes tried to frisk them before they detonated the bomb on them which led to their death and in the process the killing of six members of the youth vigilante group and three soldiers.

He said there were several persons that were equally injured by the massive explosion.

He said: "Our members were killed and some are lying on hospital beds as a result of the bombs detonated by these useless wives of Boko Haram that came to attack us yesterday.

"Our men and the soldiers thought they were helpless and hapless women that were in Boko Haram captivity but they took us by surprise and killed six of our active members."

He added: "We will not allow this to demoralise us though. We will not relent until we crush them all, this cannot just stop us from fighting them, we shall kill them all."

Confirming the casualties from the attack near the military barracks, the spokesman of the youth vigilante group in Borno State, Mr Jubrin Gunda, said yesterday that 13 people were indeed lost in the attack.

Gunda, who spoke on phone to THISDAY in Maiduguri, equally disclosed that one of the top commanders of the Islamist sect was caught in Dumsa, a village in the troubled state.

He said: "The attack on Wednesday was massive and the insurgents deployed female suicide bombers, in fact six of them were involved."

He equally said the death toll recorded by the insurgents was massive as they had to flee when they met the superior firepower of the military.

He said: "The military was able to repel the insurgents. Our men (the youth vigilante group) were also involved in the operation.

"I am on my way to Dumsa right now to get delivery of one of the chieftains of Boko Haram that was arrested by our men there."

However, a resident of Ba'ale village in the state, Yunus Modu, said that the insurgents killed 29 persons in the village during the attempted invasion of Maiduguri by the Islamists.

Modu said the insurgents also injured 30 persons, torched 20 houses and five shops.

In a phone conversation with journalists, Modu claimed that when the insurgents were passing through the village towards Maiduguri, some of the villagers that were running helter skelter on sighting them were killed.

He said the villagers had to bury 29 persons yesterday morning and equally took over 30 others injured to the hospital.

He said those who returned to the community yesterday morning performed the Muslim prayer over the dead in front of the village head’s house before they were taken for burial.

Another villager, who spoke anonymously, said 10 corpses were picked on the streets, while 19 others were picked from the bushes.

The source, who said the corpses had been buried according to Islamic rites, added that the villagers on spotting the insurgents, locked their houses and shops with many running into the surrounding bushes.

He said: "Our people were confused and panic-stricken and many had to flee into the bush. We returned today (yesterday) morning to pick 10 dead bodies on the streets and when we combed the bushes we saw 19 corpses."

He described the situation as "terrible and horrible", lamenting that the insurgents, who killed indiscriminately, shot both the old and the young.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Army, which seemed a little jolted by the attack, has since responded by slamming a 24-hour curfew on the capital of the troubled state.

The insurgents were repelled by the military at the outskirts of the town Wednesday evening when they (insurgents) attempted to overrun the city by launching coordinated attacks on the city.

A staccato of gunshots was heard throughout the night as the military embarked on a massive operation to push back the insurgents who were intercepted at Bale, a village in Jere Local Government Area of the state and a few kilometers from Maiduguri.

Although the gunfire has since ceased, the army is believed to be undertaking a mop-up exercise where some areas are thoroughly searched in order to sweep them off of all insurgents.

In a statement yesterday, the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations in charge of 7 Division of the Nigeria Army, Col. Tukur Gusau, said: "In view of the recent development within Maiduguri metropolis, a 24-hour curfew is hereby imposed on the city. This is done to protect lives and property of innocent and law abiding people of Maiduguri.

"The Nigerian Army wishes to once again thank you for your continuous support and cooperation. The situation is firmly under control."

In another development, the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, has said that no soldier was lost in the pushback of insurgents who attempted to gain entry into Maiduguri.

The spokesman of the Nigeria Army in a text message to some journalists said: "We did not lose any soldier in Maiduguri."

Before the text message, he had earlier told journalists that the 24-hour curfew on Maiduguri was a measure aimed at mopping up any trace of insurgents that might have sneaked into the town during the attack.

He said the curfew would be lifted as soon as the situation improved.

He revealed that the military succeeded in bombing the insurgents who attempted to enter Maiduguri through the cashew garden at the Kayamla village located at the outskirts of Maiduguri, which is about 25 kilometres away from the town.

He said the military deployed sophisticated and modern weapons that were newly acquired to engage the insurgents along the trenches dug at the border to Maiduguri.

Usman noted that the gun duel in the trenches accounted for the strange loud noise the people of the town were hearing Wednesday evening.

He asserted that everything is under control and now calm.