Boko Haram gunmen killed many people in an attack on the town of Damboa in Borno
State, throwing
explosives into residential homes and shooting dead civilians who tried to
surrender, an official said Friday.“The insurgents attacked the town from
6:30pm (1730 GMT) on Thursday to the early hours of today,” said the official
in Damboa’s local government who requested anonymity. “They killed many people.
Women and children fled into the bush,” he added.“Those who could not flee
surrendered and were killed by the insurgents,” he added.The militants attacked
a police station and an army camp in Damboa on July 6, chasing the security
forces out of the town, which has been one of the hardest-hit areas in Boko
Haram’s five-year extremist uprising.Damboa residents have been left unguarded
since the previous attack, the official and witnesses said.
Resident Ahmed Buba said the assailants stormed as locals were preparing to
break the Ramadan fast at sundown.
“We were defenceless because all the security personnel, including soldiers
and policemen, have withdrawn,” he told AFP.Those who survived the overnight
raid fled to the state capital Maiduguri and sought shelter in the palace of
the area’s top cleric, Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, also known as the Shehu of Borno.The
survivors “lodged a complaint with the Shehu because there are no security
forces in Damboa,” the official said.The military was not immediately available
to comment on the attack in the poor, remote region, which often has limited
mobile phone coverage.
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