The death toll from last week’s attack in Borno State that
saw insurgents dressed as soldiers, set up checkpoints and gun down travellers
on a highway, has risen to, at least, 142.
Abdulaziz Kolomi, an official with
the Environmental Protection Agency in the state said, yesterday, that “we
recovered 55 bodies on Wednesday and 87 on Thursday”. The previous toll from
the attack late Tuesday in the Benisheik area was 87.
The insurgents, suspected to be from
Islamist extremist group, Boko Haram, also burnt scores of homes and buildings
in the assault and left corpses littering the roadside.
The motivation behind the assault was
not immediately clear, but Boko Haram members have repeatedly carried out
revenge attacks against residents over the emergence of vigilante groups that
have been formed to assist the military.
Army General Mohammed Yusuf, who
briefed the state governor, Alhaji Kassim Shettima on the attack, said troops
ran out of ammunition while combating the assault, adding that the insurgents
were armed with “anti-aircraft guns.”
In one of the latest known attacks,
Boko Haram fighters armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket launchers and
homemade explosives reportedly raided Yadi Buni Town in Yobe State on September
18, setting fire to a makeshift police station, telecommunications masts, parts
of the local government headquarters and the home of the divisional police
head, whose wife was burnt to death inside the building.
Son of the Yobe Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) youth leader was also reportedly killed, while one soldier and nine
sect members died in an ensuing shoot-out. On September 17, some 143 commuters
were killed and several abducted when well-armed Boko Haram gunmen in military
fatigues and bullet-proof vests ambushed vehicles along the busy Maiduguri to
Damaturu Express Way in the early evening, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW), an advocacy group investigating the situation.
Travellers were reportedly asked to
produce their identity papers, then were lined up and shot. One survivor was
quoted as saying that people from the BornoState capital, Maiduguri, were
singled out for execution. The gunmen went on to overrun Benisheik Town, 75
kilometres (44 miles) west of Maiduguri, killing around 14 people and torching
over 100 homes, businesses and vehicles, CSW said.
It quoted one report as saying that
most of the dead were members or otherwise associated with the Civilian Joint
Task Force in charge of fighting militants, and were beheaded. Three policemen
and two soldiers were also reported to have died in what were seen as reprisal
attacks by Boko Haram against those opposed to them.
The phone network in Borno has been switched off since the
emergency measures were imposed, a move the military said was aimed at blocking
the Islamists from coordinating attacks.
Some have suggested that the lack of phone service has prevented
civilians from sounding the alarm during attacks. It has also made it difficult
to verify information from the region.
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