Suspected Boko Haram militants struck in two northeastern states over the weekend. About 100,000 village residents in Nigeria’s northeastern Adamawa and Borno States have fled their homes over fears of more insurgent attacks after suspected Boko Haram militants killed 158 people last weekend. Thisday newspaper yesterday, February 17, 2014, said the victims were killed in eight villages on Saturday, February 15, 2014.
Worried by the state of insecurity in the North, the 19 State Governors from the region under the aegis of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), met in Kaduna yesterday to deliberate, among other things, ways of restoring peace in troubled parts of the region. According to the Nigerian Tribune newspaper, the meeting was principally centered on emergency rule in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States, and the impact of terrorism on the region. The Governors were also expected to come out with declaration on the security situation in the northeast.
In a bid to stem the tide of the attacks, the government has sent more troops to the terror-stricken villages. It was gathered that the insurgents killed over 65 people in seven villages in Adamawa State, while 93 others were killed when the terrorists struck a village in Borno State. An eyewitness, Adamu Bulama, said he saw 40 corpses with gun wounds, apart from those who were killed in their houses that he could not specify the number.
He gave the names of villages attacked in Adamawa State as Kirchang, Kwambula, Shuwa, Yinagu, Bitiku, Yazza and Dagu, stressing that the gunmen finished their operations comfortably and left without being harassed. The outlawed group also attacked Izge village in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State, killing 93 people.
Sources in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, told journalists that the hoodlums laid siege on the hilly village, killing at will and inflicting severe injuries on the residents. A resident of the area, Mallam Ali Bulama, also told journalists that the gunmen, who were dressed in military camouflage, invaded the town at about midnight. Another resident, Adamu Izge, lamented that the latest attack came barely five days after a similar incident in Konduga that claimed over 60 lives.
