Two attacks by suspected Boko Haram insurgents have killed 24 people
in Nigeria’s northeast in the latest violence believed to be in revenge
against vigilantes, residents and officials said Tuesday.
A survivor and a hospital source spoke of 18 people killed in the
town of Bama on Sunday. A resident and a military source said six people
were killed in Damasak on Monday.
The two locations are in Borno state, but are some 200 kilometres (124 miles) apart.
The military has encouraged the formation of vigilante groups to help
it track down Boko Haram members as it pursues an offensive in the
northeast aiming to end the Islamist extremists’ four-year insurgency.
“They came in military uniform and pretended to be members of the
JTF,” survivor Mallam Bakura Module said of the attack in Bama,
referring to a security task force.
“They asked after members of the vigilante group … but they opened
fire on members of the group as we assembled for an address, killing 14
persons and injuring 10 others.”
An official at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital said on
condition of anonymity that four others had died on Monday night,
bringing the death toll to 18.
In Damasak along the border with the neighbouring nation of Niger,
relatives said vigilantes were traced there after travelling to the
community to sell goods at the local market.
“They were shot in the middle of the night while sleeping in the (guest) house,” said one relative, Mallam Ali Abdullahi.
A military official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the attack.
The violence was the latest in a spate of such attacks apparently
targeting vigilantes and local residents’ cooperation with them.
Vigilantes have been credited with helping to push the insurgents
out, but security analysts have warned that the situation risks
spiralling out of control and resulting in further violence in the
future.
Last week, insurgents dressed as soldiers opened fire on worshippers
leaving a mosque in the far northeastern village of Dumba, killing at
least 35 people.
Separately earlier this month on August 10 and 11, suspected Boko
Haram members stormed a mosque in Konduga and shot dead 44 worshippers
as well as 12 other people in a nearby village in another area of the
northeast.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in
the northeast in May and the military immediately launched a major
offensive in the region aiming to end Boko Haram’s insurgency.
The pattern of attacks that has occurred since then indicates the
insurgents may have to a large degree scattered into more remote areas
of the region.
There appeared to be an initial decline in the number of attacks in
the region after the launch of the offensive, but violence has
nonetheless continued, including particularly brutal attacks on three
schools that left dozens of students dead.
Boko Haram’s insurgency has left more than 3,600 dead since 2009,
including killings by the security forces, who have been accused of
major abuses.
The group has claimed to be fighting for the creation of an Islamic
state in Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, though
it is believed to have a number of factions with varying aims.
Nigeria’s 160 million population is roughly divided between a mainly Christian south and mostly Muslim north
