Abuja: Nineteen people were killed when Boko Haram militants stormed a village in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, local residents said on Tuesday.
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News of the assault was slow to emerge due to poor communication in the region after Boko Haram destroyed telecoms masts in previous attacks.
One Huyum resident, Ishaya Ayuba, said: “The attackers remained up to 4:00am this morning, until they withdrew”.
“Unlike before when they would gather people and open fire on them, the terrorists this time around, announced their arrival with sporadic shootings and throwing of what looked like petrol bombs on houses, which resulted in several burnt houses”.
A top member of the youth vigilance group in Biu, a neighboring local government area of Damboa, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said some of the villagers, who fled from the attack villages, narrated their ordeal. Boko Haram last week denied Nigerian military reports that militant fighters are hemmed into the Sambisa Forest and claimed its insurgents still hold towns hundreds of kilometers (miles) away.
Ajimi was amongst the few male youths that were lucky to escape the attack that forced him and many others to flee to Biu, 100km away from Damboa. A suicide bomber hit a busy cattle market in the locality at the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency.
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