The rubble of a burnt house after Boko Haram attacks at Dalori village in northeastern Nigeria this weekend. The first attack took place in the village of Guie, where one person was killed and other 32 resulted injured; and the second attack took place in the village of Miterine, where two persons where killed and 24 injured.
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Boko Haram groups have bombed schools, churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and assassinated politicians and religious leaders. According to the Toronto Sun, the better-armed Boko Haram held their own, until “reinforcements arrived with heavier weapons”, to drive them back.
The insurgents arrived in golf carts and on motorcycle, said Col. Mustapha Anka, a military spokesman in Maiduguri.
Witnesses reported that the fighters ravaged the settlement for four hours, and that three female suicide bombers blew themselves up among people who were fleeing. “I lost 11 people, and 5 of our children are nowhere to be found”, she said.
The extremist group, based in northern Nigeria, killed 6,644 people in 2014, an increase of more than 300% from the previous year, according to the latest tally from the Global Terrorism Index.
Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon have formed a coalition along with Benin to fight Boko Haram comprising 8,700 soldiers, police and civilians.
The attack highlights the insecurity in North Eastern Nigeria despite claims by the Nigerian military that it has curtailed the Boko Haram insurgency.
Today, millions of families in Nigeria have been displaced by the group’s terror attacks.
Borno state capital Maiduguri was struck by several bombs at the end of December that killed at least 48 people.
Mallam Hassan, another villager, gave a similar account.
“We can’t even pick those ones, they were seriously burned”, the official said, according to Reuters.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in West Africa since 2009 in its quest to establish a state with a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
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Amao told reporters that the air component has intensified air strikes against the Boko Haram terrorists in continuation of the counter-terrorism operations under Operation Lafiya Dole.
