About 20 villagers including a monarch were killed after gunmen,
suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists, attacked two villages in
different parts of Borno state on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning,
security sources and witnesses said.
In one of the attacks, the gunmen on Wednesday morning at about 7
a.m. stormed Wala Village, killing 18 villagers and injuring several
others.
Wala Village is in Gwoza Local Government Area, some 130 km southwest of Maiduguri, the Borno capital.
A local government official, who does not want to be named for
security reasons, said “We are in difficult times in Gwoza local
government; deaths and killings has become a daily affair; 18 people
were killed in Wala this morning by the Boko Haram gunmen”.
A senior officer of the Department of State Security Service, DSS,
also confirmed the killing in Wala; but asked not to be quoted. See more after the jump.........................
“We have just received the report from our officers in Gwoza that the
Boko Haram gunmen had attacked Wala village and killed 18 poor souls
there; it is rather unfortunate and sad development despite our efforts
up here”, he said.
The DSS officer also confirmed that some 12 hours earlier, another
set of gunmen attacked Sabon-Kasuawa Village in Hawul Local Government
Area, 210km south of Maiduguri, where they killed a local monarch
(district head) and his guard.
A politician from Hawul Local Government, Hyeldi Bwala, confirmed to
PREMIUM TIMES on phone that the gunmen attacked the monarch shortly
after he returned home from the mosque where he went to observe the
Tuesday night prayers at about 7:30 p.m.
“They simply walked right into the palace of the monarch and shot him
in his bedroom. And on their way out they also shot at his guard before
fleeing away into the dark night”, said Mr. Bwala.
Wala Village is also about 130km away from Chibok town where over 100
secondary school girls were abducted on Monday night by suspected
members of the Boko Haram. The students are yet to be found.
The top monarch of Gwoza, Idrissa Timta (who is addressed as Emir of
Gwoza), had last week made a save our-soul plea to the Nigerian
government and security agencies to come to the aid of Gwoza residents
whom he said suffer too frequent attacks.
“We in Gwoza have suffered too many attacks, killings and
destruction, in the past weeks and months. There is no day that we don’t
mourn the death of at least seven people who were being killed by the
insurgents,” the monarch told journalists.
“Our people have been forced to flee, our markets no longer operate
optimally, food items, goods and wares are no longer coming into Gwoza
for a long time now. We want action from government so that lives can be
saved; if nothing is done we have no other option than to desert our
homelands and flee in to the neighbouring Cameroon towns where we may
perhaps get protection”.
Gwoza is the one of the mountainous countryside of Borno State that
shares borders with Cameroon in its south and Sambissa in its north.
Gwoza’s rocky mountains have served as a hideout for Boko Haram
terrorists.
The Borno attacks have continued despite an emergency rule imposed on
the state, as well as Adamawa and Yobe, since May last year.
Source: PremiumTimes
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