Residents of Damboa village said they are still picking piles of corpses after Boko Haram gunmen Friday morning invaded the besieged town, 85km south of Maiduguri, shooting and killing defenceless villagers and setting homes ablaze.
A top security official (names withheld) from Maiduguri confirmed the attack but said no details on extent of damage yet.
Vigilante official, Abbas Gava, told Echoesinn blogger that “the death casualty could be very high because my contacts in Damboa said they are still picking and piling the corpses, but many houses, nearly half of what remains of the several attacked town has been burnt”.
Gava promised to get more details on the number of deaths recorded.
He said the gunmen crept upon the villagers who were about to perform the early dawn prayers.
Since the Sunday of fortnight ago, when Boko Haram gunmen walked over a military base killings dozen of soldiers and four police men in Damboa, Boko Haram gunmen had laid siege along the road leading from Maiduguri to Damboa, and had forced soldiers going to the attacked base for evacuation of its destroyed munitions, to turn back by launching some ambush shooting on them twice. Two more soldiers were reported dead in one of the ambush attack. But the soldiers were able to
return fire from an armoured tanker at a sniper with Rocket Launcher who was firing from atop a tree, while others were shooting from the surrounding bushes, a witness said.
Boko Haram had also cut off access to Damboa from the southern part of the road coming from Biu town, 100km away from Damboa by blowing down a major bridge on the highway at a hamlet called Sabongari last Monday.
Damboa, an agrarian village where Borno state sourced most of its grocery and fruits supply, had suffered several attacks in the past two years, reasons of the newly established 7 Division of the Nigeria Army to establish operational
base called 33 Tank Battalion in Damboa.
But since after the last attack before today’s (18th July, 2014) neither the soldiers nor the police could return back to Damboa. The embattled few villagers were left at the protection of the sticks and Dane guns-carrying youth vigilante called Civilian-JTF.
Courtesy:
African Spotlight
MILITARY commanders fear that as many as 162 soldiers deserted the Nigerian Army last week as morale
sinks to an all-time low due to the ongoing success terrorist sect Boko Haram is enjoying in its war with
the army.
A headcount of soldiers serving with the Seventh Mechanised Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri showed that 162 rifles were abandoned by soldiers who were suspected to have left their duty posts during the week. Ministry of defence officials said that is being treated as a routine case of deserters as the authorities are convinced the terrorists did not capture any of its soldiers alive.
Apparently, the soldiers are unhappy about the seeming advantages Boko Haram terrorists are enjoying over the
military in their ongoing battle across northeastern Nigeria. Sources within the army say that soldiers are not only unhappy about the fact that Boko Haram is a better fighting force but they are particularly annoyed about the regularity with which military plans are leaked to the sect.
One army source said: “Routine troop deployment, withdrawals from positions are known to the terrorists even before the soldiers on the ground are briefed. This leak is surely traceable to the officer cadre within the division."
Commanders of the Seventh Mechanised Division only got to know the extent of the problem yesterday afternoon, when a mop-up operation recovered the abandoned rifles. These weapons have now been returned to the division's armoury and the military authorities are battling to raise troops’ morale, which has reached a new low.
This has been the single largest desertion in a week in recent times as the growing disaffection with the
Nigerian Army appears to reached fresh heights. Over recent months, Boko Haram have ramped up daring assaults as its fighters seem to be more motivated.
Courtesy:
Nigerian Watch
