Boko Haram Breaks Ceasefire, Kills Dozens In Borno

Despite the purported declaration of ceasefire by both federal government and members of the Boko Haram leaders, various communities in Borno State have come under attack as the insurgents reportedly slain about 40 persons including the father of immediate speaker of Borno State House of Assembly, Goni Ali Modu.

 On Friday, the terror group attacked the town of Shaffa in Hawul local government area of Borno State where they killed eight locals there and injured several others, even as hundreds of others were said to have fled their homes. The gunmen returned back to the town to fight members of the Civilian-JTF who went to pick corpses of slain persons for burial. A bloody gunfight was said to have ensued many may have been killed including a member of the Boko Haram. A top security personnel in Maiduguri confirmed the incident to LEADERSHIP Sunday but declined giving details on the possible casualty recorded in the Saturday repeat attack. In the same vein the Boko Haram gunmen had on Friday, the day the purported ceasefire was announced, attacked Abadam village in the northern part of Borno state where they reportedly beheaded several villagers including the septuagenarian father of a former Speaker of the Borno state House of Assembly, Goni Ali

Modu.According to a resident of Abadam,

Aminu Abdullahi, “dozens of gunmen

suspected to be members of the Boko Haram have taken over Abadam. They

have been in Abadam since Thursday but

finally hoist their flags on Friday after

killing many prominent people and

forcing others to cross over to Niger”.

Abdullahi added that “at least “30 people

have been killed in Abadam alone but I

don’t know the actual number of people

killed in nearby localities. A traditional ruler, Ba Mallam Wasak, 75, an

uncle of the immediate past

Speaker of the Borno State House of

Assembly, Goni Ali Modu was among

those killed. As I am talking to you, both

my father and mother are still trapped in Abadam

and only God will save them. Many people,

especially the old are still in Abadam

because they could not flee,” he said.

Abadam is a border community, located

about 200km north of Maiduguri, the

Borno state capital. It is one of the

border community that is literally cut

off from the rest of the state by desert

sand dunes. It takes 4-wheel driven SUVs

and Jeeps to get to Abadam anytime of

the year. Similarly, some trapped, but lucky to escape, residents of Bama locaL government area of Borno state where

the Boko Haram had seized for about two months now have reported cases of

serial killings of helpless residents by

the Boko Haram terrorists. A 50 years old woman, Fatima Bulama, who managed to escape to Maiduguri on foot last Monday said “things are getting worst in Bama; they were killing people selectively everyday. Days before I managed to escape, they gathered all the younger women and divided them into three groups according to their age grade and then they took them away; we never knew what would become of them, but I know it
would be something terrible.”