An attack by suspected Boko Haram members in Benishek, Borno State,
guarded by a vigilante group yesterday led to the killing of about
18 people while 17 people were injured, residents and a government official
said.
The
Associated Press (AP) also reports that the attack in Benisheik, 72 kilometres
(45 miles) west of Maiduguri, the birthplace of the Boko Haram network, took
place days after the military said it killed at least 50 insurgents in the area
Zannah
Fannami, a 27-year-old operative with the civilian Joint Task Force vigilante
group, said its members were attacked while awaiting Boko Haram’s approach on
the town.
“We heard
that they would be coming since Friday and had been keeping vigil all nights,”
he said from the University of Maiduguri hospital while being treated for a
bullet to his right thigh late Saturday night. “When we least expected it, we
heard a thunderous sound like that of a bomb coming from the direction of a
soldiers’ post; then we decided to advance toward the sound and the Boko Haram
gunmen, carrying sophisticated arms, opened fire on us, killing 12 of our
members.”
He said
the vigilante group, which formed to fight the Boko Haram network, was able to
kill five of the Islamic sect members and take possession of four AK-47 rifles.
According
to the AP, another injured civilian-JTF operative, 32-year-old Muhammed Abuwar,
said: “The military had agreed to watch and lay in ambush with us against the
Boko Haram, but when the attackers came, none of them came over to assist us.
Most of the Boko Haram shooters were shooting from atop trees.”
The
military has agreed to support any missions by the civilian-JTF until its
newest 7th Division fully formed to fight Boko Haram is fully functional.
Though the military could not be immediately reached for comment, the road
leading to Benisheik was barricaded Sunday and helicopter gunships were seen
flying toward the attacked town.
A top
Borno State government labour adviser, Garba Ngamdu, who also hails from Benisheik,
said one of the vigilante members had died in the hospital as doctors tried to
remove bullets from his body.
He also
confirmed the death of the five Boko Haram members at the hands of vigilante
members with machetes and said their dead bodies still lay on the outskirts of
the town.
Benisheik
is a scanty linear settlement of staple crop farmers of not more than 1,000
houses, mostly made of mud.
There has
been a rash of attacks by suspected sect members in northeast Nigeria recently,
after young vigilantes formed the civilian-JTF in June, taking over the search
for the insurgents. The vigilante force claims credit for thousands of arrests
in Maiduguri and many killings.
