Boko Haram Kills 56 In Fresh Borno Attack

SAN FRANCISCO, August 30, (THEWILL) – Boko Haram gunmen have killed 56 villagers in a fresh attack on Baanu village in Nganzai local government area of Borno State.

Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, disclosed this while hosting parents of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls at a reception for them at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari at the Government House, Maiduguri, the state capital, Saturday.

Shettima said: “Boko Haram crisis is a calamity that has befallen us, as the insurgents do not discriminate whether somebody is Christian or Muslim nor tribal affiliations. Just yesterday (Friday) they killed 56 people in Baanu village of Nganzai local government, as I am speaking to you, their corpses are still littered on the street of the village.”

However, the villagers who escaped the attack said no fewer than 68 persons were killed in the attack.

One of them, Abba Mohammed, said in Maiduguri that 68 persons were killed while several others were injured in the attack.

According to Mohammed, the gunmen stormed the village at about 8:30pm on Friday and started shooting at everybody they saw.

“We had to flee into the bush to hide and after they left, we returned back to pick some of our belongings and fled into Maiduguri. But before leaving, I counted 68 corpses; some were slaughtered and some other had gunshot wounds,” Mohammed said, adding “the corpses may be more as they were all littered across the streets of the village.”

Pleading with government to provide adequate security for the people of the area, Mohammed said:”Something needed to be done fast if not they (insurgents) will continue to wreak havoc on innocent citizens, as the surrounding villages which are five kilometres away from Gajiram, the headquarters of Nganzai, have been taken over by the insurgents who continued to increase in number by the days.”