Thousands Flee after a Jihadist Attack Kills Ten People in Borno

By theGazetteNGR

Editorinchief

Posted: April 15, 2021 at 3:42 PM, Updated: September 21, 2022 at 7:44 AM

hey engaged the troops in a firefight but were made to withdraw with aerial support

According to local officials and the UN, jihadists attacked a northeast Nigerian town on Thursday, burning down a UN office and forcing thousands of people to flee over the border into Niger.

According to military sources and locals, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters raided Damasak in Borno state on Wednesday, the town’s third assault in a week.

Militants attacked Damasak’s garrison while residents were breaking their fast on the second day of Ramadan, clashing with troops before being forced to withdraw and move into the town.

â€œThe destruction the insurgents wrought on Damasak this time is unprecedented,â€ local government chairman Mustapha Bunu Kolo told AFP.

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â€œThey engaged the troops in a firefight but were made to withdraw with aerial support.â€

The assault, according to Kolo and another local official, killed ten people.

Eight people were killed and another 12 were injured, according to the UN refugee agency, with unofficial estimates indicating that 8,000 fleeing residents had arrived in the Niger towns of Chetimari and Gagamari.

â€œAccording to preliminary reports from our partners on the ground, the armed men also burned down several buildings, including a police station, a clinic, residences of local dignitaries and UNHCRâ€™s Protection Desk,â€ it said.

The full extent of displacement was still unknown, according to the release, because humanitarian organisations withdrew workers due to insecurity.

Nigeria’s military has been battling a jihadist insurgency in the northeast for more than a decade, which has spread to neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.

In Nigeria alone, at least 36,000 people have been killed and two million have been displaced.

Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, a spokesman for the Nigerian army, denied claims that insurgents had taken control of Damasak.

â€œThere was an attack by the terrorists sometime yesterday but they were effectively repelled,â€ the statement said.

â€œAs we speak, troops are in total control of the general area.â€

One of Nigeria’s so-called ‘supercamps,’ larger fortified garrisons where the army is bunkered down in an effort to better protect against attacks, is located in Damasak.

Critics and local residents claim that the policy of retreating to larger bases has enabled jihadists to move freely in rural areas.

Aid agencies have warned that they are struggling to respond to the crisis in the northeast due to deteriorating security, overt harassment of aid workers, and military-imposed restrictions, all of which the government denies.

The EU said on Thursday that it was monitoring the town’s repeated violent attacks with ‘strong concern.’

â€œBecause of the recent increase of violence in Northeast Nigeria, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people will be left without assistance in an area where humanitarian assistance was already struggling to reach all those in need,â€ EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said.

Following three previous attacks since January, many residents had already fled Damasak for the state capital Maiduguri or the town of Diffa across the Niger border, but others chose to remain.

Hundreds of residents are seen on foot and on donkeys moving along a bush road, laden with personal belongings, as they flee Damasak in video clips sent to AFP by sources.

On Saturday and Tuesday, the insurgents targeted Damasak, destroying humanitarian facilities and killing at least four people, including a soldier. They were also in town in January.

ISWAP, which split from the jihadist group Boko Haram in 2016, has emerged as Nigeria’s most dangerous enemy, targeting soldiers and bases while killing and kidnapping civilians.

The northeastern jihadist insurgency, terrorist kidnap gangs in the northwest, and a surge in separatist attacks in the southeast are all battlegrounds for President Muhammadu Buhari’s security forces. Agence France-Presse

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