SAN FRANCISCO, July 14, (THEWILL) – A fresh Boko Haram attack in Borno State has claimed 45 lives. Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents Monday stormed Dille village in a convoy of over 24 vehicles and motorcycles, torching several houses and shops, killing 45 villagers in the process.
A local resident,, Njimtiku Papka, told THEWILL the gunmen started shooting sporadically upon arrival in the village.
“Some of us had to flee into the nearby hills for safety, because the insurgents do not spare any person in their attacks and killings in the last three or four months.
“Monday’s attacks and killings bring to five other villages being attacked by Boko Haram gunmen, without being arrested by the military or police since last January.
“We were caught unawares by the gunmen’s dawn attacks, because most of us were asleep by then; when we started to hear people chanting God is great in Arabic; and their gunshots we were awe stricken. They also burnt down our houses and locked-up shops with petrol-bombs,” he said, adding that the gunmen did not spare those they considered as military informants.
A member of the local vigilante group in the village, Amos Yohanna, also said that more people are coming down from the hills, while those who fled into nearby bushes, are converging at the market square, before fleeing to Lassa about 20 kilometres away for safety, because of the fear that the gunmen may attack again.
Local sources told THEWILL that two hours after the attack, a military fighter jet flew in and hovered for half an hour, to probably track the fleeing gunmen into the forest.
The exact number of casualties from the attack could not however be confirmed when filing this report as a police officer, craving anonymity, only disclosed that it took the gunmen over two hours to complete their deadly attack on the village without being repelled by the military.
“Over three dozens of villagers lost their lives along with several houses and shops burnt down. The insurgents came through the Uba-Lassa road in their Hilux vehicles, while others used motorcycles in attacking the village in the early hours of Monday,” he said.
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