B’ Haram kills 45 in fresh Borno village attack

Suspected members of the deadly Boko Haram
Islamic sect on Monday attacked Dille village in
Borno State, killed 45 people and torched several
houses and shops and forced many people to
flee into nearby hills for safety.
The terrorists, it was gathered, came in a convoy
of over 20 vehicles and motorcycles.
According to one of the villagers, Njimtiku Papka,
who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on the
phone, the terrorists on arriving the village
started shooting indiscriminately at everyone in
sight.
He said, “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 that had
been attacked by Boko Haram gunmen, without
being arrested by the military or police since
January.”
He lamented that among the people killed by the
insurgents were those they considered as
informants to the military.
Papka added, “We were caught unawares by the
gunmen’s dawn attacks, because most of us
were asleep but we were woken up by the chant
of God is great in Arabic and sporadic gunshots.
They also burnt down our houses and shops
with petrol bombs.”
A vigilante in the village, Amos Yohanna, also
told journalists on the telephone on Monday that
more people were coming down from the hills,
while the ones that fled into nearby bushes had
converged on the market square, before they fled
to Lassa about 20 kilometres away to safety.
He also said that two hours after the attack, a
fighter jet flew in and hovered for half an hour, to
probably track the fleeing insurgents into the
forest.
A police officer, who spoke anonymously to
journalists from Askira town, could not ascertain
the exact number of casualties of the attack, but
revealed that it took the insurgents over two
hours to raze down the entire Dille village.
He said, “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.”