After the carnage… Picking up the pieces in Damaturu

“Yes, life will never be the same because Damaturu is such a small place that cannot easily swallow the onslaught launched on it about eight days ago,” Jamima Musa, a restaurateur on Bauchi Road in Yobe’s capital city of Damaturu remarked. “The attack on Damaturu was such a big blow which altered the peaceful atmosphere […]

“Yes, life will never be the same because Damaturu is such a small place that cannot easily swallow the onslaught launched on it about eight days ago,” Jamima Musa, a restaurateur on Bauchi Road in Yobe’s capital city of Damaturu remarked. “The attack on Damaturu was such a big blow which altered the peaceful atmosphere of the hitherto blissful town. The gunmen and bombers literally took charge of the state capital between 5pm and10pm on that fateful day,” she said. She said now, everyone lives in fear of the unknown because no one can tell what will happen any moment from now.

Another resident, Malam Khamilu, 75, said if the bombers had wished, “they would have taken over the Government House and all other formations.” He said, “they (gunmen) were well prepared for the attack. The last time I heard the sound of a rocket launcher was during the civil war, but I heard it on Friday (4th November, 2011).”  Up till Thursday, many of the cars that were hit by rocket launchers and flung into the bush could be seen along the western by-pass in Damaturu. Blood stains still remain visible on the tarred roads in the metropolis.

The state police commissioner, Suleiman Lawan confirmed that 53 people including the army, police, immigration, road safety officials and civilians were killed in the multiple attacks, but health workers and humanitarian organizations had put the figures at well over 150.

“We are still receiving corpses that are being recovered from the bushes,” a health official at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu said. He said some people who were injured in their legs and hands but managed to escape the scene of the attack died in the bush from excessive bleeding. “We have received reports of more than ten of such cases,” the health worker said.

A walk through Damaturu shows that the city has a huge rebuilding ahead of it because it is now a pitiful shadow of its former self. At Jerusalem, a Christian dominated area, about six churches have been burnt and five others vandalized. Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Garba Idi said officials of the association had in a meeting held in Damaturu noted that they were not comfortable with the security arrangement in the Christian-dominated Jerusalem.  “We are calling on all Christians in the state to be calm,” he said.

Ustaz Aminu Huzaifa, a Muslim cleric in Damaturu cautioned that what befell Damaturu should not be seen as a direct attack on one segment of the society. “When you look at the casualty figure, you will realize that dozens of Muslims were also killed, it was like a mass killing carried out without any thought about who is being targeted,” he said. He added that between Saturday and Monday, more than 60 Muslims were buried at the Damaturu cemetery.

Damaturu, situated in between Maiduguri on the eastern fringes as well as Potiskum and Bauchi on the southern fringes, has never before witnessed such catastrophe of this dimension; the town is seen by many as a safe haven that has remain undisturbed by famine or the violence ravaging its neighbours. Maiduguri, Potiskum and Bauchi have often been targets of violent attacks orchestrated by members of the Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnati Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, popularly known as Boko Haram.

At last, when the group descended on Damaturu the result was devastating. A defunct political party secretariat which served as temporary headquarters of the police since the creation of the state in 1991 is no more. The offices have now been gutted by fire, forcing the police commissioner, his deputies and assistants as well as the rank and file to relocate elsewhere.

The new multi-million naira permanent headquarters of the police located along Gashua Road was also not spared from the attacks. Residents of the area told Weekly Trust that no fewer than seven explosives were thrown into the one-storey building that was waiting to be commissioned.

The A Division headquarters of the police, situated in the heart of Damaturu was also riddled with bullets though the offices are still intact.“Thanks to the new perimeter fence at the police station. As you can see, the attackers did not enter the main building. Unfortunately, they found it very easy to attack the police headquarters because there was no perimeter fence, the whole place was porous, making it easy to penetrate,” Salisu Abubakar, a civil servant said.

Outside the A division police office lays the carcass of many police vehicles that were either bombed or set ablaze. Even the Anti Bomb vehicle of the police was bombed on that fateful day.

Behind the police A Division is the main branch of the First Bank which was also attacked. The burglary proof door was bugled and parts of the bank’s building bombed. The building is now undergoing renovation. Some parts of the federal government secretariat, headquarters of the Immigration Service and many other government formations have all been reduced to rubbles.

But more disturbing was the two storey edifice that houses men and officers of the Anti Terrorism unit of the police where a suicide bomber drove his bomb laden car and hit the building. “The outcome was disastrous because almost all the people in the building have been killed. We had to use hand gloves to pick human parts from the rubbles,” Mr. Musa, an aid worker said.

Boko Haram had since claimed responsibility for the bombardments that swept many security and federal government formations but it is not yet clear why the group suddenly swooped on Damaturu.

Speculations had it that members of the Boko Haram took the decision because security authorities picked some top members of the group who were residing in Damaturu and Potiskum. Another speculation says that the attack was part of the strategic roadmap of the group towards extending its frontiers beyond Borno State. “We want to make it clear that our men who are now wallowing in prisons and cells of security agencies must be freed,” Abul Qaqa, the spokesman of the group had said.

Residents of Damaturu say the state capital does not have the strength to withstand further onslaughts from the group. “Something ugly must have precipitated the onslaught,” Mudi Sani, a civil rights activist observed.

For now, most businesses have closed. All the building material shops along Gujba and Gashua Roads have closed and the owners have moved to “safer locations”. Artisans including vulcanizers, iron benders, masons and brick layers have gone underground. Both Muslim and Christian residents of the town are afraid of continuing with normal life even as they have gone through the pain of recovering the bodies of their loved ones for burial.

When our reporter visited the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital penultimate Tuesday, about six people wearing facial masks and hand gloves were seen carefully lifting the dismembered bodies of two construction workers and lowering them into white wooden coffins before loading them on to a waiting van outside the mortuary. The relatives of the deceased say two of their brothers, Abu Garba, 32, and Abbas Kusa, 40, were among the victims of the multiple attacks in Damaturu. “In fact, the deceased had completed the assignment that brought them to Damaturu. They only went into the town to refuel their car but ran into the attackers,” Babagana Adam, the man who took them to Damaturu said.

“We feel very bad and life will never be the same again because a strong pillar of the family had fallen,” said David, Garba’s uncle. The mortuary of the hospital is over burdened. The few freezers inside could not cater for the dozens of corpses, leaving many on the bare floor. A nauseating stench from putrefying human flesh rented the air while heaps of blood-soaked clothing from abandoned corpses litters the premises of the mortuary.

Nine swollen, decomposing bodies lay in the morgue. “All the corpses, apart from these nine, have been identified and taken away by their families,” a hospital official who craved anonymity said. “Five of the unclaimed bodies are those of policemen.”

“These remaining bodies are fast-decomposing and pose a health risk and we have to give them a mass burial if their relations do not pick them up because the police commissioner insisted that families of policemen killed should take the bodies to their various hometowns at their expense,” he said. The remains of a police corporal lay on a stretcher covered in a white shroud brought by his relations. “Our brother died in active service and despite that we are the ones to pay for conveying his remains home; we find this very disturbing,” Yakaka, one of the relatives of the deceased said.

Before the latest attacks, Damaturu was a “civil service capital” where life thrives on working days only. As soon as the weekend approaches, most offices, streets and social centres like restaurants are deserted, turning the town quickly into ghostly silence. Undoubtedly, there is uneasy calm in Damaturu though police authorities keep telling residents not to flee. “We have deployed the policemen that we can. All we can do is to use what we have on ground in order to protect the citizens,” the police commissioner said.

No one can tell if residents will heed the police commissioner’s assurances. For now, the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the state government means residents must flee to their homes before 7pm. And travelers passing through the town must be wary of starting their journey towards evening because they may ultimately have to pass the night at any one of the ‘Welcome to Damaturu’ gates.