Boko Haram kills 145 in Borno towns

Scores of people were reportedly injured, while many houses and shops were destroyed and assorted food items and animals carted away. The two attacks were perpetrated in less than 30 hours, witnesses said.The terrorists attacked Kukawa on Wednesday, where they killed, at least, 97 people.Ahmadu Bukar, a farmer in Kukawa, said the assailants stormed the […]

Scores of people were reportedly injured, while many houses and shops were destroyed and assorted food items and animals carted away. The two attacks were perpetrated in less than 30 hours, witnesses said.
The terrorists attacked Kukawa on Wednesday, where they killed, at least, 97 people.
Ahmadu Bukar, a farmer in Kukawa, said the assailants stormed the town around 6.30pm when the people were observing the Magrib prayers after breaking their fast.
“The insurgents, numbering over 50, stormed Kukawa with many weapons and attacked worshippers in mosques. Most of those killed did not eat anything apart from date and water.
“More than 60 people were killed in three different mosques and the rest were killed in houses,” Bukar said.
Kukawa is 185 kilometres north of Maiduguri, which had suffered series of attacks in the last four years. Some of the people who fled to Maiduguri said  women and children were also  killed by the assailants.

“Among the victims were innocent children that accompanied their fathers to mosques,” Ahidjo Mallum, a Kukawa resident informed, adding that even women were not spared, with many of them trapped in houses.
Chibado Abdullahi,  a farmer from the area who also  fled to Maiduguri, explained that the attack was launched when people were returning to the town after several months in other climes.                    
Abdullahi narrated, “Some of the victims just returned from Bosso and Diffa in Niger Republic, while others came in from Maiduguri to attend to their farms. The terrorists pursued some worshippers into the bush where they killed them. We recovered some of the corpses today.
“Another set of the insurgents went from house to house and shot indiscriminately at women who were preparing food. They also set the houses ablaze.
Kolo Anamma, a fisherman from Kukawa cried that the terrorists have wiped away the family of his uncle. “They wiped out the immediate family of my uncle, Modu Mustapha Baga, who was a senior local government official. They killed him and his children and then set his entire house ablaze,” Anamma said.
Kwantami Amodu, another Kukawa fisherman, stated that the attackers operated for over four hours without any attempt by security forces to intervene.
“There was no single soldier in Kukawa when the terrorists came around 6.30pm. The soldiers were in Kuros-Kawwa, which is just 11 kilometres away. The terrorists stole assorted food items from houses and then set everything ablaze. They left around 11 pm,” Amodu expatiated.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Boko Haram insurgents reportedly attacked Musara 1 and Musara 11 in the Monguno local government area, where they killed at least 48 people. Monguno is 145 kilometres north of Maiduguri.
Hashim Hussain, a vigilante from the area, said the attackers stormed Musara 1 around 8pm, killed and maimed and then proceeded to Musara 11 where they repeated the same atrocity.
“They killed 48 men in the two villages and injured 17; they also set many houses ablaze,” said Hussain.
A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Mohammed Tahir Monguno, confirmed the attacks in his constituency. “I received the sad news yesterday (Wednesday) that Boko Haram terrorists had attacked some communities near Monguno.
“We are witnessing a new wave of attacks since the dislodgement of the insurgents from the Sambisa forest,” he said.
Mussaram 1 and 11 are about 8km away from Monguno town.
There was no immediate comment on the attack from both the military and the police in Maiduguri.