How Damaturu escaped being part of Shekau’s ‘Caliphate’

Damaturu is like a crossroad, the only remaining safe path to Maiduguri in Borno State, where the insurgents held sway for over a decade until mid May, 2013 when they were flushed out by security operatives and youth volunteers called ‘Civilian JTF’.The Gombe-Biu-Damboa-Maiduguri road is gone; the Gwoza-Bama-Konduga-Maiduguri road is no longer accessible. The same […]

Damaturu is like a crossroad, the only remaining safe path to Maiduguri in Borno State, where the insurgents held sway for over a decade until mid May, 2013 when they were flushed out by security operatives and youth volunteers called ‘Civilian JTF’.
The Gombe-Biu-Damboa-Maiduguri road is gone; the Gwoza-Bama-Konduga-Maiduguri road is no longer accessible. The same for Maiduguri-Dikwa-Gamboru-Ngala and Maiduguri-Monguno-Baga road. Invariably, any attack on Damaturu will reverberate across the whole region.
It was a day of untold hardship for residents of Damaturu when they came under attack. Weekly Trust gathered that the insurgents invaded the town from Gujba Southeast axis, shooting and bombing their way up to the government house where troops repelled their advancement. Over 200 people reportedly died, according to various accounts. However, witnesses said Nigerian troops fought fiercely and effectively on that fateful Monday.
The Police Headquarters in Abuja confirmed that 38 Police officers were killed during the attack, which began around 4.30am, when most people were either asleep or planning to observe early morning prayers. Force Public Relations Officer, CP Emmanuel Ojukwu  said the policemen were killed in battle while fighting jointly with other security agencies.
In hospitals, it was confirmed that six soldiers also lost their lives while bodies of more than 150 persons, including civilians and insurgents were evacuated from streets to the morgue.
Locations attacked by the insurgents include: Police Mobile Base, Yobe State University, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Sector office and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office, all along the Gujba road
Mohammed Jibir, a resident along the Gujba road said he was performing ablution to say his early morning prayers when multiple explosions erupted. “We were terrified,” he said. “I ran into a nearby bush. Within minutes, the MOPOL base was set ablaze and the shootings intensified,” he said. He said the insurgents drove into town in over 50 vehicles that included Hilux trucks and motorcycles, “with their lights off.”
A student of Yobe State University who pleaded anonymity said that the attackers burnt down the school’s administration block after they were repelled by security operatives in the town. “We were in the hostel when the shooting started and many students ran into the bush for fear of being attacked, but surprisingly, none of them came in. I hid inside a soak-away pit the whole day,” he said. “They set part of the administrative block ablaze and snatched the university vehicles. They finally left chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’.”
The insurgents set part of the INEC building ablaze and left with eleven vehicles.
A security source said the attackers met the policemen sleeping, opened fire on them and burnt buildings. “The mobile police tried to defend themselves but the assailants over-powered them killed most of them,” he said, adding that they succeeded in overrunning many security points in town but following reinforcement and deployment of a fighter jet, security forces were able defeat them.
“The militants actually gained access to the Government House up to WAWA Hall (close to the official residence of the governor) but we were able to overcome them with the help of fighter jet bombardment,” a senior security official said. Much later, dozens of corpses of insurgents were seen scattered around the Government House.
Another place that the insurgents met stiff resistance was the Presidential Lodge, which is the headquarters of the Joint Task Force (JTF). Much later, when things simmered down, a 24-hour curfew was imposed.
On Tuesday, a day after the attack, security forces, workers from the Yobe State Ministry of Environment, NEMA and Red Cross officials began to recover corpses. The Police Public Relations Officer for Yobe State, Nansel Chagwang and the Registrar of the Yobe State Polytechnic, Geidam, Mallam Arab Umar and two of his sons are among those killed.
Despite the victories recorded by the army, some damage was recorded in Damaturu as residents said air strikes by fighter jets affected some residences at Sabon fegi and Ajari wards, with a child reportedly killed. Our reporter observed bullet holes at the entrance of the government house. Nearby, two vehicles belonging to the insurgents lay destroyed, with one bearing Arabic inscriptions.
A resident called Ibrahim Musa said the insurgents stationed themselves in mosques with sophisticated weapons. “A detachment entered some houses that shares a fence with the Police Mess and ambushed while others engaged the security guarding the rear of the Governor’s House,” he said.  
Haruna Yusuf of Bayan Tasha Market, said that the insurgents raided the area and moved freely on motorcycles chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’. “They rode freely, shooting,” he said, adding that residents hadn’t seen motorbikes for while, as they have been banned in the state capital.
Salisu Abubakar, a resident of Dekumari, an outskirt of Damaturu town, said some insurgents chased fleeing residents and killed some. “The militants selected males among the fleeing residents and offered them rifles to join them, but thirteen of them refused and were killed instantly,” he said.
At Sani Abacha General Hospital, families and hundreds of sympathizers trooped to the facility to identify loved ones. The state government ordered that the injured should be treated with a commitment to settle the bills. Some residents who fled were trapped for more than 48 hours without food. One of them, Maina Yunusa, said that over two hundred people who escaped were prevented from going back to Damaturu by security operatives. He said: “Security personnel directed us to stay at a safe distance in a bush close to them.  We didn’t have food or water and the night was cold, especially for children. We suffered before we entered Ngelzarma town the next day.”
After the insurgents were repelled from Damaturu on Monday and despite heavy losses, they gathered at Garin Itace, a village 20 kilometres away from the state capital, with the intent of launching fresh attacks. But wary locals defied threats and alerted security forces. Within minutes, fighter jets arrived and bombarded the insurgents.
A security expert, Major Kabiru Aliyu (retired) applauded the deployment of new equipment to the North-East but called on security agencies to always use intelligence reports given to them.