Insurgents Kill Nine Soldiers in Adamawa
At least nine soldiers have been killed by suspected Boko Haram fighters in a border village of Izhe in Adamawa State, local officials have said. The council chairman of Madagali local government area, Maina Ularamu, who confirmed theThursday attack, said he got reports that the military men were in the village to repel an […]
At least nine soldiers have been killed by suspected Boko Haram fighters in a border village of Izhe in Adamawa State, local officials have said.
The council chairman of Madagali local government area, Maina Ularamu, who confirmed theThursday attack, said he got reports that the military men were in the village to repel an attack on the civilian population.
“The soldiers were going to repel a planned attack on Izhe border village when they were ambushed . As I am talking to you , many villagers in the border areas have fled to Madagali town, the administrative headquarters for fear of possible attacks”, he said.
He appealed to Federal Government to deploy adequate military equipment to the area to be able to deal with the situation, saying the attackers prove to have more sophisticated weapons than the soldiers manning area.
“We are calling on the government to station more troops with armoured tanks.These insurgents have more sophisticated weapons than the soldiers, we are suffering from frequent attacks,” Ularamu appealed.
The Commander of the 23rd Armourd Brigade,Yola, Brigadier General Rogers Nicholas, could not be reached for comment as he was said to have gone out for special assignment.However, a top military source confirmed that few soldiers lost their lives in an encounter with suspected Boko Haram fighters on the border with Borno State.
The source said “there was an encounter between our soldiers and the insurgents, we killed many of them and in the process we lost a few men”.
Hospital sources also confirmed that nine corpses of the fallen soldiers were deposited at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yola on Thursday . A staff of the hospital who wants to anonymous told Daily Trust that “ we received nine corpses of soldiers who were killed in Madagali”.
The speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly , Ahmad Fintiri had,during a recent visit to commiserate of victims of a recent attack on Chakawa settlement, called on federal government to provide the manpower and equipment necessary to protect the civilians in Madagali and other areas along Adamawa-Borno border.
He warned that failure to address the security problems may make mockery of the current state of emergency imposed by President Gooodluck Jonathan.,saying “It is the responsibility of Federal Government to protect the people by deploying what is required to provide security in this area which is the worst hit in the state. This area lost over 100 lives in the last six months.