Insurgents raid another village, kill 39

Thirty-nine people were killed Saturday night when gunmen attacked Mainok village in Borno State, in yet another deadly raid blamed on Boko Haram insurgents.Most of the village, which is 55 kilometers from the state capital Maiduguri, was razed to the ground by attackers who operated for hours moving from one area to another, hurling explosives […]

Thirty-nine people were killed Saturday night when gunmen attacked Mainok village in Borno State, in yet another deadly raid blamed on Boko Haram insurgents.
Most of the village, which is 55 kilometers from the state capital Maiduguri, was razed to the ground by attackers who operated for hours moving from one area to another, hurling explosives into buildings.
Mainok resident Mansur Buba said the insurgents laid siege on the village around 10pm, few hours after the deadly twin blasts at a football viewing centre in Maiduguri.
“We were in sober mood over the incident in Maiduguri when we started hearing gunshots and thereafter they went on hurling explosives into houses. This morning (Sunday) we counted 39 bodies,” Buba told Daily Trust yesterday.
Mustapha Musa, a civil servant who passed through Mainok yesterday, said he saw the whole village in ruins.
“When we passed, many buildings were still in flames. Almost all the village, with hundreds of houses, has been destroyed by the merciless terrorists,” he said.
“I saw dead bodies in front of the Central Mosque of the village waiting to be buried. The primary school in the village has been burnt. So also some vehicles and shops.”
Another commuter told Daily Trust he saw many distraught villagers trekking towards Maiduguri after the attack.
A senior officer of the State Security Service (SSS) confirmed the incident to Daily Trust yesterday.
“Yes, Mainok was attacked and over 30 people were killed,” he said.
This is the second major attack on Mainok in months. Gunmen attacked the village last year after some vigilantes captured many insurgents and handed them over to security operatives.
The Mainok attack came in the wake of stepped up violence by suspected Boko Haram fighters in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, which are all under a state of emergency.
Many other villages have been similarly destroyed since the beginning of the year. Last month, Borno’s Izge village was attacked twice, with more than 100 dead and the settlement destroyed.
Last Wednesday, Michika and Shuwa towns in Adamawa were raided, leaving dozens dead.
That incident came just two days after the February 24 attack at the Federal Government College Buni Yadi, Yobe State, where at least 29 students were killed.
Following the Buni Yadi violence, military authorities said they were on the trail of the attackers.
Blasts death toll now 51
Meanwhile, death toll in Saturday’s twin blasts in Maiduguri has risen to 51 after more bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the building destroyed by the explosion.
The blasts happened near a football viewing centre in Gomari area.
Most of the victims were children, aged between 8 and 15, who were hawking in front of the viewing centre near a busy market that attracts more people at night.
Also affected were women who fry and sell bean cake and other food items by the roadside; men selling sugarcane, watermelon and barbecued meat; passersby and fun-seekers who were being entertained by drummers at a nearby wedding venue.
The viewing centre was also filled to capacity with fans watching a football match when the explosions happened, rescue workers said.
A mother of nine, who was frying bean cake in the vicinity, was among those killed. “She was the bread winner of the family because her husband, a policeman, was killed by the Boko Haram long ago,” neighbor Bashir Yakubu said.
When our correspondents visited the scene yesterday, Red Cross workers and vigilantes were seen trying to pull out dead bodies buried in destroyed buildings.
More than 20 houses and 18 shops were reduced to rubble by the massive explosions which also destroyed cars, tricycles and personal effects of people.
Two large craters were seen at the scene and many people were still trooping to catch a glimpse of the damage.
Some military and police operatives cordoned the place while sniper dogs were also deployed to locate victims trapped in the rubble.
Military authorities had not made any formal statement on the incident by yesterday evening.
A Red Cross official who does not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak said they worked all through the night searching for dead bodies.
“We have so far recovered 51 bodies and over 50 others that sustained injuries,” he said.
Hassan Ali, the founder of the ‘Civilian JTF’ vigilante group in Gomari, described the incident as sad and unfortunate.
“When the first bomb exploded, everybody near the place fell and all buildings collapsed. Those (people) that were alive started running and those with grievous injuries kept screaming for help,” he said.
“At that point, those that were far from the scene rushed to offer assistance…as they gathered, the other one (explosive) burst and collapsed all the buildings around.”
Shuaibu Adamu Manager, another vigilante, said, “The Federal Government has failed us. We no longer sleep because we are in perpetual fear…. We are pleading with the troops to implement the state of emergency to take the war to the terrorists in the bushes.
“We are ready to sacrifice our lives and pursue the insurgents to their enclaves but we need cover by the military.”
He lamented the streamlining of the ‘Civilian JTF’ in the state capital. “Before the introduction of BOYES (Borno Youth Empowerment Scheme) in which some 2,000 youths were selected and put on salaries, everybody in Maiduguri was a stakeholder in community policing which gave us upper hand in chasing the terrorists out. Unfortunately, the problem is coming back to us because many youths have been discouraged from participating. We need to set aside sentiments and work together as an endangered people,” he said.
Ali Abdullahi, an angry resident said the Federal Government had politicised the insurgency. “The Boko Haram insurgents…are in the bushes. Government should use aerial reconnaissance and track them…troops must be proactive not reactive,” he said.
Borno Deputy Governor Zannah Umar Mustapha visited the scene yesterday, where he said Governor Kashim Shettima, who has travelled out of the state, was “deeply saddened by the attack on innocent civilians.”
He directed chairman of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Kadiri Rahis, to liase with the people to compile names of surviving victims being treated at various hospitals for immediate assistance.
A spokesman for the Gomari community, Malam Bukar Modu, told the deputy governor the explosions were the worst incident in the area since the insurgency started about four years ago.
“The blasts killed 46 persons on the spot, while six others died later in the hospital. Unspecified numbers of corpses are still under the rubbles of the destroyed buildings,” he said.