The Gamboru Ngala attack

What makes the Gamboru-Ngala attack stand out in the series of these mass massacres – from Bama to Baga to Konduga, etc., – is that Gamboru is a well-known busy border market town, not a remote habitation that may be difficult to protect. Secondly, this is the third attack on the town in a few […]

What makes the Gamboru-Ngala attack stand out in the series of these mass massacres – from Bama to Baga to Konduga, etc., – is that Gamboru is a well-known busy border market town, not a remote habitation that may be difficult to protect. Secondly, this is the third attack on the town in a few months. Moreover, the latest attack took place in broad daylight, when business in the market was in full swing, and lasted almost five hours, with no apparent response from soldiers deployed there-and in Yobe and Adamawa states- as part of the emergency measures introduced by the federal government.
Witnesses reported seeing gunmen riding in armoured trucks and on motorcycles, and overran Gamboru Ngala at about midday, setting buildings on fire and shooting on civilians as they fled. The military said that the town had been left unguarded because soldiers based there had been redeployed north towards Lake Chad in an effort to rescue the over 200 kidnapped schoolgirls of Chibok.  
Apart from the exceedingly high death toll, the insurgents also burnt down almost all the houses in the town, including shops in the market, and destroyed the bridge linking Nigeria to Cameroon and Chad. The gunmen also set fire to 300 fully laden goods trucks waiting to cross the bridge. Many fleeing residents who later returned to Gamboru said the attack was by far the deadliest they had seen since the insurgency began about five years ago.
On his visit to Gamboru a few days after the massacre, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima offered to rebuild the burnt market and repair the bridge and to give financial assistance to traders and residents that lost loved ones and personal effects.
During the governor’s visit, hundreds of protesting youths expressed anger over what they said was the inability of the Nigerian military to protect them during the gunmen’s onslaught. They alleged that the few security officers on ground fled when the insurgents stormed the town. They also reported the sighting of an aircraft which they said hovered above throughout their ordeal but apparently did nothing, and then disappeared when the attackers left.
Gamboru is the last border town between Nigeria and Cameroon on the eastern side. If such attack could be perpetrated without effective countermeasures from the security forces deployed there, it leaves the unpalatable reality that the area is vulnerable to external aggression even in a state of emergency.
Residents in different parts of the country have reported sighting aircraft, mostly helicopters bringing cargoes that some say may be weapons; government officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan, have dismissed them, citing absence of proof, like photographs.
In the Gamboru Ngala case, it is not clear what the aircraft’s mission would be if it was not calling up reinforcements to repel an ongoing attack, if it is Nigerian-owned.
It is the responsibility of the federal government, and the soldiers it deployed there under its state of emergency that expires today (the president has requested another six-month extension) to protect law-abiding citizens in the areas. Appeals to reason for them to stay cannot be convincing unless these are backed by action by government and the commitment of soldiers to provide them the security they require.