Islamist terrorists struck for the fourth time in three days in the country, killing 20 people including a traditional ruler in attacks on Borno State, local government and security officials said Wednesday.
The unprecedented string of attacks has many questioning the role of politicians in the insurgency and the ability of the military to contain the five-year-old Islamic uprising that has resulted in the death of more than 1,500 people this year, compared with an estimated 3,600 from 2010 to 2012.
Yesterday morning, gunmen attacked the village of Wala, in Gwoza district, and killed 18 people, and injured several others, according to a local government official and intelligence agent. They both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters.
Wala village is in Gwoza Local Government Area, some 130 kilometres southwest of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
The local government official said: “We are in difficult times in Gwoza Local Government; deaths and killings have become a daily affair; 18 people were killed in Wala this morning by the Boko Haram gunmen.”
A senior officer of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) also confirmed the killing in Wala, but asked not to be quoted.
“We have just received the report from our officers in Gwoza that the Boko Haram gunmen attacked Wala village and killed 18 poor souls there; it is a rather an unfortunate and sad development despite our efforts up here,” he said.
The DSS officer also confirmed that some 12 hours earlier, another set of gunmen attacked Sabon-Kasuawa village in Hawul Local Government Area, 210 kilometres south of Maiduguri, where they killed a district head and his guard.
“They simply walked right into the palace of the monarch and shot him in his bedroom, and on their way out they also shot his guard before fleeing,” said politician Hyeldi Bwala.
Just last week, the Emir of the embattled Gwoza, Idrissa Timta, had appealed to the government to “save our souls”, saying his people were being attacked daily.
“We in Gwoza have suffered too many attacks, killings and destruction in the past weeks and months. There is no day that we don’t mourn the death of at least seven people who are being killed by the insurgents,” the monarch had told journalists.
“Our people have been forced to flee, our markets no longer operate optimally, food items, goods and wares are no longer coming into Gwoza for a long time now. We want action from government so that lives can be saved; if nothing is done, we have no other option than to desert our homelands and flee into the neighbouring Cameroun towns where we may perhaps get protection,” he added.
