Attacks by the notorious Boko Haram insurgents have in no way slowed down as the group on Sunday, June 14, 2015 launched a deadly attack on the residents of Babbangida, Tarmuwa Local Government Area in Yobe State by razing their houses to the ground.
The affected area is about 50 kilometres north of Damaturu, the state’s capital and has experienced some form of attacks in the past.
According to the PUNCH newspapers, a source by telephone identified as Maimunat Abubakar, informed the newspaper of the Sunday attacks. Abubakar was lucky enough to have escaped to neighbouring Damaturu with her two children and hinted that the insurgents had earlier planned an attack on Saturday, June 13, 2015 but had their attempts thwarted by military intervention.
She said that “the insurgents attacked our town in the early hours of today (Sunday).”
“Yesterday (Saturday) being the market day, there were apprehensions of a possible attack on the town but security forces were fully aware and such purported attack was thwarted.”
Abubakar claimed that many of the villagers had spent the night in the bush out of the fear that the insurgents would attack. “We were later to see signs of an attack by 6.40 am today (Sunday),” she said. Her attempts to put a call through to quite a number of people who had remained in the town proved abortive as she said the GSM masts in the area had been destroyed.
According to a military officer, the Babbangida attacks were a reprisal due to the efforts of the security agencies who launched an offensive attack against the insurgents around Sasawa on Saturday. Sasawa is a border town between Damaturu and Babbangida.
“We carried out an offensive attack on the militants as a result of a tip off.
“We gathered that they were preparing to attack Damaturu, the state capital and the attack on Tarmuwa may have being carried out as a reprisal to our earlier assault,” the soldier said.
Abubakar however claimed that since the Sunday attack was unprecedented, the damage to property and number of lives lost if any at the moment would be hard to ascertain as the area is totally out of mobile phone service coverage.
