Suspected Boko Haram terrorists in 10 gun trucks attacked six communities; killing about a dozen residents in Borno and Adamawa states. The weekend three-day coordinated multiple attacks, occurred in Shaffa, Mandara/Ngrau, Tashan Alade (port of pigs), Debro, Tirgitu and Garkida in Adamawa state Garkida, was severally attacked in the last two years with the destruction of many lives and property, including the Country Home of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) Chairman, Maj-Gen. Paul Tarfa (rtd). Some residents of Garkida on Saturday night had fled to take refuge on the only east hill top and south fringe of Sambisa Forest. While narrating their fleeing to the hill on Sunday in an interview in Maiduguri, Hamidu Ambursa said: “The insurgents burst from forest in gun trucks in the early hour of Friday. “They were chanting God is great in Arabic, while firing into our community, street by street, before torching several churches and vehicles, including targeted houses in the town.” He said in the last three months, the insurgents attacked a military post and killed a soldier along with five other residents. He said they had no option to safety of their lives other than to flee to the hill tops. According to him, the terrorists cannot fire even a single shot on target, while the people are taking cover on the hill. He said the hill enables the fleeing residents to ‘watch and monitor’ the number of houses and churches being torched by terrorists for three hours. He noted that it was the old and sick, that were trapped to watch how Garkida town was attacked severally with loss of many lives and property. While lamenting incessant attacks, he said: “The suspected terrorists rode in 10 Toyota Hilux gun trucks. They were first sighted in Mandara/Ngrau village on Saturday by 1pm along the 187-kilometre Maiduguri/Biu road. He said the insurgents also drove unchallenged through the six communities shooting sporadically to scare residents along the 55-kilometre Biu/Gombi road. “In each community, the terrorists, after scaring the people with gun shots for half an hour, they looted food items, drugs and fuel on the road side, before torching the houses and Churches,” he said, adding that there were standby pickup vans to carry the snatched items. Continued; he added: “For fear of attacks, farmers in remote villages resorted to storing their harvested farm produce in rented stores in Biu town, the council headquarters in Borno state,” noting that Biu is fully secured by troops and there were no attacks launched by terrorists since July 2009. On whether there were responses from the military, he said: “Despite our distress calls to the military, the terrorists were not repelled sir,” noting that that the Saturday attacks on communities are not remote and unexpected to the residents. The Guardian also learns that the terrorists had been launching attacks since last Thursday on Chibok village at a Christmas Eve. The villagers were conducting carol night songs, when they were attacked to flee that night into nearby bushes. According to Garkida residents: “Today’s (Saturday) attack is the third in three days, with no response from the military.” Boko Haram and a splinter group known as the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) have launched a series of attacks in Nigeria for over a decade. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 30,000 people have been killed with the displacement of about three million in Boko Haram violence in Nigeria. The over a decade insurgency has also affected 26 million people in the Lake Chad region with the displacement of 2.6 million people from their communities.
