About 10 years after abducting over 200 students from a school in Chibok, Borno State, Boko Haram terrorists attacked the community again, killing at least 12 residents.
The latest attack occurred on New Year’s Day in Chibok town, the headquarters of the Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State.
Residents said that many other people were injured in the attack. The terrorists also stole food items from people’s homes and medicine from the general hospital in the area.
The spokesperson of the Borno State Police Command, Nahun Daso, confirmed the attack on Wednesday. He said a combined team of security operatives were trailing the suspected Boko Haram members to their hideouts.
“The deadly attack was carried out on January 1st, between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 pm where 12 residents of the community in Chibok were killed and two persons were seriously injured,” Daso, a superintendent of police, said.
“The suspected Boko Haram members during the attack had stolen some properties from the communities and escaped to an unknown destination in the forest.
“Presently a combined team of security operatives comprising soldiers and the vigilante are combing the forest in the area to counter them,” Daso said.
The latest attack is not the first since the 2014 mass abduction of female students, dozens of whom are yet to be freed. Chibok, like many other communities in Borno, still witnesses sporadic attacks by Boko Haram although the group has been significantly weakened by Nigerian forces.
However, there had not been any attacks on the community in several weeks before the Monday incident, residents said.
A resident of Chibok town, Baba Barka, told our correspondent that they want security operatives to be more proactive in protecting the community.
Barka also called on the state and federal governments to secure Chibok communities by bringing military personnel to stay permanently in the area.
“The insurgents stole our animals, foodstuffs, and other important materials. They also stole medicine from our general hospital.
“They came ridding on about 20 or more motorcycles heavily armed with sophisticated weapons where they started shooting sporadically killing and maiming our people.
“At the end of the attack, we discovered that many people were killed and scores of our people wounded,” Barka said.