No fewer than 20 persons were reportedly killed on Sunday afternoon in an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on Kamuyya village in Biu Local Government Area of Borno State.
The insurgents have killed over 100 persons in the last one week in their attacks on isolated villages in the troubled state, leaving property either destroyed or carted away.
The Sunday attack, according to residents of the area, was hatched by dozens of the members of the outlawed sect, who invaded Kamuyya village with assault rifles and explosives.
The attack was said to have lasted for over two hours and 20 persons were left dead by the insurgents, who fled to the bushes after the killing spree.
Residents, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on the telephone on Sunday, said some insurgents had visited the town about two months ago and asked the village head to mobilise his subjects to contribute the sum of N250,000 for them in order to execute “God’s work.”
The villagers, out of fear of the terror sect, were said to have been able to raise N70,000, contributed by peasant farmers and petty traders with little income.
Though the insurgents were said to have collected the contributed money, but left a message that they would come back for the balance.
They allegedly threatened that if the balance was not paid at a stipulated time, it would fetch death sentence for most of the villagers.
According to one of the villagers, Bukar Umar, the threat was taken with a pinch of salt as many thought it was “madness gone too far.”
He said, “Actually when they issued such threat, we all took it lightly as we are all relaxed and nobody bothered to make any extra effort to put in the amount they requested. May be that was what ignited this bloody attack because we were unable to meet their demand.”
Umar said they were caught pants down as over 20 insurgents, who were believed to have emerged from the bush, stormed the Kamuyya weekly market and opened fire on the crowd before setting shops and vehicles on fire.
According to him, the hoodlums, who were well armed with sophisticated weapons, after raiding the area, proceeded to the major market and began sporadic and indiscriminate shootings into the crowd, killing 20 persons on the spot and burning most of the shops in the market.
He noted that they were taken unawares as the town had not come under such heavy attacks for a long time.
Umar, who expressed dismay that innocent people were killed with such impunity, added that there was no intervention from the security forces despite the over two hours that the onslaught lasted.
SOURCE: Punch
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