Boko Haram kills 14, injures nine in Borno

AUGUST 27, 2013

Boko Haram members

Nigerian Islamists on Monday attacked Bama, a town in Borno State killing 14 pro-government youth vigilantes and injuring nine others, a local official who attended a mass funeral for the victims has said.

Reuters reported that Sunday’s attack was one of the spates of deadly assaults by the Boko Haram Islamist sect this month that raises doubts about whether a military offensive against it since May can succeed.

Local vigilante groups run by youth volunteers have been instrumental in helping the military capture Boko Haram members, but they have also made them a target for the insurgents, drawing civilians further into the conflict.

The Chairman, Bama Local Government Area of Borno State,  Alhaji Baba Shehu Gulumba, told journalists in Bama, near Maiduguri, the Borno State capital that the insurgents disguised as soldiers and lured the youths into a trap.

“They were on guard duty when the sect members dressed in military camouflage came and told them that they were needed at a meeting nearby.

“When they had been lured away from their duty posts they were then attacked and killed,” he said.

When our correspondent contacted the Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, he said that he was not aware of the attacks.

He said that he had not received any briefing on an attack by Boko Haram in Borno on Monday.

He said, “I have not seen any such attack and killings in my records; I am not aware of it.”

Bama is in Borno State, the center of the insurgency. The town is not far from a mountainous area along the Cameroon border where many Boko Haram fighters are believed to be holding out, after being cleared from other areas by Nigerian forces.

Their four-year battle to revive an ancient Islamic caliphate in religiously mixed Nigeria remains the main security threat to Africa’s top oil producer.

The military announced a week ago that Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau may have died between late July and early August from bullet wounds he received during a gun battle weeks before.

If he did die, not only has it failed to stem the violence, but deadly attacks are actually up on a month ago.