Forty one people were yesterday killed in Borno and Adamawa states when members of the dreaded Boko Haram opened fire at them.
The insurgents killed 20 people in Kamuyya village, Biu Local Government Area of Borno State as people gathered to trade in its open market by noon.
In Adamawa, 21 people were reportedly killed in an attack launched by the insurgents in the morning at Waga village in Madagali Local Government Area.
The insurgents, it was gathered, had late Saturday night first made an attempt to raid Gubla village in the same Madagali local government area of the state but were prevented by the soldiers who engaged them in a gun duel.
The development led to the arrest of one of the insurgents while another one died as result of injury sustained during the gun duel.
They later regrouped and launched another attack on Wagra, on Sunday morning leading to the death of the victims.
A source said properties worth millions of Naira were also destroyed during the incident.
Daily Newswatch gathered that the Sunday attack on Wagra recorded many casually as some of the villagers were trapped in their various houses that were set on fire by the insurgents, while dozens sustained live threatening injuries, as hundreds fled.
Some of those who narrowly escaped the attack later spoke to Daily Newswatch in Yola, the state capital.
“They used explosives during the attack and set our houses of fire. Those caught unaware or already in deep sleep lost their lives during the raid. I saw at least 13 corpses on the ground,” said, Mr. Apogu Heldia.
Another villager while recounting the attack disclosed that “I cannot actually say how many people were killed, but I saw about 10 corpses which were evacuated and five others died at hospital.”
Those injured, including a soldier, were hurriedly taken to Gulak hospital where some were reported to have died.
Another resident claimed that the insurgents also took some people as hostages.
“I saw some people crying, saying their relations had been taken away as hostages by the gunmen,” the resident, who craved anonymity, said.
It will be recalled that the insurgents had on Saturday night attacked military base at Gubla where they burnt down an armoured tank carrier, although some of the attackers were said to have been nabbed.
Efforts to get military and police authorities to comment on the incident did not yield any result but the Chairman of Madagali Local Governement, James Abawu Watharda, confirmed the two attacks, but could not give details of those that lost their lives during.
Watharda, who said soldiers have cordoned the area and are now hunting for the fleeing attackers, stressed that “people were killed, and some houses were set ablaze by the attackers, while all the villagers have fled.”
Madagali Local Government is bordering Gwoza Local Government of Borno State, which has experienced series of insurgent attacks since the declaration of the state of emergency.
The Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, was in South Africa on Saturday to discuss ways of tackling Islamist militancy across the continent with other African heads of state, his office said.
Nigeria and its neighbours say Boko Haram which has killed thousands of people in its five-year-old insurgency in Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer threatens the security of the entire region.
The insurgents initially attacked mostly security forces and government officials after they launched their uprising in northeast Borno state’s capital Maiduguri in 2009. When Jonathan ordered an offensive a year ago to flush them out, civilians formed vigilante groups to help, making them targets of the militants.
Only recently, Nigeria accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China, and about 80 US troops were arriving in Chad to start a mission to try to free the over 200 schoolgirls, who are still in captivity.
The victims who are students of Government Girls School, Chibok, Borno State, were kidnapped from their school on April 14, 2014, members of Boko Haram.