Boko Haram bombs market, kills 29 in Borno

SUSPECTED members of the violent Islamic sect,
Boko Haram, have again bombed a market in
Nguro-Soye, near Bama, Borno State, killing no
fewer than 29 persons.
Reuters reported on Sunday that the attack on the
market was said to have been carried out on
Saturday night.
“I travelled to Bama to buy bags of beans.
Suddenly, there was a deafening bang at the
middle of the market. It was in the late afternoon
and commercial activities were at their peak,” said
Shuaibu Abdulahi, a trader at the market. He
estimated the death toll to be as high as 29.
Abba Tahir, a bus driver who was said to be
offloading passengers at the market during the
incident, said he counted 20 bodies.
“People were helping in evacuating the corpses
after the confusion had died down. Some people
who were injured were taken to the general
hospital,” Tahir added.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack
yet as of the time of this report.
Borno State Police Commissioner,, Mr. Lawal
Tanko, who confirmed the incident, was quoted as
saying, “An explosion in the market in Nguro-Soye
killed 17 people.”
Bama is a border town and the headquarter of the
Bama Local Government Area of Borno State. It is
about 135 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state
capital.
The town is not new to attacks by the Boko Haram
insurgents. The 202 Army Battalion Barracks
located in the town was hit by Boko Haram in
December 2013.
Several women and children, mostly wives and
wards of soldiers, who battled the insurgents for
over seven hours, were killed in the attack
launched at about 3 am.
On February 19 this year, the insurgents also
attacked Bama.Confirming the February attack,
Governor Kashim Shettima had said the attackers
“inflicted a lot of damage on the town.” A Borno
State senator, Ahmed Zanna, had then told the BBC
that the attack on Bama lasted for five hours.
Boko Haram has killed well over 1,500 people in
the North-East zone since the sect launched its
war against the Federal Government.
In the course of their bombing campaign, the
insurgents have attacked military and police
facilities, worship houses, markets and drinking
joints.
At the height of the Boko Haram notoriety in May
last year, the Federal Government slammed a six-
month state of emergency on three north-eastern
states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.
The emergency measure was renewed for another
six months in November but while the military
claimed to be having the upper hand in the battle
against the insurgents, the sect members
continued to launch attacks with devastating
consequences on the civilian population.
On February 24, the insurgents attacked the
Federal Government College, Buni Yadi,in the Gujba
Local Government Area of Yobe State.
Yobe State Police Commissioner, Sanusi Rufai, had
then said that 29 male students were killed during
the attack but at least 40 students were believed to
have been murdered.
The insurgents, who reportedly severed the heads
of many of the victims, also burnt down buildings
in the school.
The development forced the Federal Government
to announce early in March the closure of its five
unity schools in the North-East.
Meanwhile, security agents in a church in Jos,
Plateau State, on Sunday prevented an attack on
worshippers by gunmen suspected to be Fulani
herdsmen.
The gunmen were said to have targeted the church
located at the Rantya low cost area of Nyago Gyel
district in the Jos South Local Government Area.
They had descended from the hills and were about
to launch the attack when a member of the
church’s security team spotted them.
Though the gunmen, in their hundreds, immediately
started shooting sporadically in the direction of the
church, they were repelled by men of the Special
Task Force.
An eyewitness, Mr. Godwin Okoko, told one of our
correspondents that but for the vigilance of the
police and soldiers attached to the STF, who
responded to distress calls by the worshippers, the
gunmen would have succeeded.
Okoko said about 1,000 people were in the church
at about 10am preparing to commence Sunday
worship “when the gunmen started descending
from the hills and started shooting but were
swiftly repelled by men of the STF.”
Okoko is the country coordinator of a non-
governmental organisation, Apurimac Onlus.
Plateau State Police Commissioner, Mr. Chris
Olakpe, confirmed the incident to our
correspondent on Sunday.
He said that no life was lost and nobody was
arrested.
“My men got a distress call that some gunmen
were planning to attack a church as the
worshippers were about to commence service. We
stormed the area and there was a heavy exchange
of gunfire between the gunmen and a combined
force of policemen and STF.”