Killings just wouldn't stop, as Boko Haram militants strike Borno again, Killing 45 including little kids

Insurgents suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect Tuesday attacked Jakana village killing forty five people including little kids.


The armed men who came with explosives and petrol-bombs in 21 Toyota Hilux vehicles and motorcycles also killed two policemen who were busy trying to repel them from their stations.

Properties destroyed during Monday’s multiple attacks on the soul of Jakana village include Police posts, a primary school, mosques and several mud huts of the poor villagers who inhabit the sleepy settlement.

The raid on Jakana which is on the busy Maiduguri-Damaturu road about 40 kilometers from the capital city kept commuters coming by commercial vehicle from Jos, Bauchi Gombe and Potiskum stranded on the Damaturu-Maiduguri road while some of them were said to have turned back to Damaturu on hearing of the bloodletting spree.

Reliable sources said the insurgents are believed to have been the same group which attacked Mainok last Saturday where they also slaughtered 39 people before setting nearby Jakana village ablaze yesterday killing women and children in the process.

An eyewitness and resident of Jakana, Baba Mala Modu in a telephone chat with newsmen Tuesday said that the insurgents stormed the village at 10pm Monday with explosives and petrol-bombs, chanting ‘Allah Uakbar’ God is great in Arabic, shooting sporadically into the air to scare the people before setting their houses ablaze for three hours.

“The gunmen came in large numbers in their usual Toyota Hilux vehicles and motorcycles shooting, killing and at the same time pouring petrol on our huts and setting fire on it.

“The women who were captured started crying for help, but no one was there to salvage them from these multiple attacks and killings. Some of us had to flee towards the neighboring villages, farmlands and bushes to hide our families.

“I am talking to you now from a hiding place in the bush. I cannot get into the village, but the number of bodies pulled out from the torched houses, were about 35 this morning; and more bodies could be retrieved before noon today (Tuesday), because several people were trapped in their huts out of fear even as the insurgents unleashed havoc on them,” he screamed on the phone.

“Some of the fleeing villagers; trekked to Maiduguri for fear of their lives, while others took refuge in the neighboring villages with absolutely no protection from security agents throughout the cold night.”

He told reporters that there were no soldiers in the village when the attackers struck, adding that the policemen at the station were overpowered and killed by the damning weapons of the sect, while repelling the intruders of the night.

“The soldiers rushed to the village in the morning in their patrol vehicles, and condoned off the Maiduguri-Damaturu road for two hours, before motorists were allowed to pass the destroyed village in which over 35 people were slain, including 15 women and children between the
ages of nine and twelve,” said Modu.

The Maiduguri twin blasts of last Saturday claimed 53 lives, the weekend and Monday’s attacks in Mainok, Jakana villages and Mafa town also claimed the lives of 120 people, including two policemen.

More charred corpses were said to have been fished out of the sad event as the combing exercise of the military progresses.

JTF spokes person Colonel Dole could not be reached as at the time of filing this report