Escalating number of insurgent attacks are a serious threat to ordinary people in Yobe and Borno states.
At least 75 innocent people in Borno and Yobe states have been killed by insurgents since the start of October up until Friday, November 10.
This surge in the number of attacks is based solely on RNI reports. Other media outlets might have published stories on attacks, so the figure could be even higher.
The attacks were committed by either Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), better known as Boko Haram, or insurgents from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The most recent attacks reported by RNI occurred in Zabarmari town in the Mafa Local Government Area in Borno State on Sunday, November 5, when at least 13 rice farmers were stabbed and strangled to death. Some farmers are still missing. Security personnel do not know if they are dead or alive.
On the same day, one farmer was killed and four abducted in the Bama Local Government Area in Borno State.
On Monday, November 6, 10 people who were collecting firewood to make charcoal were attacked by suspected JAS insurgents in Kalwa village in the Monguno Local Government Area in Borno State.
On Wednesday, November 1, RNI reported that suspected ISWAP insurgents had killed 40 innocent people in the Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State.
On October 30, one Islamic cleric was killed by suspected JAS insurgents in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State.
On the night of Monday, October 23, a woman civilian joint task force member was badly beaten, stabbed and killed by suspected JAS insurgents. Her corpse was found stripped, except for her skirt and brassiere, in the Hausari River in the Damboa district of Borno State on Tuesday.
On Sunday, October 22, a Nigerian customs officer was killed by insurgents in an attack in the Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State.
On Thursday October 19, at least five fishermen were killed by suspected JAS insurgents in Baga town in the Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State.
One farmer was killed by insurgents on Thursday, October 5, in the Damboa Local Government Area and on Monday, October 2, two people were killed by the suspected JAS insurgents in an attack along the Biu-Damboa road.
A CJTF member, who asked to remain anonymous, said insurgent attacks were escalating even though the federal and Borno State governments had sent more soldiers, task force members and other security personnel to escort and protect farmers harvesting their crops from 8am to 5pm every day.
Reacting to the surge in the number of insurgent attacks, the Nigerian House of Representatives has called on the country’s armed forces to step up security measures to secure Borno and Yobe communities.
This followed the adoption of two separate motions on matters of urgent national importance put forward by Lawan Shettima Ali, a legislator from Yobe State and Ahmed Satomi, a legislator from Borno State at a plenary on Tuesday, November 7.
In presenting his motion, Ali said 16 men had been killed on the outskirts of Nguro Kayaiya village on October 30 and 31 by insurgents riding 15 motobikes and carrying sophisticated weapons. It was said to be a revenge mission. After killing the men they burnt down houses, vehicles and tricycles in the village.
He said the village was in the Kusur Damakarwa Ward between the towns of Gumsa and Kusur in the Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe State
Other villages had also been razed, including Jororo in Geidam and Garin Bulama Garaiye in the Yunusari Local Government Area, he said.
Satomi told the plenary how heavily armed JAS insurgents had attacked the Zabarmari farmers while they were working in their rice fields in the villages of Koshebe, Karkut and Bulabulin of the Jere and Mafa local government areas on Saturday, November 4, killing at least 13 of them. He reminded members that the communities were less than 20km away from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO
