Insurgents sliced the necks of nine people – completely severing the heads of some – and shot dead one man in a vicious attack on the Gaidam Local Government Area of Yobe State on Wednesday, April 20.

Thought to be members of the Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), the insurgents also burnt classrooms at the Gaidam Technical College.

A resident told RNI reporter Alhaji Sheriff Bura that the attackers drove in tricycles to the outskirts of Korri, a suburb of Gaidam, entering it silently on foot.

The JAS members, better known as Boko Haram, used knives to cut the necks of at least nine people, severing the heads of some completely. One man was shot dead and another, whom the insurgents thought they had killed, survived the attack.

RNI is in possession of pictures showing some of the dead people, but they are too gruesome to publish. The photos confirm that there were some victims whose heads were severed completely.

“After slaughtering the people, they headed to the Gaidam Technical College, which they burnt. There they came across two people; they thought they had killed one man, but he survived. However, the other was shot dead,” the resident said.

There were troops in the area who were on patrol but they did not know the insurgents had secretly infiltrated the town at the eastern axis, through bushes linking the Niger Republic and Gaidam, he said.

A security force member, who asked to remain anonymous, said there were reports that some people in the town knew insurgents were going to strike but did not say anything and did not alert the military.

By the time they heard of the attack and arrived in the town, the insurgents had already left. “Security has been heightened,” he said.

AISHA SD JAMAL