One person was killed and 13 people – mostly women and children – were abducted when armed men, suspected of being members of Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’way Wa’l-Jihād (JAS), attacked the Abori community in the Damboa Local Government Area on Thursday, April 22.

The attack occurred just before midnight. It came out of the blue for the community because they had not been attacked for quite some time and had been living peacefully together.

“The community was taken by surprise,” said Shaibu Muhammad Damboa, the leader of Damboa’s civilian joint task force, who confirmed the attack and abductions.

He told RNI reporter Alkali Mustapha that the insurgents came into the community at about midnight and gathered the women and children together, apparently telling them that they had a message for them.

Although there were men in the vicinity, they ignored them.

“They asked people not to use their torches because they did not want other community members or security operatives to know about their presence,” Muhammad said. “If others knew they were in the area, the insurgents feared there would be reprisals and that they could be attacked, arrested and captured.”

When one of the women resisted and shouted at them, the civilian joint task force became aware that there were insurgents in the area and that the community was under attack.

“The insurgents realised they would be confronted by the task force and quickly gathered some women and children and ran,” Muhammad said.

The task force gave chase but they could not catch them.

Muhammad said they were able to find only one woman with her two children. “They were were fearful, standing alone and crying out for help.”

Another woman who was taken but was later released by the JAS, more commonly known as Boko Haram, said the insurgents had told her to go back to the community because her baby would not stop crying and her two small children could not keep pace with the insurgents and those who had been abducted.

“God has helped me but my mind keeps going back to the other women and children who were abducted. I have been weeping and praying for their safe return,” she said.

She called on the civilian joint task force, other security personnel and the government to try to rescue the captured women and children.

“Attacks of this nature make the community feel very insecure and vulnerable,” she said.