A United States World Food Programme (WFP) humanitarian aid worker and five officials from the Borno State ministry of works and transport were abducted by insurgents on the Chibok-Damboa Road on Wednesday, December 1.

RNI reporter Alkali Mustapha said the insurgents were thought to be members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

The officials were supervising the construction of the 45km Chibok-Damboa Road.

Alhaji Hamza, a resident of Damboa, told RNI that he had witnessed the two incidents.

He said it was about 8am while he and others were walking to their farms to work for the day when they saw two trucks that looked like the vehicles used by the Nigerian army pass them.

“We were on the way to our farms about eight in the morning when the two trucks passed us. Then we realised the two trucks were not military vehicles and that the people in the trucks were insurgents. We saw them stop a construction vehicle used to repair roads. They took five people,” he said.

“Then they stopped a car and took a woman and put her inside a truck with the five construction workers. Then they left to go into the forest. We only heard afterwards that the woman worked at the World Food Programme.”

Hamza said there was no attempt to stop the car to rescue those who had been abducted.

He said he was worried because he used the road often. “There is always fear and uncertainty because you never know what the insurgents will do next. And you never know if you will be their next victim. It’s hard to live like this. The government has to do something to make these roads safe. We can’t keep living in fear.”