Boko Haram raids another Borno town, kills 19

                  

Boko Haram in­surgents have raided another Borno town, killing at least 15 people. The insurgents also burnt shops, commercial cen­tres and houses, residents said.

Armed Boko Haram fighters in two open vans fired the first shot at Gaji­gana, a remote community in Mongumeri local govern­ment area, north of Borno, at 6.30pm on Wednesday and subsequently embarked on sporadic shooting, flee­ing residents said.

Residents said they were held hostage by the insurgents in a sustained shooting that lasted almost throughout the night, forc­ing those who could escape to flee into nearby bushes. “But many others were still trapped,” says Ibrahim Saleh who fled to the capital city Maiduguri after hours of walking throughout the night.

He said he fled as soon as the insurgents began cease­less shooting. “I left my wife and children because I was in my shop when the in­surgents came. I couldn’t go back home,” he disclosed.

Ibrahim said he saw five corpses as he meandered through a narrow path from a major street to es­cape the gunmen threats. He returned to the town on Thursday after the shoot­ing subsided and following consultation with a friend who encouraged him to re­turn in order to get his fam­ily out of the area.

However, he said he met the once bustling Gajigana in ruins and largely desert­ed, adding that the insur­gents burnt down almost all the shops along the road at the heart of the town while many houses were also razed.

Another fleeing resident who did not want his name in print said “14 people have so far been buried” but said the community is still searching the nearby bushes for possible victims. He said the insurgents opened fire on many residents while fleeing the area.

Boko Haram has contin­ued to intensify attacks on Borno northern communi­ties despite losing hundreds of its fighters in recent at­tacks. No fewer than 200 of the insurgents were re­portedly killed in military air and ground offensive on December 1 during a daring attack on Damaturu, Yobe State capital while scores of the insurgents were killed by security forces at Konduga, a central town in Borno few days before the Damaturu attack.