Boko Haram terrorists have stormed an unguarded Bara town in Yobe and Banki town in Borno states without firing a shot; they seized and controlled the territory.
Residents of the seized Banki town told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that no one was harmed in the takeover but everybody fled the troubled areas to Maiduguri and the neighbouring Cameroon.
Confirming the incident to the BBC, a trader who escaped Bara, in Yobe State, Musa Abdullahi, said, “They (Boko Haram) invaded the town preaching in the whole town, asking people to leave government work and join them to fight for the sake of Allah.
“People were afraid, but they said that they did not come to kill anybody but to preach.”
Boko Haram’s attacks appear to have shifted in recent weeks away from simply creating mayhem to taking ground and holding it.
Traditional rulers in the captured towns, according to the agency, have now fled to Maiduguri, Borno State capital, despite denials by the government of Borno State and local vigilante groups that Bama remained under government control.
According to spokesman of the youth vigilante group in Borno State, Jibrin Gunda, “Bama has never been overrun or overtaken by the insurgents even for a minute.”
Among the towns captured by the Boko Haram are Marte, Gamboru Ngala, Dikwa, Bama, Gwoza, Damboa and Banki towns in Borno State and recently Buni Yadi and Bara towns in Yobe State.
Last month, the insurgents captured the remote farming town of Gwoza, along the Cameroon border. During the heavy fight, the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, declared in a video that the town was now “Islamic territory”.
Controlling Bama would bring the rebels closer to the Borno State capital, which is 70 km to the northwest, the birthplace of the Boko Haram movement. Fears that Maiduguri could be the next target led the government to extend a curfew in place there to 7pm to 6am; it used to start at 10pm.
A new report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said 39,000 people have fled fighting in northeast Nigeria in the past 10 days over the border to Cameroon, adding that more than 700,000 people have been displaced externally and internally by the conflict.... Continue ...................
Thursday 4 September 2014
Boko Haram Captures Bara Towns In Yobe ang Banki in Borno
Boko Haram terrorists have stormed an unguarded Bara town in Yobe and Banki town in Borno states without firing a shot; they seized and controlled the territory.
Residents of the seized Banki town told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that no one was harmed in the takeover but everybody fled the troubled areas to Maiduguri and the neighbouring Cameroon.
Confirming the incident to the BBC, a trader who escaped Bara, in Yobe State, Musa Abdullahi, said, “They (Boko Haram) invaded the town preaching in the whole town, asking people to leave government work and join them to fight for the sake of Allah.
“People were afraid, but they said that they did not come to kill anybody but to preach.”
Boko Haram’s attacks appear to have shifted in recent weeks away from simply creating mayhem to taking ground and holding it.
Traditional rulers in the captured towns, according to the agency, have now fled to Maiduguri, Borno State capital, despite denials by the government of Borno State and local vigilante groups that Bama remained under government control.
According to spokesman of the youth vigilante group in Borno State, Jibrin Gunda, “Bama has never been overrun or overtaken by the insurgents even for a minute.”
Among the towns captured by the Boko Haram are Marte, Gamboru Ngala, Dikwa, Bama, Gwoza, Damboa and Banki towns in Borno State and recently Buni Yadi and Bara towns in Yobe State.
Last month, the insurgents captured the remote farming town of Gwoza, along the Cameroon border. During the heavy fight, the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, declared in a video that the town was now “Islamic territory”.
Controlling Bama would bring the rebels closer to the Borno State capital, which is 70 km to the northwest, the birthplace of the Boko Haram movement. Fears that Maiduguri could be the next target led the government to extend a curfew in place there to 7pm to 6am; it used to start at 10pm.
A new report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said 39,000 people have fled fighting in northeast Nigeria in the past 10 days over the border to Cameroon, adding that more than 700,000 people have been displaced externally and internally by the conflict.... Continue ...................
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