Dalwa-Masuba is a farming community 40km away from Damboa Town and about 80km south-west of Maiduguri.
At least 40 villagers were killed and several others injured on Saturday as gunmen believed to be Boko Haram members attacked Dalwa-Masuba Village in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, security sources and a witness said.
The gunmen who stormed the village in large numbers also burnt down virtually all buildings in the village as well as three pickup vans carrying woods to Damboa.
A member of the vigilante in Dalwa-Masuba, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on phone, said no security personnel had reached the attacked town at the time he was speaking.
“We were on patrol somewhere near Damboa when we heard about the attack from some of the villagers who ran from the village”, said the source. “We had to drive to the town on our patrol van; we met the entire village on fire, and about 40 persons dead, there were bodies all over the place; three firewood pickups were also set ablaze.”
The police and the military in Borno are yet to formally confirm the attack, although security sources in Maiduguri, the state capital, said they had been briefed of the attack.
Dalwa-Masuba is a farming community 40km away from Damboa Town and about 80km south-west of Maiduguri.
The attack follows similar patterns of attacks on communities in Borno by the Boko Haram.
The group has continued its attacks and killed thousands of people despite a state of emergency imposed on Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa in May last year.
The atrocities of the group, including its kidnap of over 250 teenage, female students in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14, has drawn international attention and condemnation.
At a security summit in the French capital, Paris, Saturday, attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, the leaders of Chad, Niger, Benin, and Cameroun, agreed to share intelligence, and co-ordinate action against the group which is based in northeast Nigeria, but has operated somewhat freely in northwest Cameroun, parts of Chad and Niger.
A central intelligence platform will be based in Chad, the summit agreed, and will allow all countries involved, including the world powers, to stage a response as necessary.
Representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the European Union, also attended the Saturday’s meeting.
About 29 persons were killed in an attack
on a market in Ngurosoye Village, Bama Local Government Area of Borno
State, residents of the area have claimed.
It was gathered on Saturday that the
insurgents came in hundreds on motorcycles and six pick-up vans and shot
indiscriminately. They also shot a rocket-propelled grenade at the
market, which killed some traders.
A security source, who spoke to
journalists on condition of anonymity, said 29 lifeless bodies were
counted moments after the attack, which also caused injuries to several
other people.
He said, “The attacks by the insurgents
on the state, rather than decreasing, is seriously increasing and the
killings these days are in greater number. I think it is time the
government allowed us to cordon this Sambisa and destroy all these evil
people.”
It was the third time insurgents would attack the market since 2009.
Ngurosoye Village is about 56 kilometres
from Maiduguri, the state capital, which is also a gateway to the
dreaded Sambisa forests.
The insurgents were said to have carried
out repeated attacks on the village since the youths in the area took up
arms against them by joining the vigilance group, codenamed Civilian
Joint Task Force, in the hunt for Boko Haram members.
A resident of Bama town, who spoke
anonymously with journalists, said the people had heard rumours of
possible attacks on the area by the insurgents about two weeks ago.
Attempts made to get the Borno State
Commissioner of Police, Lawal Tanko, and the spokesman of the 7
Division, Nigerian Army, Col. Muhammad Dole, yielded no results as of
the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, suspected Boko Haram rebels on
Friday attacked a Chinese work site in northern Cameroon and kidnapped
at least 10 workers.
The Governor of Far North Region, Cameroon, Augustine Fonka Awa, confirmed this on Saturday.
The Chinese Embassy in Yaounde also
confirmed the attack at a site near Waza, 12 miles from the Nigerian
border close to Sambisa forest, a Boko Haram stronghold.
Our correspondent learnt that the
attackers also destroyed a bridge linking the various villages in the
area, where the Chinese construction workers were working.
International news agency, Reuters,
reported that the Friday’s attack in Cameroon began when power was cut
in the evening. A five-hour gunfight followed, a guard at the Waza
National Park told the agency.
Awa said he believed Boko Haram carried
out the attack. He added that authorities were investigating reports
that at least one Cameroon soldier was killed and 10 people were
abducted.
The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, quoted Chinese officials as saying one person was injured.
The Chinese embassy had suspended visits to the area.
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