The
tales of woes flow endlessly following last Saturday’s shootout between
a multinational force led by Nigerian personnel in the Joint Task Force
(JTF) and suspected insurgents in Baga, Borno state. SADIQ ABUBAKAR,
Maiduguri, reports
Nearly two hundred people are dead, scores are injured, many are displaced and a handful have relocated; Baga is in shambles and the once thriving town famous for its livestock trade that attracted traders from Cameroun, Niger and Chad Republics will never be the same again!
How this hitherto peaceful border town in Borno state turned into a battlefield between personnel of the Joint Task Force and alleged Boko Haram insurgents was innocuous enough. Both the JTF and some residents agreed that what triggered the carnage was a gun attack on a military patrol team last week Friday. However, other residents claimed that the attack was unprovoked.
Commander of the multinational forces involved in the raid, Brig.-Gen. Austin Edokpaye, explained that Boko Haram invaded the town and attacked JTF patrol team. His words: “We lost an officer during the attack on our men on patrol. We've received an intelligence report that some suspected Boko Haram members usually pray and hide arms at a particular mosque in town. It was around that mosque that our men were attacked, with several of them injured and an officer died.
“When we reinforced and return to the scene the terrorists came out with heavy firepower including RPGs, which usually has a conflagration effect that can be seen in some part of the town. It was the machine guns and other dangerous weapons used by the Boko Haram group that set the shops and houses on fire, not JTF as alleged. How can the JTF attack or kill residents that were friendly and helpful to them in terms of water supply, feeding, hospitality and logistics?”
A JTF personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity with LEADERSHIP Weekend, stated: “Boko Haram started it all by launching an attack on the JTF men on patrol in town in a vehicle near a mosque located along the major road of the town. That is the truth. Later, we heard three different heavy sounds suspected to be bomb explosions in different places within the town unlike what was obtainable in the past. Here we never had such uprising; we lived in peace with the people and in fact it is a pity that this happened. We too don’t like it and never thought it would get to this level.
“People say we set the houses on fire and chase them away from their homes. That may also be true when the situation became uncontrollable as these people (Boko Haram) turned residents to human shields to attack and kill us. We had no option than to fire back and defend ourselves. We launched a house-to-house search for Boko Haram members living among the people; we didn’t sack natives from the town.”
A Baga-based fish mogul, Alhaji Zubairu Maikifi, told LEADERSHIP Weekend: ““Everything started in my presence when I returned from market on Friday evening around 6pm before the Magrib prayers. Three unknown young men suspected to be Boko Haram members were standing near a mosque by the road as if they were waiting for the Magrib prayers. Suddenly, they removed guns from under their Jallabyya (flowing gown) and opened fire at a JTF vehicle on patrol”.
Maikifi continued: “But the JTF patrol immediately made a U-turn without retaliating or firing back and went, I should think, to alert their colleagues and reinforce. After Ishai prayers, we heard three sounds like bomb explosions in different locations within the town suspected to have been planted by the insurgents. Shooting continued throughout the night to the next day, Saturday.
“What we saw in the morning is indescribable, as the number of people killed and houses burnt or set on fire by the JTF in the course of fighting the Boko Haram men was terrible and horrible. The JTF actual set our houses on fire; they chased us out of our houses as the Boko Haram attacked them. They attacked us too as they forced us out of our houses and immediately set them on fire.
Our children and wives ran for dear lives on our instruction into the bush where still the JTF opened fire on them as if it was a war between the children or our wives and JTF. In some cases, the aged and pregnant women, including the physically challenged persons, were either shot death or burnt beyond recognition by fire in their homes that the JTF set on fire. We had blind and crippled people among us in town living in their houses when the incident occurred; where are they now? They have not been seen and nobody knows their whereabouts”, Maikifi added.
Also, a livestock dealer in Baga town cattle market (Tike), Alhaji Modibbo Danfulani, told LEADERSHIP Weekend said “I lost my brother and business partner in the massacre. He actually ran away, together with his wives and children, during the attack but unfortunately for him, he decided to run back home to pick up about N3 million cash which some people gave him to buy cows and rams for them on the next market day.
But the JTF men intercepted him and shot him dead after asking him about what he was carrying. Because he disclosed to them that it was money, they shot him and seized the money invariably making my brother to lose his life and the money.
“People told him not to go but he refused to listen to them because destiny was at his doorstep. It is painful to us. Both the money and our brother are gone. The children are now orphans and the wives widows. Everybody is mourning. The children, the wives, the relations and friends of the family including the neighbours who are alive are now mourning him.”
An official of the Kukawa Local Government, Borno state who pleaded anonymity, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that he escaped from Baga to Maiduguri through the bush to the next village and trekked all day in group of others escapees.
He said: “It all started Friday evening when some unknown men armed with guns opened fire at a JTF patrol team near a mosque located along the major road of the town. And when the unknown gunmen opened fire on the JTF, they did not fire back but rather turned their vehicle and drove off. Then in less than an hour, we heard some strange heavy sounds in three places in town.”
According to him, “these explosions sent signals to the people and everybody began to fear. Tension and confusion broke out among the people. Even the JTF personnel were disturbed and worried.
“Next day, Saturday, was the real day when the terrible thing actually happened. The whole town was swept by fire. Hardly will you see a single house untouched; it must either be burnt down completely or partly including the shops and kiosks by the roadside. Dead bodies littered the town. Everybody was searching for his relation or husband or wife or children throughout Sunday. Till date some people are nowhere to be seen. Nobody can tell you where they are, whether in the bush or dead or burnt or displaced after the raid.”
While figures differed depending on who is providing them, it is clear that no fewer than 187 people were killed in the attack, with 2000 houses, 40 cars, 64 motorcycles and an unknown number of livestock were burnt.
A local trader in Baga town said the attack started at about 8pm on Friday and continued the next day.
“Only God understands what we have done to deserve this. But the soldiers were mindless that night in their approach; they killed and burnt our houses, chased everyone into the bush including women and children. So far we have buried 185 corpses. Some were burnt beyond recognition; others are hospitalised with various degrees of burns,” said the eyewitness who begged to remain anonymous.
“Nobody can actually give you the actual figures of lives lost and properties destroyed because nobody knows the exact figure for now. All the figures they give are estimates and not actual numbers. Even the Bulama and Lawan (village and district heads) and local government officials cannot give you the accurate figures of fatalities. All we know now is that Baga is in ruins,” an obviously traumatised survivor who does not want his name in print told LEADERSHIP Weekend.
Pleading anonymity, a popular politician who lives in Baga said: “What happened has happened. As Muslims we only pray that such a thing will not repeat itself. But whatever it is, the JTF men should be blamed and held responsible for what has happened. We are human beings. We are Nigerians; not foreigners and living in Baga town not elsewhere.
We have been living together with the JTF peacefully for years. We shared food and drinks with them, played and greeted each other but unfortunately, they turned on us and massacre us for a crime we have not committed. My people are badly tortured, maimed, killed, terrorised, horrified and the whole town vandalised by the JTF in the course of their fight with Boko Haram”.
Help has been pouring in though for the Baga massacre survivors as the Borno state government, the Kukawa local government National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Red Cross bring in truck-loads of relief materials for distribution to the victims. Food items like rice, Semovita, spaghetti, maize, millet, guinea corn as well as drugs, toiletries, blankets, mattresses, pillows, leather mats, plastic buckets and cups, among others, have been provided and distributed to the victims by the officials of Borno state Assessment Committee, Kukawa local council, NEMA and Red Cross.
Reconstruction works have also commenced in earnest in the burnt areas with the clearing of sites and demarcation of plots. Governor Kashim Shettima has also laid the foundation stone of the proposed new houses to replace the burnt ones.
The governor also disclosed plans by the BOSG to immediately release funds to compensate the enlisted victims through the committee in order to enable them start life all over again.
While all of these may help, the deep psychological scarification of the Baga people would certainly take a long time to heal.
Culled from LEADERSHIP
Nearly two hundred people are dead, scores are injured, many are displaced and a handful have relocated; Baga is in shambles and the once thriving town famous for its livestock trade that attracted traders from Cameroun, Niger and Chad Republics will never be the same again!
How this hitherto peaceful border town in Borno state turned into a battlefield between personnel of the Joint Task Force and alleged Boko Haram insurgents was innocuous enough. Both the JTF and some residents agreed that what triggered the carnage was a gun attack on a military patrol team last week Friday. However, other residents claimed that the attack was unprovoked.
Commander of the multinational forces involved in the raid, Brig.-Gen. Austin Edokpaye, explained that Boko Haram invaded the town and attacked JTF patrol team. His words: “We lost an officer during the attack on our men on patrol. We've received an intelligence report that some suspected Boko Haram members usually pray and hide arms at a particular mosque in town. It was around that mosque that our men were attacked, with several of them injured and an officer died.
“When we reinforced and return to the scene the terrorists came out with heavy firepower including RPGs, which usually has a conflagration effect that can be seen in some part of the town. It was the machine guns and other dangerous weapons used by the Boko Haram group that set the shops and houses on fire, not JTF as alleged. How can the JTF attack or kill residents that were friendly and helpful to them in terms of water supply, feeding, hospitality and logistics?”
A JTF personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity with LEADERSHIP Weekend, stated: “Boko Haram started it all by launching an attack on the JTF men on patrol in town in a vehicle near a mosque located along the major road of the town. That is the truth. Later, we heard three different heavy sounds suspected to be bomb explosions in different places within the town unlike what was obtainable in the past. Here we never had such uprising; we lived in peace with the people and in fact it is a pity that this happened. We too don’t like it and never thought it would get to this level.
“People say we set the houses on fire and chase them away from their homes. That may also be true when the situation became uncontrollable as these people (Boko Haram) turned residents to human shields to attack and kill us. We had no option than to fire back and defend ourselves. We launched a house-to-house search for Boko Haram members living among the people; we didn’t sack natives from the town.”
A Baga-based fish mogul, Alhaji Zubairu Maikifi, told LEADERSHIP Weekend: ““Everything started in my presence when I returned from market on Friday evening around 6pm before the Magrib prayers. Three unknown young men suspected to be Boko Haram members were standing near a mosque by the road as if they were waiting for the Magrib prayers. Suddenly, they removed guns from under their Jallabyya (flowing gown) and opened fire at a JTF vehicle on patrol”.
Maikifi continued: “But the JTF patrol immediately made a U-turn without retaliating or firing back and went, I should think, to alert their colleagues and reinforce. After Ishai prayers, we heard three sounds like bomb explosions in different locations within the town suspected to have been planted by the insurgents. Shooting continued throughout the night to the next day, Saturday.
“What we saw in the morning is indescribable, as the number of people killed and houses burnt or set on fire by the JTF in the course of fighting the Boko Haram men was terrible and horrible. The JTF actual set our houses on fire; they chased us out of our houses as the Boko Haram attacked them. They attacked us too as they forced us out of our houses and immediately set them on fire.
Our children and wives ran for dear lives on our instruction into the bush where still the JTF opened fire on them as if it was a war between the children or our wives and JTF. In some cases, the aged and pregnant women, including the physically challenged persons, were either shot death or burnt beyond recognition by fire in their homes that the JTF set on fire. We had blind and crippled people among us in town living in their houses when the incident occurred; where are they now? They have not been seen and nobody knows their whereabouts”, Maikifi added.
Also, a livestock dealer in Baga town cattle market (Tike), Alhaji Modibbo Danfulani, told LEADERSHIP Weekend said “I lost my brother and business partner in the massacre. He actually ran away, together with his wives and children, during the attack but unfortunately for him, he decided to run back home to pick up about N3 million cash which some people gave him to buy cows and rams for them on the next market day.
But the JTF men intercepted him and shot him dead after asking him about what he was carrying. Because he disclosed to them that it was money, they shot him and seized the money invariably making my brother to lose his life and the money.
“People told him not to go but he refused to listen to them because destiny was at his doorstep. It is painful to us. Both the money and our brother are gone. The children are now orphans and the wives widows. Everybody is mourning. The children, the wives, the relations and friends of the family including the neighbours who are alive are now mourning him.”
An official of the Kukawa Local Government, Borno state who pleaded anonymity, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that he escaped from Baga to Maiduguri through the bush to the next village and trekked all day in group of others escapees.
He said: “It all started Friday evening when some unknown men armed with guns opened fire at a JTF patrol team near a mosque located along the major road of the town. And when the unknown gunmen opened fire on the JTF, they did not fire back but rather turned their vehicle and drove off. Then in less than an hour, we heard some strange heavy sounds in three places in town.”
According to him, “these explosions sent signals to the people and everybody began to fear. Tension and confusion broke out among the people. Even the JTF personnel were disturbed and worried.
“Next day, Saturday, was the real day when the terrible thing actually happened. The whole town was swept by fire. Hardly will you see a single house untouched; it must either be burnt down completely or partly including the shops and kiosks by the roadside. Dead bodies littered the town. Everybody was searching for his relation or husband or wife or children throughout Sunday. Till date some people are nowhere to be seen. Nobody can tell you where they are, whether in the bush or dead or burnt or displaced after the raid.”
While figures differed depending on who is providing them, it is clear that no fewer than 187 people were killed in the attack, with 2000 houses, 40 cars, 64 motorcycles and an unknown number of livestock were burnt.
A local trader in Baga town said the attack started at about 8pm on Friday and continued the next day.
“Only God understands what we have done to deserve this. But the soldiers were mindless that night in their approach; they killed and burnt our houses, chased everyone into the bush including women and children. So far we have buried 185 corpses. Some were burnt beyond recognition; others are hospitalised with various degrees of burns,” said the eyewitness who begged to remain anonymous.
“Nobody can actually give you the actual figures of lives lost and properties destroyed because nobody knows the exact figure for now. All the figures they give are estimates and not actual numbers. Even the Bulama and Lawan (village and district heads) and local government officials cannot give you the accurate figures of fatalities. All we know now is that Baga is in ruins,” an obviously traumatised survivor who does not want his name in print told LEADERSHIP Weekend.
Pleading anonymity, a popular politician who lives in Baga said: “What happened has happened. As Muslims we only pray that such a thing will not repeat itself. But whatever it is, the JTF men should be blamed and held responsible for what has happened. We are human beings. We are Nigerians; not foreigners and living in Baga town not elsewhere.
We have been living together with the JTF peacefully for years. We shared food and drinks with them, played and greeted each other but unfortunately, they turned on us and massacre us for a crime we have not committed. My people are badly tortured, maimed, killed, terrorised, horrified and the whole town vandalised by the JTF in the course of their fight with Boko Haram”.
Help has been pouring in though for the Baga massacre survivors as the Borno state government, the Kukawa local government National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Red Cross bring in truck-loads of relief materials for distribution to the victims. Food items like rice, Semovita, spaghetti, maize, millet, guinea corn as well as drugs, toiletries, blankets, mattresses, pillows, leather mats, plastic buckets and cups, among others, have been provided and distributed to the victims by the officials of Borno state Assessment Committee, Kukawa local council, NEMA and Red Cross.
Reconstruction works have also commenced in earnest in the burnt areas with the clearing of sites and demarcation of plots. Governor Kashim Shettima has also laid the foundation stone of the proposed new houses to replace the burnt ones.
The governor also disclosed plans by the BOSG to immediately release funds to compensate the enlisted victims through the committee in order to enable them start life all over again.
While all of these may help, the deep psychological scarification of the Baga people would certainly take a long time to heal.
Culled from LEADERSHIP
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