*** Sect kills six in renewed Borno attacks
The Federal Government has sealed Nigeria’s northern border with Cameroun in an effort to shut out the Boko Karam Islamist militants, who have been using the neighbouring country as a launch pad for attacks, the military said yesterday.
The closure extends from Borno State, by Lake Chad, to the southern end of Adamawa State, around halfway along the country’s 1,500-mile border with Cameroun.
Both states are under a state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan last May as part of an offensive meant to crush the sect.
“To effectively curtail the activities of the insurgents, the Cameroun border in the north east has been closed indefinitely,” Brigadier-General Rogers Ibe Nicholas said in a statement.
Boko Haram, whose struggle for an Islamic state in the north has killed thousands of innocent citizens. The sect members who have become the biggest threat to security in the country are currently based in the hilly Gwoza area next to Cameroun.
Security officials said the sect often launch deadly attacks against villagers after which they flee over the border to avoid being pursued.
More than 200 people were killed in two attacks last week in villages, prompting renewed criticisms that military action has failed to neutralise them.
United States Secretary of State, John Kerry yesterday condemned last week’s attacks by the sect and underscored a commitment to help the Federal Government crack down on the militants.
“Unspeakable violence and acts of terror like the ones committed by Boko Haram last week in northern Nigeria are horrific, wrong and have no place in our world,” Kerry said in a statement.
Boko Haram gunmen killed about 100 people in Bama, a town in Borno on Wednesday, storming the town, firing on a school, shooting or burning to death dozens of people and trashing the palace of the Shehu of Bama.
And last Sunday, the sect killed more than 100 people in the village of Igze in Gwoza Local Government Area, spraying homes with bullets, detonating explosions and burning down dozens of houses.
“We support Nigerian authorities’ efforts to investigate these cowardly acts and to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Kerry added.
“The people of northern Nigeria deserve to live free from violence and from terror. That’s why the United States is providing counterterrorism assistance to help Nigerian authorities develop a comprehensive approach to combat the threat posed by Boko Haram while protecting civilians and ensuring respect for human rights,” he added.
Kerry said the United States remains “a committed partner” of Nigeria’s government as it targets Boko Haram and associated groups.
The United States last November designated Boko Haram and another Nigerian Islamist group, Ansaru, as foreign terrorist organisations, making it a crime to provide them with material support.
The White House directed U.S. agencies to block financial transactions with the two groups, which it blamed for thousands of deaths in northeast and central Nigeria, including attacks on churches and mosques and a 2011 suicide bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja.
Suspected members of the sect yesterday invaded Mairari village in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State, killing two people after setting many houses, shops and vehicles ablaze.
Also, another set of terrorists revisited Izge, which was attacked last Sunday, killing four people and razed the remaining buildings in the village.
Among the dead in the renewed attack on Izge were three women and a 75-yearold man who were shot dead at about 1.35am.
According to an eyewitness, Mallam Apagu Thiza, the gunmen came through Bita road and started shooting sporadically at the remaining houses, before torching them with petrolbombs and other explosive, chanting “God is great” in Arabic.
He said the gunmen had a field day as they operated for more than six hours, with no soldiers or policemen to provide security to residents that refused to flee, after the last multiple attacks.
Thiza said: “We were shocked and terrified, when the gunmen came again to attack us by killing four people, including three women and an elderly person in his house. These people have no sympathy at all, and have no regard for anybody’s life.
“They came to wipe off the entire town and its residents, while the Federal Government refused to send in more troops to protect us here. We are finished. The town has been overrun with charred houses, vehicles and shops.
“Since the last attacks, most of the surviving residents fled to Lassa, Madagali, and Gulak in Adamawa State, fearing that the terrorists will come back. That fear has been justified with this attack and the killing.
The attack in Mairari, it was learnt took place at about 12pm yesterday.
Our correspondent learnt that the sect members laid ambush and killed two residents before setting over 10 houses ablaze.
A security source, who did not want his name mentioned, confirmed the attack.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Northern State Governors’ Forum, NSGF, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, has repeated the forum’s call on the Federal Government to deplore more security personnel with superior military equipment to fight insurgence in the northern region
The forum also urged the Federal Government to adopt measures to boost the morale of soldiers to enable them effectively fight the insurgents and other threats to security in the region.
Apparently reacting to the killing on Saturday of 29 persons by gunmen in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, the NSGF chairman, who is also the Governor of Niger State, in a press statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, urged the military to review its counterinsurgency strategy to protect innocent citizens who are being killed daily by members of the Boko Haram.
The forum reiterated its appeal to the Federal Government to “provide adequate funds to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states afflicted with the problem of insurgency in order to address attendant issues.”
It hailed the military for restricting trans-border movements between Nigeria and Cameroon, urging security agencies to do all within their powers to halt the killing of innocent people in the region.
It would be recalled the Northern Governors had at the end of their meeting in Kaduna on Monday agreed to adopt a common approach towards combating insecurity in the region.
In their communiqué, the governors agreed to down play political differences and work towards a common goal of a united, peaceful and a prosperous north.
They also agreed to vigorously pursue employment and youth empowerment programmes as a way of taking idle youths off the streets.
Source: National Mirror
