Boko Haram insurgents on Sunday struck again
in Yobe and Bauchi states, killing 11 people,
including five soldiers.
The Bauchi attack was carried out by a lone
suicide bomber at the Bulala Motor Park in the
troubled Potiskum. Five people died and 36
others were injured.
That of Yobe was at a military checkpoint in
Takanda-Giwa on the Bauchi-Jos Highway. Five
soldiers and a civilian passerby were said to
have lost their lives to the incident which took
place a few hours after the militant Islamist sect
A hospital source in Potiskum, who narrated the
attack to The PUNCH on the telephone, said
five bodies, including that of the bomber and
the injured, were brought to the General
Hospital in the commercial town which in the
past three weeks has been attacked thrice.
He said he feared that the death toll might rise
as some of those injured were grappling to stay
alive.
The source added that nine out of the 36
injured persons were later referred to the Federal
Medical Centres in Azare and Nguru.
A motor park source, Idris AbdulKadir, said the
suicide bomber sneaked into Bulala garage
along the Bauchi-Jos Road and detonated an
explosive device, killing himself and four others
on the spot.
“The explosion went off around 9.50am on
Sunday. As I speak, we counted five dead bodies
but many other people are being conveyed to
the hospital in Potiskum for immediate medical
attention,” AbdulKadir said.
The PUNCH gathered that the attack at the
Bauchi-Jos Highway forced motorists from
Bauchi and Jos to abandon their vehicles and
flee.
Unconfirmed reports had it that the attackers,
who killed five soldiers and a civilian, escaped
with the soldiers’ Toyota Hilux parked at the
checkpoint.
But it could not be confirmed if any of the
insurgents died during the exchange of fire with
the soldiers.
A military source, who did not want his name in
print, however claimed that one soldier and a
civilian were killed.
A exchange of gunfire between soldiers and the
insurgents in Gombi, Adamawa State was
reported also reported on Sunday night.
A resident of the town, who gave his name
simply as Musa, told our one of correspondents
on the telephone, that the soldiers were
repelling the terrorists.
“The soldiers, with the assistance of riot
policemen, are dealing with insurgents,” Umar
said.
Also on Sunday, Reuters new agency quoted
Cameroonian officials as saying that Boko
Haram Boko abducted 30 adults and 50
young children.
But the Agence France Presse said in a report
on Sunday that the sect attacked two villages
in Tourou in Cameroon’s Far North region and
left with 60 people.
“They torched houses and left with around 60
people. Most of these people were women and
children,” a police officer told the agency.
Boko Haram which is in control of some
communities in Nigeria’s North-East had
threatened Cameroon and other countries that
have common borders with Nigeria.
Last year, 27 people seized in Cameroon by
suspected Boko Haram fighters were held for
months before being freed in October. They
included 10 Chinese workers and the wife of
Cameroon’s Vice-Prime Minister Amadou Ali.
Earlier this month, Boko Haram’s leader,
Abubakar Shekau, released a video threatening
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, who has been
vocal in his criticism of the group.
Meanwhile, a contingency of soldiers from Chad
has arrived in Maroua in northern Cameroon,
where it will be deployed in the Nigerian border
as part of efforts to contain the Boko Haram
insurgency.
A spokesman for Cameroon’s Defence ministry,
Col. Didier Badjeck, who made this known on
Sunday, did not say how many troops had been
deployed by Chad.
“In the coming days, they will be deployed in the
war zone on the border with Nigeria so that they
can join our defence forces to crush and prevent
incursions of Boko Haram into Cameroonian
territory,” he said.
Biya, who recently appealed for international
assistance against Boko Haram, announced
earlier this week that he was expecting the
arrival of large Chadian army.
::::Culled From WWW.punchng.com::::
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