Boko Haram Abducts 100 in Borno

Boko Haram insurgents have overrun Kukawa, a town in Borno State, abducting over 100 persons, security sources have said.

According to sources in the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), who spoke anonymously to newsmen, the insurgents drove in over 20 trucks to the town on the shores of Lake Chad.

One of the sources said yesterday that the terrorists launched their entry into the town with sporadic gunshots, engaging the Nigerian troops stationed in the town for over 30 minutes.

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He said at the end of the gunfight, the insurgents went away with over 100 persons as hostages.

“Around 4 pm on Tuesday, terrorists in about 20 trucks overran the town of Kukawa. They engaged soldiers guarding the people in a ferocious firefight.

“After about 30 minutes of engaging the military in ferocious fire exchange, they (insurgents) were able to overpower them and went away with over 100 hostages,” he said.

The latest abduction may have impaired plans to relocate internally-displaced people (IDPs) to their homeland as the residents of Kukawa were just relocated on August 2.

The residents were escorted during the relocation by the military as part of the resettlement plan of the state government.

When contacted, the spokesman of Borno State governor, Mallam Isa Gusau, said he did not have the details of the attack.

The spokesman of the Army, Col. Sagir Musa, asked for patience, saying that the military will soon come out with a statement on the incident.

But the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), in a statement yesterday, said the military successfully neutralised some ISWAP commanders and knocked out logistics facilities at Bukar Meram on the fringes of the Lake Chad in Borno State. The troops also killed some terrorists at Dole, a settlement in the southern part of the state.

Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, DHQ, Maj. Gen. John Eneche, said in the statement that the air interdiction missions were executed on August 17, on the heels of credible intelligence reports indicating a resurgence of terrorists’ activities in the two settlements.

“Bukar Meram, a major ISWAP logistics hub linking other island settlements of the Lake Chad, which also houses several of their fighters and some of their key leaders, was attacked by an enhanced force package of Nigerian Air Force (NAF) fighter jets and helicopter gunships, which hit designated targets in the area, leading to the destruction of the logistics facilities and neutralisation of several of the terrorists and their leaders.

“The attack at Dole was carried out after Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions showed a build-up of activities in the area after the relocation of some terrorists from nearby settlements of Kukawa and Yale. Overhead the area the ISR aircraft spotted no fewer than 20 terrorists in the area, which were taken out by the NAF attack aircraft,” Eneche stated.