An attack yesterday by the dreaded Boko Haram Islamist sect on the town of Bama, in Borno State left 55 people dead and several government buildings and security installations razed to the ground.
While 22 policemen, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians were killed by the Islamists, 13 of the sect’s members also died in the battle with the Joint Task Force.
The Islamists, numbering about 3oo according to some eyewitnesses, first attacked theattacked the main police station in the town around 5am, and the prisons where they freed 105 inmates before proceeding to the barracks.
They then proceeded to the 200 Tank Battalion, a military base where they were repelled by the soldiers who killed 13 of their members, but lost two of their own men.
The Islamists were able to get away with three of the corpses of their members.
Fleeing residents said a large number of Boko Haram gunmen took to the streets at about the time residents were waking up for the day.
“It was a terrible sight, seeing a large number of gunmen mostly youth carrying, shooting and chanting Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar,” said a local administration staff, UsmanAjari, who made it to Maiduguri.
“We didn’t wait to see what was happening because the shooting was much and the gunmen moving towards the Shehu’s (the traditional ruler’s) palace.”
The incident was confirmed by the spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Col Sagir Musa in Maiduguri, the state capital.
This is the second attack in the town of Bama in two weeks, after seven security personnel and 10 sect members were killed and about 300 houses burnt when Boko Haram members engaged security officials in a shootout on April 25.