Hundreds of Borno residents have reportedly been taken hostage by insurgents shortly after returning from a two-year stay in an Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp.
AFP reported that members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) took the hostages in a Tuesday operation at Kukawa in the Lake Chad region.
The news agency quoted the head of a local militia, Babakura Kolo, as confirming the incident.
He disclosed that the terrorists attacked the town in 22 trucks around 4:00 pm on Tuesday and engaged soldiers guarding the town in a fierce battle.
Kolo was further quoted as saying that the captured residents had just returned to their homes after living in IDP camps for two years.
Residents, escorted by soldiers, were said to have returned to their homes on August 2 on the orders of the Borno state government.
They had been living in the IDP camp in the state capital, Maiduguri since a deadly attack on November 2018.
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“We don’t know what they would do to them but I hope they don’t harm them,” an unnamed local chief said.
He added that the people had returned to the community with the hope of going back to their farmlands but ended up in the hands of terrorists.