Boko Haram News Update in Nigeria
Over 200 Boko Haram Gunmen Attacked Bama With Machine Guns & Rockets – Army Report
May 8, 2013 – Over 200 Boko Haram Gunmen Attacked Bama In Borno State With Machine Guns & Rockets – Army Report
Nigerian soldiers blanketed the town of Bama on Wednesday, where residents stayed indoors after coordinated assaults by heavily armed Islamist insurgents killed 55 people.
The military said the brazen raid was carried out by some 200 gunmen from the extremist group Boko Haram, who stormed the town in a convoy of buses and 4×4 trucks, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Disguised in army uniforms, the insurgents broke into a prison, killed 14 guards and set free 105 inmates, the military in northeastern Borno state said.
They attacked a police station, killing 22 officers, while 13 Islamists, four civilians and two soldiers were also reported to have lost their lives in the assaults that paralysed the trading town.
“Only a few people have ventured beyond their front doors,” said Bama resident Musa Bra. “Troops are all over the town patrolling the streets.”
He explained that many people fled to the bush after the pre-dawn attack on Tuesday.
While some have tried to return, the military is screening everyone entering the town and asking for proof that they are civilians and not members of the insurgent group which has become notorious for blending in with the local population, Bra further said.
“Everybody is indoors,” said another resident who asked that his name be withheld. “It is just military all over the town.”
A journalist who visited Bama on Tuesday said shops, petrol stations and markets had shuttered, and there were burnt vehicles by the roadside.
Borno state is a Boko Haram stronghold and has seen scores of attacks since the group relaunched its insurgency in 2009.
But the violence has intensified in recent weeks.
Last month in the town of Baga, northeast of Bama and also in Borno state, brutal clashes between Boko Haram and Nigerian troops killed nearly 200 people, the deadliest-ever episode in the insurgency.
Soldiers have been accused of causing scores of deaths by deliberately setting fire to much of the town, a charge the military has fiercely denied.
The authorities have voiced increasing concern that Boko Haram has fostered closer ties with other extremist groups operating in the region, including Al-Qaeda’s North Africa affiliate.
The military has also suggested that the Islamist radicals carrying out the attacks in northeastern Borno include both Nigerians as well as foreign fighters, who have crossed the porous borders with Chad and Niger.
But as President Goodluck Jonathan’s adminstration has sought to portray the conflict as international, he has faced mounting pressure to come up with a domestic solution.
He tasked a group of northern, mainly Muslim leaders with trying to strike an amnesty deal with the insurgents, but there are doubts as to whether Boko Haram is open to such a pact.
The group has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in predominately Muslim northern Nigeria, but its demands have shifted repeatedly.
Analysts and Western governments have urged Nigeria to address crippling poverty in the north, saying dejected youths frustrated with government corruption have been radicalised and are now fighting alongside the insurgents.
The north is considered poorer than the mostly Christian south, but poverty remains endemic across the country, Africa’s most populous and top oil producer.
[Report by AFP & PM Newsw]
Becky
May 8, 2013 at 2:55 PM
If dey want a muslim country firstly let dem show demselves and why den are dey kilin deir fellow muslims brodas and sisters. Dey shuld sit and ask deirselves wat really dey want dan decievin demselves.
fred
May 8, 2013 at 3:05 PM
Dis guys re rilly hrtlesss…..
mulikat
May 8, 2013 at 7:52 PM
They can have their muslin Republic of Boko Harm,Muslim Arewa Republic or Shaira Boko Harm Northern Muslim Republic,now immedately,to stop this killing of innocent people,cos those Boko Harm are not good muslim they are heartless,kidnapper and devil.so we should break away from them and give them their own country to stop this killing, and they can rule theirself,without us,dont forget to close our border.
ugo
May 8, 2013 at 8:40 PM
Boko haram una b mumu,if una like make una kill una brother and sister,
LILA
May 8, 2013 at 10:45 PM
THESE USELESS MEN ARE WORTHLESS HUMAN BEINGS. WHAT SATISFACTION EXACTLY DO THEY GET FROM KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE. THEIR INTELLIGENCE SHOWS THEM TO BE MORE STUPID THAN BAT DUNG. UGLY BASTARDS WHO DO NOT HAVE ANY AIM IN LIFE OR VALUE LIFE. THE NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE AND SOLDIERS SHOULD ARM THEMSELVES AND WIPE THEM OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH. BY THEIR ACTIONS BOKO HARAM HAVE PROVED THEMSELVES THAT THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO LIVE ON THIS EARTH. STUPID BASTARDS, USELESS IDIOTIC MORONS.
Dany
May 9, 2013 at 3:17 AM
Were they not d ones dat started it 2disrupt d govt? Its payback time now. Let dem face d rythm. All dose northern leaders shuld smell d odor of dia anus. Rubbish sects. For u out there dat re xtains,non hausa,whats preventin u frm fleeing away? A profecy dats fulfilin already.
Livingston
May 9, 2013 at 7:35 AM
These islamists are not humans, they are demons and deserve to be treated like one. Please Nigerians should know that any terrorist who take pleasures in killing innocent people will never stop until he sees the last person standing go down. This failed Goodluck government cannot deny using the blood of innocent Northerners who are being kill every day by this satanic group for daily sacrifice. If not his predecessor Yar’ Adua during his time valued so much the lives of Nigerians and he therefore took a life saving decision for Nigerians against this Occultic blood sucking group. why wouldn’t Mr. President order the military to embark on house to house search and even the sorrounding bushes around to fish out this people that if allow, will definately in the next 1year bring down the population of Borno to 20%. Does Mr. President has any secrete plan to demacate Borno out of Nigeria? Why wouldn’t he take appropriate measures to save the innocent lives of women and children that does not know anything? God is watching.
Chinny
May 9, 2013 at 9:08 AM
Northerners will suffer their sins if Nigeria should break up.
Lizzy
May 9, 2013 at 9:43 AM
Dis is bad
Igwe
May 9, 2013 at 11:51 AM
We are not enjoying the northerners let them find their way to get their republic, saudi arabia will colonize them! Dungs northerners!
tuber247
May 9, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Dis boko haram are they human being or animalistic
Frost
May 9, 2013 at 6:12 PM
Na waiting i go talk? Killing or fighting life still continues
OLD GALDIATOR OF THE OPPRESSED
May 10, 2013 at 3:38 AM
ARM YOURSELVES AND FIGHT BACK. FORTIFY YOUR HOMES, VILLAGES, HOMES, AND CHURCHES. WHEN THEY COME SEND THEM TO HELL. LEARN HOW TO FIGHT FROM DEFENSIVE POSITIONS FIRST. THIS IS THE EASIEST TO LEARN, AND THE HARDEST TO ATTACK. IN TIME LEARN HOW TO CONDUCT OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS THEN DRIVE THEM OUT OF YOUR COUNTRY AND BACK TO THEIRS. FIRST YOU GET UPSET, THEN YOU GET EVEN. VENGENCE IS MINE SAYTH THE LORD, BUT YOU DO HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND YOU LIVES AND YOUR NATION FROM INVADERS. ALWAYS TAKE THE WEAPONS OF THEIR DEAD TO ADD TO YOUR ARSENELS. NEVER LEAVE ANYTHNGI YOU CAN USE OR BE USED AGAINST YOU AFTER A BATTLE. GOOD HUNTING. PEACE LOVE AND TRANQUILTY COME FROM FIRE SUPERIORITY. THAT IS A FACT JACK.
segula
May 10, 2013 at 10:05 PM
Is it not funny that our ‘intelligence arm’ could not get a hint of what was in the offing? Or could it be that those in authority did not believe in the report? Our security aught to have known that there might be a repraisal attack on the Baga incident. Whatever it maybe, it shows that we still have a long way to go in fighting this war. We must explore the use of satellite imagery, that must put our security a step or more ahead of this killers at all times. If we don’t know how to go about it, let’s seek help from those who do. Nigerian’s unity at this rate is in serious jeopardy. God help us.
victor
May 14, 2013 at 9:06 PM
if the islimist can not respact them selves by stopping all this boko harem of a thing,then we should call,the foreigner to go for search, to know where there camp is,so we can send our nigeria army and the nervy and air force to go and fight them,inother for peace to rign in nigeria,so we can leave in nigeria as one.because hearing boko harem killing hear and there,has been causeing us sleepless night,infact they are stupid and foolish.and u if can see the rate of our security amination is not encouraging at all, to fight this boko haram.