BOKO HARAM VICTIMS—A relation of one
of the officers and soldiers killed in Borno, Yobe states amid weeping during
their burial at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja
Boko Haram militants on Tuesday
launched a renewed attack on Maiduguri just days after the military repelled an
assault on the key city. Residents said the Islamists arrived in the Moronti
area of the city by river but were unable to advance further because of wide ditches
and embankments dug by soldiers around the city limits.
They then began shelling Ajillari
Cross, about three kilometres (two miles) away at about 12:45 am. There was no
immediate word on damage or casualties. “We were bombarded by RPGs
(rocket-propelled grenades) by Boko Haram from Moronti,” Isa Mala, who lives in
Ajillari Cross, told newmen. “We all left our homes for fear of being hit
inside.
It was dark so we could see the
trajectory of the RPGs, which were red with heat. “Soon afterwards, we saw troops
in trucks moving towards Moronti and then a fighter jet also deployed not long
afterwards.”
Kyari Bulunkutu, who lives near
Mala, gave the same account and added: “At about two in the morning it was all
over but I haven’t been able to see whether there was any damage or
casualties.” Boko Haram launched a similar attack nearby early on Saturday,
just hours after Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in as Nigeria’s new president and
called the group “godless” and “mindless”.
Buhari has pledged to move the
military’s counter-insurgency command centre to Maiduguri, which is the capital
of Borno state and has suffered the worst violence in the six-year insurgency.
The Islamists were later suspected of a suicide attack at a mosque in the city
on Saturday, which killed 26 people and injured 28 others.
AFP.
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