19 Killed in Boko Haram Attacks

Nineteen people have been killed in separate attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram who laid siege on some locations in Dikwa, Kala-Balge and Konduga government areas of Borno State between Thursday and yesterday. The attacks have heightened fears of a new wave of violence by the insurgents in parts of the state where hundreds of people were killed this year.

In Dikwa, one of the ancient towns in Borno State, it was gathered that the insurgents stormed a college in the early hours of Thursday, killed six teachers, two security men and took away some young women whose number is not immediately clear.

A resident, Modu Kakarimi, who fled to Maiduguri yesterday said when they heard endless gunshots, so they had to flee to the bushes in search of safety. "Our fear was heightened when we saw the boarding school in flames. We later gathered that they have killed eight there. We fled together with our women and children," he said.

Senator Ahmed Zanna (Borno Central) who spoke to journalists on phone confirmed the incident in Dikwa but added that he was yet to get full details. "There was siege on one of the schools in the town just after midnight on Friday.

Mustapha Ali, a traveler who passed through Dalwa on his way to Maiduguri said the insurgents stormed the highway in broad daylight. Weekly Trust gathered that the insurgents also laid siege on Gwoza and Kalahgde in Southern part of Borno State on Thursday. They were said to have engaged the military in the two towns in an exchange of gunfire in an attempt to take control of the towns.

Telephone services in Gwoza and environs were not going through but people from the area who made it to Maiduguri said most GSM masts had been vandalized by the attackers. There was no official comment on the incidents by security agencies in Maiduguri.