11 killed, 5000 displaced

SGF visits,expresses shock over attack

IDPs take refuge in primary school

Survivors narrate their near-death experiences

By Umar Yusuf

SURVIVORS of the latest Boko Haram attack in Kwapre village and adjoining communities of Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa State now live in shock and fear after the latest attack on them by Boko Haram terrorists.

In the onslaught, no fewer than 11 members of the community were killed, with 34 others yet to be found. About 5,000 others have been displaced from their homes by the attackers and are now forced to take refuge at Kwapre Central Primary School in the LGA.

The attack has also elicited the sympathy of the Presidency, which immediately dispatched the Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Mustapha, an indigene of the state, to the affected community to have an on-the-spot assessment of what happened.

During the visit of the SGF, the Village Head of Kwapre, Mr. Simon Yakubu, revealed that the insurgents took the villagers by surprise as they mistook the sporadic gunshots as an internal skirmish among the communities.

Yakubu said the terrorists took their time to ransack homes, stores and farms of all foods and provisions before shooting and burning down houses and whatever was inside them.

Sporadic shooting

He added: “The attackers did not start shooting or burning houses until after ransacking all the provision stores and foodstuff depots. They even went further to start loading livestock into their waiting vehicles before they started sporadic shooting.

It was the shooting that disorganized the entire village and its surroundings as people started running in all directions, and in the ensuing pandemonium a number of people were killed.”

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The village head noted that the operation of the insurgents lasted for between 45 minutes and one hour before their escape, adding that the insurgents operated from house to house in search of what they wanted. He, however, called for more military presence in the area following its proximity to the Sambisa Forest, the base of the Boko Haram terrorists.

A community member, Mr. Kefas Duniya, who claims to have lost four members of his family, told Arewa Voice that he was yet to come to terms with the calamity that befell him. According to him, he lost three boys aged 15, 18 and 20 and a girl aged 26 to the attackers.

Kefas, who spoke in tears, said when the invaders started shooting sporadically everybody ran in different directions without fathers or mothers asking for the whereabouts of their children.

“We ran to all directions: farmlands, nearby mountains and the stream by the side of the village, while the forest along the bank of the stream served as cover for many villagers,” Kefas revealed, adding that the fleeing villagers remained in their hideouts for hours before returning home to count their losses.

“Some of us came back late that might, while others remained till the following day. When we returned home to meet the remains of our buildings and other properties, four of my children were not found,” he lamented.

The grieving father said that corpses of his children had not been found, fearing that they might be among the 34 taken away by the insurgents.

Vanguard News Nigeria