Yobe: Another Suspected Boko Haram Bombing In Damaturu

Photo credit: AP

 

Suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants attacked Yobe state capital, Damaturu early today. The dawn raid came after a suicide bomb and gun attack on the central mosque in the northern city of Kano on Friday which bore all the hallmarks of the Islamists and left at least 120 people dead. 

 

The militants, who have been waging a five-year rebellion to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, have conducted similar dawn raids and attacked Damaturu before. AFP reports that the attack happened at around 4.45am. 

 

A resident Umar Sada, who lives in the Gujba Road area of the city  spoke to one of their reporters. He said, “I was awoken by huge blasts and the sound of heavy gunfire around the mobile police barracks,” he said. “The gunmen came in numbers. They have burnt down the police barracks. They are now advancing towards two housing estates…” “We have left our home. We are now in the bush. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

 

Another local resident, a government official who asked not to be identified, said: “It’s chaos all over the town. “All I can hear is explosions and gunfire from my house. I couldn’t go out for morning prayers because this started before dawn and I’m afraid to leave in case I get caught up in it.”

 

It can be recalled that on June 18, at least 21 football fans were killed when a bomb exploded as they watched a World Cup finals match at a public viewing centre in Damaturu. Another attack happened in October 24, one which Boko Haram openly took responsibility for, hitting four police buildings and killing many people.