Highly-trained Boko Haram jihadis reportedly overran military posts and set fire to the corpses of four farmers and more than 50 houses in different attacks in the terrorist group’s birthplace of Borno state in Nigeria over the weekend, forcing soldiers to flee into the bushes.
Hassan Mohammed, the chairman of the Zabarmari Rice Farmers’ Association in Nigeria, confirmed that Boko Haram killed four of its members on Saturday in Borno’s Koshebe village, located in the Jere Local Government Area, Sahara Reporters reveals.
Boko Haram terrorists reportedly clashed with the farmers after the jihadis burned down more than 300 hectares of rice plantations.
“They attacked our members while working on their farmlands and rained bullets on them. We lost four members and, thereafter, they burnt their corpses. They also set ablaze hundreds of hectares of our rice farms, including harvests,” Mohammed told Sahara Reporters.
On Sunday, Boko Haram also attacked the Molai village in Borno, located a few miles from the state capital of Maiduguri, setting more than 50 houses ablaze and forcing “dozens” of residents to flee, local news outlets report.
Furthermore, the jihadis “invaded” military posts in the Borno state town of Guzamala on Friday and Saturday night, “riding on military vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft guns” and “sporadically, firing RPGs towards the military base” in the region, ultimately forcing the Nigerian soldiers to flee, Sahara Reporters notes.
“Many [Nigerian] soldiers lost their lives; they were many. The Boko Haram terrorists came in large numbers, and although the troops initially stood their ground, they later they fled into bushes,” an unnamed source told Sahara Reporters. “We slept in the bush between Friday and Saturday morning. We got to Gubio yesterday. Many are still there, because they only came for soldiers, not civilians, except those of us working with the soldiers.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Nigerian soldier told Sahara Reporters that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)-linked Boko Haram terrorists were better trained than other members of the jihadi group.
“Although we engaged them, they overpowered us. They were well-trained terrorists, not those we are used to fighting. In fact, they handled anti-aircraft guns and RPGs better,” the soldier declared. “We didn’t have options, because we were running out of ammunition and there was no reinforcement. Some soldiers were killed and dozens fled to Damasak.”
Nigerian authorities fear that “many” of the Nigerian soldiers who faced the terrorists in Guzamala over the weekend are dead and “dozens” of others have gone missing, Sahara Reporters notes, without providing a specific figure for the casualties.
Moreover, “the insurgents continued their attacks in Kukawa town and also invaded military and Police posts, sacking the security operatives,” the news outlet adds.
Officials in the town of Kukawa in Borno State pleaded for the support of the Nigerian Air Force, noting that many civilians are trapped there.
“As I am speaking to you, military personnel have withdrawn completely from Kukawa,” Muhammad Kormi, a resident, told Sahara Reporters.
“We don’t have any protection for our people in Kukawa,” he added.
On Monday, the Nigerian Army revealed that Boko Haram also killed one soldier on Sunday when troops “neutralized” four members of the terrorist group who disguised themselves as civilians and humanitarian workers, also in Borno.
Moreover, the terrorists killed 19 Nigerian soldiers at a military base in Borno state’s Metele region on Friday.
On several occasions, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has falsely claimed to have defeated Boko Haram.
Since it began its terrorist campaign in 2009, the jihadi group has killed more than 20,000 Nigerians.