BEVERLY HILLS, CA, July 06, (THEWILL) – Following Friday’s loss by Boko Haram in an attack on Damboa town in Borno State, many residents of the town are now refugees in Maiduguri, the state capital, having fled the town for fear of a reprisal attack by Boko Haram.
Many of the residents who arrived Maiduguri Friday night are now camped in various locations where more than 140,000 internally displaced persons are being accommodated by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the Borno State capital.
The Boko Haram insurgents had lost over 50 of their members during the attack on Damboa as the military dealt a heavy blow on them, though 12 soldiers, including a Colonel , were believed to have been killed and a District Police Officer among the four policemen said to have died in the attack.
Expressing their fears on arriving Maiduguri, some of the fleeing Damboa residents said the Boko Haram gunmen are known to always come back to attack mightily the towns were they suffered initial heavy casualties.
“We believe that they will soon come back to Damboa and we do not want to be caught in the crossfire so we have to seek refuge in Maiduguri. “I was told by my brother in Maiduguri to leave Damboa at least for now and I just have to come with my family so that we will not fall victims during the next attack,” one of the fleeing residents said.
Spokesman of the Northeastern zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), AbdulKadir Ibrahim, while dousing the fear of an humanitarian crisis over the influx of the fleeing Damboa residents to Maiduguri, said “there are adequate provision in place in Maiduguri to accommodate the IDPs from Damboa.”
He said “we have camps at the NYSC orientation camp and other part of the town for those that may be displaced,” even as he noted that at the different locations, there are facilities to take care of the immediate needs of the displaced persons.
