SAN FRANCISCO, February 06, (THEWILL) – Thousands of residents of communities neighbouring Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, have fled their homes as Boko Haram insurgents intensified their attack on the state on Friday night.
The insurgents, who killed 65 persons in an attack on Dalori last Saturday, laid siege on two other villages, Mairi and Malari few Kilometres away on Friday night killing four persons and razing the entire villages.
According to residents of the villages, the insurgents first attacked Mairi at about 8pm killing four persons, a teenage boy and three women, before proceeding to Malari village where the entire village was razed in annoyance as residents have already fled.
One of the residents, Abba Yusuf told THEWILL during a visit to Mairi village that the insurgents shot the teenage boy who was a scholar at a local Islamic School during the attack.
He said the three women were trapped in a razed house, as they were unlucky to escape the raging inferno.
He said after the destruction of Mairi, about 11 Kilometres away from Maiduguri, the insurgents went to Malari village, few Kilometres away and razed the entire village after no one was found in sight as the villagers were alerted to the looming danger with gunshots heard from neighbouring Malari.
When our correspondent visited the area on Saturday afternoon, thousands of residents were seen heading towards Maiduguri with their luggage on their heads.
Some of those who spoke to THEWILL said “it will be a suicide mission to continue to live in the area as the insurgents may still attack them.”
One of them, Hassanatu Abubakar said the insurgents are still much around them and “they can still come to finish the job they have started.”
The Senator, representing the area (Borno Central), Baba Kaka Garbai, while decrying recent attack on the state, said the military need to fully wake up to the new threat on the people of the state.
He said the insurgents have shown that they “are not truly dead and buried and it is time for our soldiers to come back to the reality that much more still needed to be done and start pushing forward until these hoodlums are defeated.”
