SAN FRANCISCO, July 10, (THEWILL) – This is not the best of times for travellers going to Maiduguri from different parts of Borno State as Boko Haram insurgents are said to have taken over the more direct route to the state capital, the Maiduguri-Damboa-Biu Highway.
The development is already causing undue pains and suffering to travellers and motorists plying this route as they are now forced to travel in circle for about 12 hours for journeys which shouldn’t have normally taken more than two hours.
Some of the affected travellers, who now have to go through Maiduguri and Damaturu road into Gombe and reconnect back to the state, said this is tortuous as the much longer route leaves them fagged out and exposes them to Boko Haram attacks, with many having been attacked at different spots along the 187-kilometres road.
Speaking on their current ordeal, some residents of Mule, 15 kilometres from Maiduguri, said they have seen many vehicles who had traveled on the road returned with corpses.
An attack on Bulabulin Nganaram on Monday sent jitters into the spines of residents of Maiduguri as they thought the Boko Haram gunmen were heading into the state capital. Scampering for safety, many had to stay off the streets, picking their children from schools and closing down their businesses immediately.
A deadly confrontation between the military and Boko Haram last Friday at Damboa led to about 70 deaths, with the military, police and the insurgents all recording casualties.
The Damboa attack led to the military vacating its base in the town the bid to reclaim it was said to have resulted in another deadly confrontation as the soldiers were said to have been ambushed resulting in some deaths and injuries on Wednesday.
Though the number of casualties could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, local sources said there was great casualties from the over 200 soldiers sent on the operation to reclaim the base as the gunmen were said to have laid ambush for the soldiers in trenches .
The Chairman of the youth vigilante group, popularly called Civilian JTF in Mule village, Mohammed Jidda, said about 60 settlements from Maiduguri to Biu have been deserted with the residents fleeing to Maiduguri.
“Apart from Mule and Dalwa that is partially deserted and have aged and handicapped people who are not always target of the marauding insurgents staying back, every other communities numbering about 60 have been totally deserted,” told THEWILL.
