30 Killed in Boko Haram Attack on Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway

By Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri

Not less than 30 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in a night attack on Auno village on Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway.

The villagers while narrating their ordeal in the hands of the terrorist group on Sunday night to Borno Governor, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, said many other residents were abducted in the siege.

They also lamented that 18 vehicles comprising of trailers, buses and cars were burnt by insurgents who laid siege to their village at about 9:50 pm on Sunday.

The villagers, who were still in tears when the governor paid a condolence call on them on Monday morning, said women and children were loaded into three buses and driven away.

The villagers lamented that most of those that were attacked were those that could not get into Maiduguri on Sunday as the gate to the town was shut against them having failed to arrive before the 5pm deadline.

One of the villagers, who spoke anonymously to journalists, said: “It is so sad as the Boko Haram seems to have targeted the people knowing that many would have to sleep in Auno as the gate to Maiduguri would have been shut against them by 5pm.”

He further lamented that when the travelers arrived after 5pm the gate mounted by the military was closed and all vehiclar movements had officially ceased, the insurgents came at night and killed everyone in sight.

The governor, who was visibly shaken when he saw the charred bodies of the victims of the attack, who were burnt by the fire from burnt vehicles, requested the military authorities to dismantle the Auno gate from its present position and move it further away from the village so that it will be more difficult for insurgents to gain access into the village.

He said that the Borno state government will assist those whose vehicles were destroyed in the attack as well as those whose goods were burnt alongside the vehicles transporting foodstuff and other wares into Maiduguri.

He however called on the people to remain calm and law abiding in the face of the challenges, promising that government will look for a way out the situation.