people -- including children -- in an attack on a village in Borno
state, according to survivors and vigilante sources, the CNN reported
yesterday.
The attackers then burnt down the entire village of Njaba, the sources said.
Dozens of gunmen invaded the remote northeastern village before dawn
on Tuesday, singling out boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 19
and killing them alongside their parents, witnesses said.
Njaba village lies about 65 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the Borno
State capital. Karimu Lawani, who escaped to Maiduguri after hiding
with eight other people behind the barn of a neighbor, said the
attackers came into the village at around 5 a.m.
"They shot dead anyone that tried to flee but spared children younger
than 13 years old," Lawani said.
He and other survivors counted the victims of the massacre before
leaving the village some hours later.
His account was supported by Faltama Bisika, 62, who lost four
grandchildren in the attack.
"They hurled petrol bombs into homes and opened fire on anyone trying
to flee. They particularly targeted teenagers and elderly people,"
Bisika said.
News of the attack was slow to emerge due to lack of communication
following destruction of cell phone towers in the region in previous
Boko Haram attacks.
"I only got information of the attack on my village last night," said
a civilian vigilante from Njaba who asked not to be named. The
vigilante said his father was among those killed.
The vigilante said he left Njaba for Maiduguri in June to join others
fighting against the Islamist radical group.
He said he believes the attackers came from Gwoza -- a town on
Nigeria's mountainous border with Cameroon that Boko Haram seized last
June -- because Njaba "lies on the route to Gwoza from Maiduguri."
--TheNation
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