Boko Haram terrorists have killed 30 people and abducted many women and children in a raid in Borno State, as President Muhammadu Buhari described the attack as ‘cowardly and murderous.’
AFP reports that the fresh attacks followed a directive from #ISIS caliph al-Hashimi, which instructed the intensification of attacks especially on Christians in the region.
The terrorists are currently occupying farms and villages along the Biu highway in preparation for further attacks.
The jihadists stormed in on trucks mounted with heavy weapons, killing, burning and looting before kidnapping women and children, state government spokesman, Ahmad Abdurrahman Bundi, said.
They aimed at travellers, who had stopped for the night and torched vehicles.
He said, “The attackers killed not less than 30 people who are mostly motorists and destroyed 18 vehicles.”
The attack, some 25 kilometres west of Maiduguri, occurred in an area where fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province have been active, mounting roadblocks to target security forces and civilians.
Last month four Nigerian soldiers were killed and seven injured when the jihadists attacked troops positioned in Auno.
In reaction to the attack, President Buhari condemned the ‘cowardly and murderous attack by Boko Haram and commiserated with family of victims.
Buhari, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu condemned the “murderous and cowardly attack on innocent passengers by the Boko Haram terrorists near Maiduguri’’, adding: “this administration is ever determined to frustrate their goal to hold Nigeria to ransom’’.
“The commitment of this administration to protect the lives of Nigerians will not be derailed by the cowardly and indiscriminate violence against innocent people by Boko Haram terrorists,’’ he said, while reacting to recent attacks in Maiduguri.
Buhari, who also condoled with the government of the state, warns “that terrorists are clearly on a back foot and their days are numbered’’.
“As our armed forces continue to receive more hardware and intelligence to counter our current security challenges, the remnants of Boko Haram will ultimately be crushed. The peculiar challenges of asymmetric warfare notwithstanding, our armed forces are ever determined to defeat these enemies of humanity,’’ Buhari said.
