Posted on: 08:24 Mon, 01 Feb 2016



Boko Haram, was alleged to have burnt some children to death when the
militants overran Dalori, a village four kilometres outside Maiduguri, where
about 80 residents of the community were killed on Saturday night.

The Area Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in
Borno State, Mohammed Kanar, said 86 bodies were picked up in the
village on Sunday.

Hospital sources added that no fewer than 70 persons were receiving
treatment in hospitals around the area.
A resident who managed to escape the attack, claimed that screams of
children could be heard from burning houses as the embattled villagers ran
in confusion to exit the village as the destruction raged.

Also, a survivor, who said he hid on a tree, stated that he watched Boko
Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning
to death, AP reports.

On Sunday, while some residents had managed to return to their houses
which had been razed, one of our correspondents observed that some burnt
bodies and others, riddled with bullets, littered the streets and some burnt
houses in the town.

One of those who had returned to the village on Sunday told one of our
correspondents that insurgents including suicide bombers attacked the
town, which also spilled over to the Internally Displaced Persons’ camps
around the village.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that the suicide bombers
mingled with fleeing villagers and detonated the explosives on them at the
neighbouring Gamori village, killing several of the villagers.

The villagers told newsmen on Sunday that troops did not arrive in time to
stop the rampaging sect fighters from unleashing maximum havoc on the
community.

Military authorities confirmed that one of the places targeted by the
insurgents was the Dalori Internally Displaced Persons’ camp housing over
15,000 people, who are mostly women and children from Bama.

A member of the youth vigilance group in the town, who spoke on
condition of anonymity to one of our correspondents on the telephone on
Sunday, said not less than 65 persons were killed with over 100 others
injured in the attack on Dalori.

One of the residents of the community, who fled to Maiduguri, Yusuf
Ibrahim, told one of our correspondents that the attack on the village
started around 6.50pm and lasted for hours.

He lamented that the insurgents, who operated undeterred, stormed the
village in Hilux vans and motorcycles dressed in army camouflage and set
the houses in the village ablaze.
He said livestock were not spared as the insurgents set them on fire but
looted foodstuffs.

A rescue worker, who participated in the evacuation of the victims, said 50
corpses were taken to the Borno State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri and
15 others corpses deposited at the University of Maiduguri Teaching
Hospital.

Narrating his ordeal, a resident of the village, Mallam Abba Dalori, told The
PUNCH, “We were helpless as no one came to our aid when the insurgents
struck on Saturday night. I am still mourning as I lost 11 persons in the
siege. At present, I am still looking for five of my children, who went
missing during the attack.”

Another resident of Dalori, Imam Ibrahim, who could not hold back his
tears as he spoke to one of our correspondents, said the insurgents
“dressed like military personnel and opened fire on everybody.’’

He added, ‘‘All our wives and children were brutally killed; our livestock
were equally consumed in a great inferno that engulfed the village.”

A statement, the spokesman for the counter-insurgency operation in the
North-East, Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Mustapha Anka, while confirming
the attack, however, failed to give the casualty figure.

The statement added, “In their desperate efforts for attacks on strong,
determined and committed members of the Civilian Joint Task Force and
innocent citizens yesterday (Saturday), 30 January, 2016, Boko Haram
terrorists (insurgents) launched an attack on Dalori through Yale from (rear
of Dalori village).

“An eyewitness said that the insurgents who came in two Golf cars,
motorcycles, started opening fire and burning houses. Their motive was to
cause rancour and penetrate the crowd with suicide bombers.

“Similarly, while people were running for their dear lives to Gomari Kerkeri
village, three female suicide bombers attempted to make their way into the
crowd but were intercepted and subsequently got blown off.

“During the incident, lives were lost while some people sustained injuries.
The insurgents also attempted to penetrate Dalori IDP camp, but the
attempt was resisted by troops, which resulted into the detonation of IEDs
by suicide bombers.”

Anka added that the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.
Gen. Hassan Umaru, had sent a condolence message to the District Head
of Dalori, Alhaji Lawal Bashir, and the residents over the unfortunate
incident.