From Tom Garba, Yola
Suspected members of Boko Haram insurgency have reportedly killed six people, including an old woman who was burnt to ashes in her room while more than 20 houses were set ablaze by the insurgents in Kuda village of Madagali local government area of Adamawa state.
Eyewitness accounts revealed that the insurgents invaded the village at about 9pm on Monday while villagers were preparing to go to bed and started shooting sporadically.
The eyewitness claimed that the insurgents came into the village on foot but they were well armed. After carting away some valuables, they set ablaze more than 20 houses.
Confirming the incident, the Village Head of Krichinga, Abubakar Kanuri, who said his village was a stone throw from Kuda village, revealed that the insurgents came by foot through Malakwaya forest, a section of the Sambisa forest.
He said the reports he got was that over 30 armed insurgents stormed Kadu village but he said he was yet to know the exact casualty figure, adding however, that he knew an old woman was burnt to ashes because she could not flee her home when insurgents set it ablaze.
Kanuri said the military in company with the vigilantes and hunters drafted to fight the insurgency were pursuing the insurgents who had escaped into a near-by bush before Sambisa forest.
He said presently locals of the affected communities have flee to Gulak town and other places to seek refuge.
Kanuri lamented that the security situation is becoming worst day by day following the different approaches adopted by the insurgents.
His words: “Today they will invade our villages as rustlers. Another day, they will storm our villages in a convoy of vehicles and sometimes they will use cattle to deceive us to think that they are normal herdsmen only to start killing people. We need help in our areas. Many are beginning to return but with the present security situation, they may not return to these areas.”
“This crazy boys are still hiding in caves inside Sambisa forest, ” he lamented , saying that he wonder when the military would finally defeat the insurgents.
Usman, one of villagers attacked, said he was trying to recover from the last attack unleashed on them last year by the insurgents, when he lost his properties again to inferno occasioned by the Monday night attack.
He said it was time to hunt for the insurgents but not to wait for them to attack before repelling them. “The best thing is to follow them to their hidings than allow them to continue to kill innocent Nigerians.”
Attempts to reach the military for comment on the attacked proved futile as at the time of filing this report.
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