Many Feared Dead In Fresh Adamawa Attack, As Boko Haram Razes Over 60 Houses

Many people were feared dead on Thursday, in a fresh attack by Boko Haram insurgents in Ghumbili community, in the Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The attack came a few days after a similar incident occurre in a neighbouring village, Mildu, in the same local government where seven people were killed by the insurgents.

Confirming the attack, chairman of Madagali Local Government Council, Mr Yusuf Muhammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the attack lasted four hours, from 11.00 p.m. on Wednesday till 3.00 a.m. on Thursday.

He said the insurgents burnt at least 60 houses and looted foodstuffs.

“They looted foodstuffs, killed livestock and completely burnt the village ,” he said.

Muhammed said the exact number of dead and injured  was yet to be ascertained and villagers who escaped the attack were currently seeking refuge in Gulak, headquarters of the council.

Spokesman of the Police Command in Adamawa State, Mr Othman Abubakar, who also confirmed the attack, said no life was lost.

He, however, said houses destroyed in the attack were the latest in a string of deadly blows on mainly soft targets in Nigeria’s troubled north-east.

Speaking on the development, the executive chairman of the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Haruna Furo, said only one person was killed and many houses were

destroyed.

Boko Haram appears to have raised its onslaught in recent weeks in its eight-year bloody insurgency that had claimed thousands of lives.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) began transporting food to the North-East, where people displaced by Boko Haram need urgent food assistance.

The WFP said it had already began moving the first batch of rice donated by the  Nigerian government, which contributed 5,000 metric tons of rice and pledged a further 2,000 metric tons of millet.

He said since launching operations in 2016, WFP had expanded its offer of food, nutrition and cash to reach more than a million people a month.

Sibanda said having overcome a funding challenge, WFP had set its target at 1.36 million people during the current pre-harvest lean season, the hungriest time of the year.