BORNO: 18 residents killed in Boko Haram’s Damasak attack – Zulum

GOVERNOR Babagana Zulum says 18 residents were killed and 21 others injured when Boko Haram insurgents attacked Damasak town.

Zulum said he confirmed the figures from residents who witnessed the attack and saw several properties destroyed when he visited the town, the governor’s media aide, Isa Gusau, said in a statement today. 

The governor who was in Damasak yesterday and spent the night there, had interactions with soldiers and others security forces involved in the counter-insurgency operations in the town.

He also sympathised with the residents and assessed the level of destruction caused by the insurgents, noting that Tuesday’s attack on Damasak was the sixth in two weeks.

According to the statement, thousands of residents who had fled to border communities in the Niger Republic returned on Friday while residents told the governor that the insurgents attacked the town with three gun trucks.

Governor Zulum assured the residents of robust measures to avert future insurgent attacks, saying he has directed the strengthening of agricultural activities in the town.

The governor travelled to Damasak along with the lawmaker representing Borno North, Senator Abubakar Kyari, who hails from the town, as well as some government officials.

Damasak, the headquarter of Mobbar Local Government Area in northern Borno, is located on the fringes of Lake Chad and shares a border with communities in the Niger Republic.

The town used to be a producer and exporter of vegetables to target markets within Nigeria and neighbouring countries before Boko Haram occupied it in 2014 and declared it one of their caliphates.