Sunday Massacre: Boko Haram Slaughters Over 20 In Borno

 At least 20 persons were reportedly killed on Sunday afternoon in an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on Kamuyya village in Biu Local Government Area of Borno State.
Boko Haram insurgents have killed more than 100 persons in the last one week in their attacks on isolated villages in the troubled state, leaving homes and properties destroyed.
The attack of Sunday according to residents of the area, was carried out by dozens of the members of the Islamic terrorist sect, who invaded Kamuyya village with assault rifles and explosives.
The attack was said to have lasted for over two hours and 20 persons were left dead by the terrorists who fled to the bushes after the slaughter.
Residents, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on the telephone on Sunday, said some insurgents had visited the town about two months ago and asked the village head to
mobilise his subjects to contribute the sum of N250,000 for them in order to carry out“God’s work.”

The villagers, out of fear of the terror sect, were said to have been able to raise a paltry N70,000 contributed by peasant farmers and petty traders with little or no income.
Though the insurgents were said to have collected the contributed money, but left a message that they would come back for the balance.

They allegedly threatened that if the balance was not paid at a stipulated time, it would fetch death sentence for most of the villagers.

One of the villagers, Bukar Umar, revealed that the threat was taken with a pinch of salt as many thought it was “madness gone too far.”

He said, “Actually when they issued such threat, we all took it lightly as we are all relaxed and nobody bothered to make any extra effort to put in the amount they requested.
The decision to ignore the threat is believed to have provoked this bloody attack because we were unable to meet their demand.”

Umar said they were caught pants down as over 20 insurgents, who were believed to have emerged from the bush, stormed the Kamuyya weekly market and opened fire on the crowd before setting shops and vehicles on fire.

According to him, the hoodlums, who were well armed with sophisticated weapons, after
raiding the area, proceeded to the major market and began sporadic and indiscriminate shootings into the crowd, killing 20 persons on the spot and burning most of the shops in the market.

He noted that they were taken unawares as the town had not come under such heavy attacks for a long time.

Umar, who expressed dismay that innocent people were killed with such impunity, added that there was no intervention from the security forces despite the over two hours that the onslaught lasted.