Maiduguri - A massive assault by Boko Haram in the northeast
Nigerian town of Damboa displaced more than 15,000 people, an
official said Monday, as the security forces sent reinforcements to
flush out the Islamist fighters.
The attack on Damboa began late Thursday but continued through
the weekend, with witnesses saying that civilians were left
defenceless by the security forces who withdrew from the area
earlier this month.
Officials from the National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA) were struggling to establish a death toll amid multiple
reports that Boko Haram fighters were still occupying the town,
having hoisted their flag above a public building.
Abdulkadir Ibrahim of NEMA told journalists that at least 15,204
people had fled Damboa to escape the Islamist onslaught.
"The number of displaced in (the town of) Biu is 10,204. We have
3,000 in Maiduguri and 2,000 in Goniri," he said.
Multiple media outlets on Monday reported that Boko Haram had
taken over Damboa and were seeking to establish themselves as the
local authority, something the Nigerian Islamist are not widely
known to do.
But the military tried to downplay the extent of the crisis.
"We are not conceding any portion of this country to any terrorist
group," defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said.
"Security agencies are firming up deployment of troops in the
entire area...We are also going to reverse every form of insecurity
in that area very soon," he added.
Boko Haram has relentlessly targeted civilians across the
northeast, killing more than 2,000 already this year, and staged
brazen attacks on the security forces.
Should the Islamists prove capable of holding their ground in
Damboa in the face of a military assault, it would mark a major
embarrassment for the security forces and signal a significant
setback in Nigeria's effort to crush the five-year uprising.
str-bs/yad
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