Boko Haram kill 24 mourners at funeral in Adamawa State in drive-by motorcycle shooting

BOKO Haram have killed at least 24 people near the town of Gulak in Adamawa State after opening fire on mourners attending the funeral of a local community leader in what was a drive-by shooting on motorcycles.

 

According to Maina Ularamu, a former local government chairman in nearby Madagali, the attack happened in Kuda village at about 8.00 pm on Thursday. Adamawa police spokesman Othman Abubakar, based in the state capital Yola, some 255km away, confirmed the attack but gave a lower death toll of 18, adding that many others were injured.

 

Mr Ularamu said: “They came on motorcycles and opened fire on the crowd, killing 24 and most of the victims were women. They looted food supplies and burnt homes and they left almost an hour later.

 

“Gulak has been liberated from Boko Haram but the gunmen still live in villages nearby and they attack mostly to loot food supplies. Our people who fled their homes to escape Boko Haram attacks have been returning because they can’t live in the camps but now they are facing threats from Boko Haram who launch nocturnal attacks.”

 

Boko Haram threatened to overrun Adamawa state in 2014, sweeping down from their Sambisa Forest stronghold which lies just across the border in Borno State to Mubi, 80km south of Gulak. Their rampage, which left bridges and homes destroyed on the only road south to Yola, forced tens of thousands of people from their homes to flee into camps and host communities in the state capital.

 

Boko Haram was driven out of the state by a military counter-offensive that began in January 2015 and since there has been a relative calm despite sporadic attacks in the north of the state. Boko Haram's last attack in Adamawa was on January 9, when seven people were killed and two others injured in a raid on Madagali.

 

Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a market in Madagali on December 28, killing 30, just days after President Muhammadu Buhari declared the Islamists technically defeated. However, Thursday’s attack is an indication that the rebels, who want to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, are not routed, and still have the capacity to strike.

 

On Tuesday, fighters attacked Kutuva village in the Damboa area of Borno State, on the other side of the former game reserve, killing four and kidnapping four women. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6m people forced from their homes since the insurgency began in 2009.