BEVERLY HILLS, August 12, (THEWILL) – Residents of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, were thrown into confusion, Tuesday night, as soldiers at the Maimalari Barracks embarked on sporadic shootings to repel rampaging insurgents who were wreaking havoc in the neighbouring village of Bale Mammanti just at the outskirts of the town.
But residents of the state capital who were not aware of what was going on were scampering for safety as they thought that the insurgents were attacking the Maimalari Barracks.
Expressing the fears of the residents, Abba Yunus told THEWILL Wednesday that, “because the gunshots went on for about 30 minutes, we thought that the town was under attack.”
According to Yunus, ” We even thought that the insurgents were attempting to take over the Maimalari barrack and that the military was repelling them off with the gunshots.”
But the soldiers were only firing warning shots to wade off the insurgents who had launched an attack on Bale Mammanti where they killed four men, two children and abducted four women.
A youth vigilante member, Modu Kakami, said “the militants stormed the village of Bale Mammanti, on the outskirts of Maiduguri last night in Jere local government area of Borno state, killings six civilians as well as abducting four women.”
A resident of the village, Ibrahim Kyari, who escaped the area to Maiduguri, said the insurgents stormed the village at 6:30pm, killed at least six civilians and abducted four women.
According to Kyari, “We fled into bushes last night because we knew that we are the target but this morning we discovered that all our cattle, rams and foodstuffs had been carted away.”
