- Nigerian troops were nowhere to assist –Local
Scores of villagers were, on Saturday, feared killed, following an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on Gumsiri community in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State. A local hunter told SaharaReporters that the terrorists arrived Gumsiri at about 6 pm when Ramadan-observing Muslims were breaking their fast. Gumsiri lies 10 kilometers away from Damboa town.
Abu Damboa, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), told SaharaReporters that hundreds of Gumsiri indigenes were forced to flee to Damboa.
“Many may have been killed. Hundreds of civilians fled to Damboa town from Gumsiri. The terrorists arrived at about 6 pm and as of 8.30pm, they were still there,” the CJTF member told SaharaReporters by phone.
Another local hunter, based in Chibok, said the villagers who fled from Gumsiri told him that the death toll may be very high. The hunter quoted the fleeing villagers as saying that the terrorists easily overpowered local hunters because Nigerian Army troops were not in the vicinity to assist.
“They overpowered our members in Gumsiri. I can’t tell you what the casualty figure is now. We just want to appeal to the Chief of Army Staff to deploy troops to all the villages between Damboa and Chibok. We don’t have soldiers in Gumsiri,” he told SaharaReporters by phone from Chibok.
