Boko Haram strikes Nigerian city after thousands flee military operation

Boko Haram fighters attacked the town of Damaturu in northeastern Nigeria for the first time since late 2014, according to local residents, after thousands of soldiers forced thousands of people to flee a village on the other side of the border, due to a planned military offensive.

Two residents of the capital, Yobe, said that suspected Boko Haram fighters linked to ISIS were behind the attack, which began late in the afternoon.

"The jihadists of Boko Haram launched an attack on Damaturu around 17:45 (16:45 GMT), firing rifles and launching explosives," said AFP Adamu Sani, a businessman from Maisandari town.

"Residents and businesses all closed when we were fleeing into the city so as not to be caught in the attack." During my flight, I saw trucks loaded with soldiers heading towards Maisandari. "

Hashimu Idris, an official, added, "Everyone is in. We are urging the soldiers to repel them, otherwise it will be another disaster in the city.

"It's the first attack on the city since 2014."

Boko Haram fighters loyal to the faction led by Abubakar Shekau launched a dawn raid on Damaturu on 1 December 2014. More than 150 people, including 38 policemen, were killed.

The raid followed a bomb blast on June 18 that year, which killed some 21 football fans while watching a World Cup match in a public screening center.

Last October, 30 people, all supposed to be soldiers, were killed in a bomb and bomb attack on police buildings in Damaturu.

The latest attack followed the evacuation of some 2,000 people from Jakana village, located about 90 kilometers from Damaturu, on the road to Maiduguri, in the neighboring state of Borno.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said its troops had escorted residents of Bakbadi camp for internally displaced persons to Maiduguri "for their own safety".

North East NEMA coordinator Abulkadir Ibrahim said the move was "the result of ongoing operations to oust insurgents from the region".

The residents of Jakana stated that they had not been warned. One of them, Modu Kaka, said: "The soldiers came this morning and told us to gather and started gathering in trucks.

"We left all our belongings in Jakana and we now depend on food aid."

Crossing point

Bakbadi is one of many IDP camps hosting tens of thousands of displaced people, living in squalid shelters and relying on food distributions provided by humanitarian organizations.

An unidentified military official said that the evacuation was in preparation for a "major operation" against the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) Province, the Boko Haram faction linked to the Islamic State.

Jakana is on a road crossing known for the ISWAP fighters moving between their camps in the forest of Benisheikh in Borno and their hiding places in the area of ​​Buni Yadi in Yobe.

In January, ISWAP sent letters to residents of Jakana and Mainok asking them to leave their homes for an imminent raid on the army.

According to military sources and militias, jihadists have been attacked in recent weeks by intensive air and ground offensive carried out by coalition forces involving Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon against militant camps on Lake Chad. .

"We know that they will use their traditional route to escape," said a military source.

The Boko Haram insurgency, which has lasted for a decade, has killed more than 27,000 people in the north-east and 1.8 million of them are still displaced from their homes.

The conflict has spread to neighboring countries, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, resulting in the formation of a regional military coalition against jihadists.