Gunmen have seized hundreds of hostages in a northeastern Nigerian city, where residents had just returned from fleeing their homes, residents and militia sources said Wednesday.
De Islamic State The group Western Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram, stormed the city of Kukawa in the state of Borno late on Tuesday, the sources told the AFP news agency.
They seized residents who returned to a city on Aug. 2 in a government operation after spending nearly two years in relocation camps, said Babakura Kolo, head of a local militia.
“The terrorists attacked the city in 22 trucks yesterday at 16.00 GMT (16.00 GMT) and attacked soldiers guarding the city in a fierce battle,” he said.
Residents of Kukawa had returned just 16 days earlier under military escort on orders from the Borno authorities.
They lived in camps in the regional capital Maiduguri, 180 km (120 miles) away, where they fled after a bloody attack in November 2018.
A city chief who accompanied the residents to the city said the people had returned with the hope of cultivating their agricultural land “only to get into the hands of the insurgents”.
“We do not know what they would do to them, but I hope they do not harm them,” said the chief, who asked for security reasons not to be identified.
Squalid refugee camps
A security source who confirmed the incident to AFP said fighting jets were deployed from Maiduguri on Wednesday to ‘tackle the situation’, but did not give further details.
The decade-long conflict in northeastern Nigeria has forced more than two million people out of their homes, most of them from the northern part of Borno.
Many have moved to squalid repression camps in Maiduguri, where they rely on handouts of international charity.
In the last two years, local authorities have encouraged the displaced to return, despite concerns by international charities that this is not safe.
Residents have been returning to five major cities since 2018, where they are confined under military protection, with trenches dug to try to protect against attacks.
Despite the reinforcements, the armed fighters continued to launch attacks.
Since 2009, Boko Haram has been conducting attacks in Nigeria and neighboring countries in the Chad region, with no signs of slowing down despite counterattacks by a joint multinational force across borders.
Boko Haram has been responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the abduction of thousands of others, including hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014.
In 2015, Boko split Haram, giving way to the formation of ISWAP, which has pledged allegiance to the ISIL (ISIS) group.
Since then, ISWAP has also gone on a spree of violence, attacks by government forces and carrying out kidnappings and arrests.
The main strongholds of the armed groups lie in the southern and southwestern regions of Lake Chad, the confluence of the borders of four African states – Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
.
