At least 29 people were killed by suspected Islamist insurgents in northeastern Nigeria on Monday, showing insecurity still plagues areas the military said it secured.
The militants invaded Dille and its surrounding villages in the southern part of Borno state at about 1 p.m. in a convoy of five pickup trucks and motorcycles, said Abubakar Ishaq, a resident who escaped the attack.
“People are being killed in cold blood. Churches, mosques, shops and residential houses were destroyed,” Jubrin Satumari, a lawmaker representing the area in Nigeria’s House of Representatives, said by phone. “I have pleaded to security authorities, particularly the military, to deploy troops to most of the affected villages to safeguard my people’s lives and property, but all my cries have fallen on deaf ears.”
While nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, Islamist rebel group Boko Haram has been waging a six-year insurgency to impose their version of Shariah, or Islamic law, in Africa’s most populous nation, killing thousands and displacing more than 1.5 million people.
Hospitals Destroyed
After recapturing the town of Dikwa last week, the Nigerian army said there was no area in Borno that was still under the control of Boko Haram.
The militants are still able to mount attacks and then retreat however, Colonel Tukur Gusau told reporters in Maiduguri on Sunday.
“The roads and the villages are still not safe,” Faisal Ga’al, a Medecins Sans Frontieres project coordinator in Borno’s capital, Maiduguri, said in a statement on Monday. “Some people are now coming back after being attacked by Boko Haram again.”
There are no functioning hospitals in Borno state outside Maiduguri and the town of Biu, according to Ga’al.
“Most of the hospitals were completely destroyed by bombs,” he said. “The main problem now is movement to those areas” because of insecurity and other challenges aid workers may face.