19th February, 2014
A survivor of the attack on Bama today by Boko Haram militants said the Nigerian soldiers on guard duty fled upon sighting the rampaging militants, who invaded Bama in their dozens.
The survivor who bore witness to the latest attack on the besieged town in north east Nigeria told the French news agency, AFP that the Boko Haram assailants invaded the town in their dozens and drove into the town around 4:am (0300 GMT) in heavy trucks through a secondary school.
“We realized that they were in hundreds carrying sophisticated weapons. So we had to run as the soldiers on guard also took to their heels,” he added.
The survivor who said that he escaped to Maiduguri on foot added that his other colleagues ran into a nearby Bama General (government) Hospital before fleeing into the bush.
“The attackers set everywhere ablaze using Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) as they moved”.
“As we ran, we kept seeing burnt houses and dead bodies,” and others injured, he said without giving details of death toll.
Some of the properties damaged included the Emir of Bama’s palace which was slightly touched by the attackers and scores of other houses owned by the residents, he said.
The mobile phone network in Borno is patchy and calls to Bama area residents were not going through on Wednesday.
It was a different story however by Nigeria’s defence spokesman, Chris Olukolade who claimed the insurgents were engaged by Nigerian troops and that a large number of the militants were killed.
Bama is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, which is the stronghold of the Islamist rebels who have killed thousands during a four-and-half year insurgency.
“The attackers came from various locations,” Olukolade said. “We believe that there were suicide bombers among them. They used bombs during the operation (and) attacked one of our tanks.”
He said “many” of the attackers were killed when troops repelled the raid, but could not offer a specific figure or comment on casualties among civilians or the security forces.
Olukolade also said that a “cordon and search operation was ongoing in Bama with a view to apprehending fleeing attackers”.
A police spokesman, however said details about the attack had been difficult to obtain because of the poor phone network.
More than 200 people have been killed in 2014 in Borno state alone, by the insurgents who claimed they want to impose an Islamic theocracy on northern Nigeria.
In the village of Izghe on Saturday suspected Boko Haram gunmen went door-to-door, dragging residents outside before slaughtering them.