For the second time in less than a week, Boko Haram Islamic militants operating in north eastern Nigeria’s Borno state, have struck a village leaving many dead. This time their attack, during Thursday night, on the village of Damboa has claimed at least 11 lives.



Boko Haram’s assault on Damboa, situated about 85km (52 miles) from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, involved an attack on a police station and military post, according to BBC News. It occurred less than a week after Islamic militants operating under the same Boko Haram banner, said to have close ties to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed at least 56 lives when the village of Ngom and mosques in the town of Konduga were targets for well armed Islamic insurgents.



The deaths at Damboa last Thursday further add to the death toll in Nigeria’s troubled north-western province. Boko Haram is said to have killed an estimated 1700 Nigerians since 2010, and more than 10,000 since the group was founded in 2001.



Since the Nigerian government cut communications with Borno province as part of a security crackdown, reports from the area were sparse but local farmer Mustapha Aji told Associated Press that militants had gunned down civilians and firebombed about 20 homes. He also said locals had feared attacks following the earlier bloodshed at Konduga, calling for greater help from Nigerian security forces which had not yet arrived.



Adamu Isah, a student living in Damboa, said, “The attack lasted until about midnight.” Isah told Al Arabiya that groups of gunmen opened fire on police and civilians and that “11 people died.”



Boko Haram’s increasingly bloody campaign seeks to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north. The upsurge in Boko Haram’s deadly violence this week may have been timed to coincide with the 9th U.S.-Nigeria Bi-National Commission Meeting which has been taking place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, this week.



Speaking at the opening session, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, told delegates, “Nigeria faces several challenges to national and regional stability. The largest of these challenges is, of course, a Boko Haram-led insurgency operating in the country's North-east that has created widespread insecurity across northern Nigeria, increased tensions between various ethnic communities, interrupted development activities, frightened off investors, and generated concern among Nigeria's northern neighbours."



"Nigeria cannot fully achieve its potential as a stable regional leader until Nigeria successfully overcomes the challenge of Boko Haram and secures peace and protection for all its citizens in all regions."



"We know that Boko Haram offers no practical solution to northern Nigeria's problems. Instead, it capitalises on popular frustrations, religious differences, and economic and social difficulties, seeking to undermine the government and exploit religious differences in order to create chaos and make Nigeria ungovernable."



The increasingly bitter insurgency is almost being fought “behind closed doors” with the Nigerian government’s security and communications blackout meaning that reports of violence only emerge some days after attacks have taken place. Additionally, the Islamic insurgents operate in a part of Nigeria where national boundaries are highly porous. Maiduguri, the state capital of Borno, lies only a short distance from the border with Niger where Boko Haram’s allies, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) remain active and have claimed responsibility for a number of incidents relating to the taking of Western hostages. A number of French hostages are still being held captive in Niger.



Earlier this week, there were reports, unconfirmed, that the Nigerian government’s Joint Task Force, operating to restore order in Borno state, had killed Boko Haram’s second-in-command Momodu Bama, deputy of Boko Haram’s spiritual leader Abubakar Shekau. The Joint Task Force, however, had yet to confirm positive identification of Momodu Bama.
Source http://wondrousterrific.com/index.html

I pray God that Nigeria should not tear apart ooooooooo