No fewer than 5,000 residents of Kirawa, a border town in Borno State, have fled into neighbouring Cameroon following a deadly attack by Boko Haram insurgents that left homes, vehicles, and a military barracks in ruins.
The assault, which occurred on Thursday, saw the insurgents storm the community in large numbers, torching residential buildings, heavy-duty equipment, and the district head’s house. Eyewitnesses said the fighters overran the military outpost in the town and set it ablaze while chanting victory songs.
Boko Haram later released a video claiming responsibility for the invasion. The footage showed fighters boasting of their assault and declaring that “victory belongs to God.”
Abdulrahman Abubakar, the district head of Kirawa, confirmed that he was among those forced to flee.
“I was left with no option but to cross into Cameroon,” he lamented, adding that residents boarded trucks or fled on foot to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in search of safety.
Thursday’s raid followed a similar attack earlier in the week in which two persons were killed in Kirawa, with dozens of houses, vehicles, and public property destroyed.
The renewed violence has heightened fears across border communities in Borno, which have witnessed repeated insurgent assaults since the beginning of the year. Boko Haram has reportedly seized several army bases and communities, despite military counter-offensives under Operation Hadin Kai.
Reacting to the fresh displacement, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, renewed calls for urgent deployment of troops to vulnerable towns.
He disclosed that he had met with the Theatre Commander of Operation Hadin Kai, the GOC of the 7th Division, and the Force Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force.
Zulum said the military chiefs assured him that troops would be deployed to Kirawa and other strategic border towns such as Wulgo, Baga, Damasak, and Malam Fatori in the coming days.
However, the governor expressed regret that his earlier warnings about leaving border communities unmanned had not been heeded.
“I had raised alarm on the dangers of leaving these areas exposed, but the necessary action was delayed,” Zulum noted.
Residents who managed to escape the latest onslaught are now stranded in makeshift camps across Cameroon and Maiduguri, raising concerns of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the northeast.
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