The number of villagers massacred by Boko Haram insurgents in Yobe state has risen to 160 on Wednesday, August 19, according to locals, amid official denials over the devastating attack.
Vanguard reports that residents of Kukuwa-Gari in Yobe described how more than 150 of their relatives and neighbours have either drowned in a river or were shot dead fleeing from Boko Haram on Thursday last week.
Local officials initially put the death toll as low as 50, but Channels TV news reports that the director of defence information, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, said the reports of the incident were “untrue”.
However, the station did not clarify whether Abubakar was denying the death toll or that the incident took place at all, and attempts by AFP to contact the military were unsuccessful.
If the villagers’ count of the dead in Kukuwa-Gari is anything to go by, then it would constitute the largest loss of life in any single Boko Haram attack since President Muhammadu Buhari swept to power on May 29, vowing to crush the insurgency.
The telecommunication in Kukuwa-Gari is almost non-existent, but villagers, who fled to nearby settlements, said those who returned had buried 160 bodies.
Alhaji Kankana Sarkin-Baka, a leader of a local group of hunters who co-opted to fight the insurgency alongside vigilante groups, said 17 fighters had come on motorcycles, including a local Boko Haram emir, or commander.
Kankana said: “They had superior firepower because they were using modern guns while we were using hunting guns. We were outpowered but they were outnumbered.”
He noted that six of the fighters positioned themselves by the river, blocking the only escape route, and opened fire on fleeing residents, forcing to them to jump into the water.
“No troops deployed!
“This led to the huge death toll we recorded. So far we have buried 160 people. And out of this number only eight bodies had gunshot wounds, which means all the others drowned,” he told the newsmen.
Kankana said the hunters killed 14 of the attackers, including the emir and his deputy, while three escaped with gunshot wounds.
The villagers, who have secured reinforcements of 100 hunters from the state’s capital, Damaturu, say the gunmen were “born and bred” in the area and joined BokoHaram several years ago.
“Up to this moment no troops have deployed. Our major operational challenge is good weapons to effectively counter possible any possible further attack by Boko Haram. All we have are hunting guns,” Kankana said.
Kukuwa-Gari resident Modu Balumi, who had fled to neighbouring Gombe state, said his sister-in-law and two of her children were among several villagers still missing.
“Honestly, I am not happy with the way the military tried to deny that our village was attacked. Many of us who are yet to return have changed our minds about going back by this stance of the military,” he said.
Boko Haram has waged a violent campaign for a separate Islamic homeland in the northeast which has seen more than 15,000 deaths since 2009.
Ryan Cummings, a chief security analyst at South African consultancy Red 24, said: “The fact that reports of the Kukawa-Gari massacre are only being reported five days after the fact… suggests that there was unlikely any discernible security presence in the region at the time the militant incursion took place.”
It is not the first time the international sources and the Nigerian authorities present completely different data on the Boko Haram attacks.
In January 2015, there were shocking reports of 2,000 dead as a result of Boko Haram attack on Baga, Borno state. The Nigerian army confirmed fierce fighting it the area, but denied the Amntesty International’s report, putting the number of dead at about 150 people.
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