Nigerian Islamist raid in northeast town kills 55: military
By Ibrahim Mshelizza
BAMA, Nigeria | Tue May 7, 2013 8:18pm EDT
(Reuters) - Suspected members of the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram armed
with machineguns laid siege on the northeastern town of Bama on Tuesday,
freeing over 100 prison inmates and leaving 55 people dead, the military
said.
Around 200 heavily armed members of Boko Haram arrived in buses and pick-up
trucks and carried out a coordinated strike, first hitting the army barracks
and the police station before breaking into the town's prison, military
spokesman Sagir Musa told Reuters.
Musa said 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four
civilians were killed, while 13 of the group's own members died, in what was
one of the rebel's most deadly single strikes since a 2009 uprising.
Gunmen freed 105 prisoners during the raid which began at around 5 a.m.
(0400 GMT) and lasted almost five hours, Musa said. He said some of the
attackers were dressed in army uniforms.
Bama's police station, army barracks and government buildings were set
ablaze, he said.
"They came in army uniform pretending to be soldiers but were able to detect
them," Musa said.
Bama is a small, remote town in northeastern Borno state, Boko Haram's home
state and the nucleus of its attacks.
"The call to prayer was just being said at about 5 a.m. when the Boko Haram
started shooting from all directions and we ran for our lives," eyewitness
Amina Usman told Reuters.
"One woman who could not run burned to death," Usman added.
The Boko Haram sect and offshoots such as the al Qaeda-linked Ansaru, as
well as associated criminal networks, pose the main threat to stability in
Africa's top energy producer.
Western governments are increasingly concerned about Nigerian militants
linking up with other jihadist groups in the West African region.
Boko Haram wants to carve out an Islamic state in a country split roughly
equally between Christians and Muslims. One of its chief demands is that its
imprisoned members and family members are released and it has carried out
several prison breaks.
Attacks by Boko Haram have killed more than 3,000 people since 2009, based
on figures from Human Rights Watch.
Violence in Nigeria's northeast has shown no signs of abating. Clashes
between Islamists and a multinational force from Nigeria, Niger and Chad
killed dozens of people last month.
A senator who visited the site said 228 people were killed, but the military
puts the figure at 37.
President Goodluck Jonathan has set up a committee to work out the terms of
an amnesty for the rebels but their leader, Abubakar Shekau, has shown no
interest in it so far.
(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Maiduguri; Writing by Joe Brock;
Editing by Michael Roddy)
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Received on Wed May 08 2013 - 17:43:49 EDT
