More details have
emerged of the daring Boko Haram attack on a military base near Damaturu, the
Yobe State capital on Tuesday.
Although the army is
yet to provide details of the attack, a spokesperson confirmed it on Tuesday.
“Yes, there was an
attack and we repelled it,” Kayode Ogunsanya, a colonel, and spokesman of
3-Division Jos, said, adding that “there were casualties on both sides.”
Efforts by Premium Times
to get Mr. Ogunsanya to provide more details on Friday were unsuccessful. He
did not return calls or respond to text messages.
The Commissioner of
Police in Yobe State, Abdulmaliki Sumonu, also confirmed to journalists that
the village was attacked on Tuesday night.
“The attack happened
on Tuesday night; we are still working on the details,” Mr. Sumonu said on
Wednesday.
Top military insiders
have now told Premium Times that at least one officer and 10 soldiers were
killed in the attack.
Seven other soldiers
who were also part of the attacked troops are still unaccounted for, PT sources
said.
A large
cache of arms including two gun trucks, communication radios and small arms
were also carted away by the Boko Haram fighters.
“Large quantity of foodstuff were also carted
away by the Boko Haram,” an official said.
Boko Haram has in the past weeks amassed large
quantity of arms after attacks on military formations or during ambushes on
troops, PT sources said.
One source, a top
military officer, was worried that the captured ammunitions are those the
insurgents will use in carrying out further attacks on troops.
“Sadly, the Boko Haram
has amassed large quantity of arms, ammo and high calibre weapons from the army
within one week”, the source said.
“These same equipment
would be used against own soldiers and civilians. They brutally attacked the
soldiers and escaped neatly into their hideouts.”
However, while the
Sasawa attack is the most recent, military sources told Premium Times it was
the second such attack within one week on soldiers fighting the Boko Haram in
the North-East.
On October 18, at
about 12 noon, members of the terror group attacked an army convoy led by the
Commanding Officer of 81 Battalion, a lieutenant colonel (name withheld), along
the Damboa-Maiduguri road.
The soldiers were said
to be on their way to Maiduguri from their base in Bulabulin.
Four
soldiers were killed and five others injured during the attack, sources told Premium
Times.
Three of the slain soldiers were corporals
while one was a warrant officer. Their names are also being withheld until we
are sure their families have been contacted.
“The military lost weapons, equipment and a
hilux vehicle including a ground to air communication radio in that attack,”
one military source said.
The two recent attacks on soldiers occurred
despite the successes by the military against the insurgents in the past two
years.
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