34 Persons Killed in ISWAP Attack on Yobe Village Buried; Residents Say Many Still Missing

As the government and people of Yobe State continue to mourn the killing of residents of Mafa village in Tarmuwa local government area of the state by terrorist group, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), the people of the area have complained that some of their people are still missing.

The state government had led the burial on Tuesday of 34 persons killed in the Sunday’s attack, but the resident of the area who claimed that the number of those killed may be in the region of 100, claimed that some victims of the attack were no among the roll call of those buried so far.

They equally said they were not among the five people who are at the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital in Damaturu receiving treatment.

Five persons are gathered to be in the hospital with four in critical condition battling for their lives.

Some of the people who spoke anonymously to ThisDay, said about hundred persons fell victim to the attack, where 39 have been accounted for as 34 were buried and five others remained in the Damaturu hospital.

They claimed that the remaining number may have either been killed or abducted by the insurgents.

One of the respondents, said: “We believe about 100 persons were victims of the attack but we only laid 34 to rest yesterday (Tuesday), five persons are in the hospital, so we feel that over 60 people may either be in the custody of the attackers or perhaps their corpses may still be missing.

Mafa village is located 60 kilometres from Babangida, the headquarters of Tarmuwa local government area of Yobe State.

The village was reported to have come under terrorists attack last Sunday around 4:00 pm during which many innocent people were killed, food stuffs and other valuables were  looted and several shops and houses destroyed.

The village is believed to have been picked out for attack for allegedly providing information to the military, which led to the killing of some ISWAP members.

Members of the attacked community who spoke to journalists said the terrorists’ attacks the community on motorcycles around 4 pm after the late afternoon prayer.

One of the villagers said when the attackers came, they asked that the villagers to gather at a place, promising not to kill them, took time out to ransack everywhere and looted their wares.

‘Some of the terrified villagers were said to have taken to their heels, but the terrorists went after them and executed many them, and equally came back to killed the people earlier assembled.

One of the survivors of the attack told journalists that: “They also begin house-to-house searching to push people out and kill them. They only leave me alive, when they understand that I’m a disabled person I cannot even run away. So, they asked me to find my way. They killed over 100 people in the town.’’

The funeral prayer took place on Tuesday at the Emir of Jajere’s palace, led by the Chief Imam of Yobe mosque and Islamic Center Ustaz Hudu Mohammed Yusuf.

While donating the sum of 30 million Naira to the family of the deceased and injured persons, the deputy Governor directed SEMA officials to provide food items and other relief materials to the victims.

He described the actions of insurgents as callous and barbaric, which no right-thinking Human being would carry-out, saying people should continue to pray for peace in the area and the entire state.

Speaking to the Journalists at the Tuesday burial, the Special Advisor to the Governor on Security Matters, Brigadier General Abdulsalam Dahiru (Rtd) has claimed that 34 villagers have been killed while 5 have sustained injuries.

‘‘The figures are 34 people that found deaths while 5 got injuries. 4 are in critical condition, the remaining one sustains minor injury and he is stable. Any other information you heard is rumors,

‘‘Nobody has gone to Mafa, it was the Nigerian Army that went yesterday and brought these bodies. So anything you hear is not actually what happened. People are concocting stories with wrong figures.

‘‘They are not confronting the military , they are only confronting innocent civilians who are soft targets. If they are truly relevant, they should confront the security agencies’’ he said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a letter written in Arabic and released by the insurgents. ISWAP clarified, in the letter that it attacked the villagers for allegedly providing information to the military, which led to the killing of its members.

The message read: “This is a message from the soldiers of the Caliphate in the West Africa Province to the leaders, mukhtars, and the rest of the residents and farmers in the town of Mafa and the villages around it.

“You have been tempted to remain in your countries in safety. The soldiers of the Caliphate will not harm you, nor threaten you with your money, nor hinder you from any activity of yours, whether agriculture, trade, etc., until you have arrogantly raised yourselves to a position in which you believe that your hands will reach our brothers with harm and remain uninterrupted.

“You have harmed our brothers in the past days in the town of (Bangaro) and its environs, and you cooperated and sympathized with the apostates in killing our brothers, and when we arrived in the area, we did not harm you.

“Rather, we limited ourselves to those whose hands were stained with the blood of our brothers, and who were attacked by their weapons, according to the information we found.

“We thought that by doing so we had warned you with the language of war, hoping that you would be deterred.

“However, this increased your arrogance and arrogance, so you repeated the same crime in the month of Safar.”

Michael Olugbode

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