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The militant Islamic group Boko Haram which has been terrorising north east Nigeria for years is allowing its lethal bombs do the talking after it emerged that at least 31 people in Borno state were killed Saturday hours after the military hierarchy boasted that the group had been rendered ineffective and that residents who had fled their homes should return.
Borno state is in a part of the country blighted by the Islamist militant Boko Haram insurgency whose effectiveness the army chief Tukur Burutai is playing down by urging residents who have fled their homes to return home.
“Let me use this opportunity to call on the good people of northern Borno… to return to their communities which have long been liberated by our gallant troops,” the army chief said at an inauguration ceremony for gunboats earlier on Saturday.
The residents, who were among those who counted the dead, said the blasts occurred in the Damboa local government area in the south of the state, on Saturday around 8:30 p.m. Witnesses spoke of at least one rocket attack.
Borno is the state worst hit by the insurgency, aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria, which has killed more than 30,000 people and forced over 2 million to flee their homes since 2009.
The blasts occurred in the Shuwari and Abachari districts of the local government area, which is about 90 km (55 miles) from state capital Maiduguri.
“It has destroyed our houses. We have also counted 31 innocent people including children and elderly killed in the attack,” said local resident Modu Usman, son of a community leader. Nobody had claimed responsibility for the blasts.
The military and police did not immediately respond to telephone calls seeking details of the blasts. The last large attack in the northeast occurred in early May when at least 20 people were killed in Adamawa state, which borders Borno.
Boko Haram uses suicide bombers, often-young girls, to target civilians and soldiers. In one of the most recent attacks, bombers killed dozens of people in and around a mosque in the town of Mubi.
