20 Civilian JTF Vigilantes in Borno Killed by Gunmen

Last Monday night in Damasak, 187 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, Gunmen carried two attacks on members of the Civilian Joint Task Force killing at least 20 of them, residents and officials said last night.

A security official told Associated Press that insurgents had crept up on six members of the group, who were sleeping, and shot them.

According to the official, who pleaded not to be named, four gunmen carried out that attacks, “The attack took place in the border town of Damasak, 187 kilometres (116 miles) away from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital and birthplace of the Boko Haram ideology,” he said.

“The report we got from Damasak confirmed that the six members of the vigilante group were also jewellery vendors who took time off to attend the weekly Damasak Market to sell their wares,” he said, adding that the sect members then trailed them to where they were sleeping.

The deaths were confirmed by Civilian-JTF official, Abubakar Malum, who said the men ranged in age from 20 to 36-year-old.

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies were packed up in a pick-up truck yesterday at one of JTF’s headquarters in Maiduguri.

The attacks came less than two days after suspected Boko Haram members killed 14 young vigilantes in neighboring Bama, just 87 kilometers (54 miles) from Maiduguri, the military official said.

The attackers stormed the town disguised in military uniforms and “they used knives instead of guns to prevent the military from hearing the gunshots,” and decapitated the young men, he said.