by Rachel Ogbu

About 24 hours after Joint Task Force officials in Yobe State smashed a Boko Haram hideout and recovered arms and ammunition, gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram Saturday attacked seven communities in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State and killed about 15 people, new reports say.

According to reports, the insurgents attacked the areas with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and petrol-bombs, torching many houses and stealing food items and livestock.

A community leader of Kundewho wished to remain anonymous told reporters that 15 people were killed by the armed extremists, when they attacked six other communities of Gathahure, Hwa’a, Tihezeh, Hrazah, Hembe and Gjigga on the Mandara Hills, that stretch for 16 kilometres, east of Gwoza, the council headquarters.

Vanguard reports:

Meanwhile, youths popularly called Civilian JTF invaded Sulimanti Ward, a suburb of Maiduguri Metropolis in a search of a Boko Haram chief killer.

The Kunde community leader said residents of  Kunde and the six others fled to Gwoza town, Barawa, Agaplawa, Kurana Bassa, Kwatara, Limankara and Ngoshe Ndahang.

The other communities ransacked by the terrorists, he said, include border towns of the Republic of Cameroon, where some of the residents had fled with their wives and children.

Confirming the incident yesterday in Maiduguri, a top military source of the Special Operations Forces (MISOF) at Barawa, a border village  said: “some of the villages on Gwoza Hills cannot be accessed by our men because of the difficult terrain. Our men can only be stationed at this village for our operations with fighter jets that could bombard the hills with cannons to destroy the training camps and hideouts of Boko Haram sect members.”

On casualties of the attacks, he said that one of the community leaders reported to the Divisional Police Officer of Gwoza that 15 people were killed by the terrorists.

Due to the total closure of GSM network services in Borno State for the past one month, the JTF Spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa and the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin could not be reached for comments.