By Seun Ibiyemi
No fewer than 20 people, including 14 soldiers, were killed following coordinated attacks by suspected terrorists on military bases in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State on Tuesday night.
Sources said the attackers, believed to be members of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), launched separate assaults on army formations in Ngoshe and Pulka communities in the southern part of the state.
The attack on the Ngoshe military base reportedly left at least nine soldiers and a chief imam dead, while the facility was destroyed after the insurgents overran the position.
At about the same time, the Pulka military base also came under heavy attack, resulting in the death of five soldiers, including the commanding officer of the base.
Read also:ISWAP attack in Ngoshe kills nine soldiers, civilians abducted in Borno
Local sources said the assault forced troops to retreat from Ngoshe village, enabling the attackers to cart away guns and ammunition after the base was completely overrun.
A resident, Bello Ngoshe, said more than 100 people were reportedly abducted during the raid, which lasted several hours with little resistance from security forces.
“We are devastated now; hundreds of people have been abducted by terrorists and about eight villagers killed,” he said.
“Ngoshe is deserted as we speak. They burnt down the village completely and nobody is presently in our village.”
Confirming the incident, the Senator representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, said an unspecified number of civilians, soldiers and terrorists were killed when armed members of Boko Haram/ISWAP invaded Ngoshe on Tuesday evening.
Ndume said although details of the attack were still sketchy, preliminary information indicated that several fleeing terrorists were neutralised by the air component of the Joint Task Force North-East, Operation Hadin Kai.
He added that the Chief Imam of Ngoshe, community elders and soldiers were among those killed, while more than 100 people remain missing or abducted.
According to the lawmaker, thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, have been displaced and are currently taking refuge in Pulka community.
“Ngoshe is one of the newly resettled communities around the Mandara Mountains located in Gwoza Local Government Area in Southern Borno,” he said while condemning the attack and commiserating with families of the victims.
Ndume also raised concerns over the absence of stationed attack helicopters in the North-East, noting that many of the available air assets had been redeployed to other regions of the country.
He called for intensified military operations in the Sambisa Forest and the Mandara Mountains to curb insurgent activities in southern Borno.
The senator also appealed to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to urgently provide humanitarian assistance to displaced residents currently stranded in Pulka without adequate food or water.
