18 feared killed as gunmen attack Borno market

EIGHTEEN people are being feared killed in Damboa town in Borno State when gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram sect members attacked a local market at about 1.30 p.m. on Monday.

Damboa is 87 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the state capital, and a centre of operation by the sect.

According to eyewitnesses, the gunmen attacked some local hunters at the market while selling the meat of wild pigs and monkeys to customers. A trader, Malam Isa Yohanna, said: “This market was thrown into confusion as everyone of us ran for safety.”

The Deputy Governor, Alhaji Zanna Umar Mustapha who was on his way from Biu, along the same road and about 100 kilometres away from Damboa, the centre of the attack, was forced to stop in the town, having observed that the entire area was deserted with only military personnel in the town.

Briefing the deputy governor on the Boko Haram attacks and killings, the District Head of Damboa, Alhaji Abba Ahmed, said the gunmen came to the market on Monday afternoon at the peak of business activities and drove straight to the spot where local hunters were selling bush meat, opened fire on them and fled.

According to him, 18 of the local hunters were shot, 13 died on the spot while five died later in the hospital. He said the hunters were engaged in the business of selling bush meat, especially wild pigs and monkeys. Some residents were said to have claimed that some unknown persons had earlier warned the local hunters against selling wild pig and monkey meat apparently for religious reasons.

Source Guardian