Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have carried out an attack in Gubio, a town in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, displacing thousands of people in the process.
According to TheCable, the Boko Haram insurgents invaded the town around 5 pm on Wednesday. They were said to have shot sporadically and set many houses on fire.
YaahooJournalist learned that the insurgents have been around Gubio communities for at least three months as a result of the relocation of the brigade headquarters from the town.
“There is no soldier in Gubio, and that is why those guys moved in. They burnt the INEC office and some other houses,” a soldier from the army’s 5 brigade stationed in Damasak told TheCable.
“As I am speaking, troops have been reinforced from the brigade and now in face-off with the insurgents.”
YaahooJournalist understands that Jack Vince, a journalist resident in Maiduguri, corroborated the account of the soldier.
The source told TheCable that the area had been without military presence and that was why it made easy for the insurgents to storm without any resistance.
“For about two weeks now no military post from Damasak on the border with Niger Republic to my community in Maiduguri, Magumeri, Kareto, Gubio and so on,” he said.
“Gubio was dislodged, soldiers ran to Damasak and Maiduguri leaving that wide expanse of land unguarded.”
The soldiers pulled out because the locals were not cooperating with them in fighting the insurgents, a source told TheCable that
“Thousands of people dislodged from Gubio have ran to the bush, trying to find their way to Maiduguri,” he said.
