Death toll in Borno village attack ‘far beyond’ reported -- Deputy governor

The Borno State deputy governor, Usman Durkwa, on Thursday confirmed an attack on Magumeri, a community located 52 kilometres northeast of Maiduguri, the state capital.

The deputy governor however said the death toll was “far beyond” the figure given by the military.

The military had earlier announced that soldiers effectively repelled the nocturnal attack on Wednesday.

The military had also blamed residents of colluding with the Boko Haram insurgents, a claim the deputy governor said he could not confirm.

Speaking to journalists shortly after returning from Magumeri, Mr. Durkwa said the attack was targeted at various locations where security personnel were stationed in Magumeri.

He said an undisclosed number of soldiers were killed during the attack.

“On Wednesday night we were agitated by scary news that all of Magumeri village was attacked and burnt down by Boko Haram insurgents,” he said.

“From the information we gathered, the attack started at about 5.30p.m. But luckily, none of the house of the civilians was torched during the attack. And no single civilian resident was killed.

“The attack was restricted to soldiers’ base in Magumeri. The terrorists burnt down the military base, the radio room and an armoured vehicle. They also burnt down a water tanker.

“Sadly, some soldiers were killed, though I cannot give the actual figure as a search is still on in the bushes to locate if there are more casualties. As at yesterday, we got the information that only two lives were lost. But when we got there today, we discovered the number of lives lost was far beyond what we had earlier.

“They also attacked the police station and destroyed the official vehicle of the DPO. A police officer was killed as well.

He said the attackers did not loot any food items except locations where there were fuel.