Burnt Daolori Village

85 killed, over 100 injured as gunmen attack village outside Maiduguri 

By Blogger

At least 85 corpses have been deposited at the hospital morgue in Maiduguri after Boko Haram suspects attacked Dalori village in Borno state on Saturday, witnesses and security sources said.

Dalori is just about 5km away from Maiduguri.

Security operatives like the Civilian-JTF and other aid workers said more corpses still litter the village and surrounding villages, waiting to be evacuated as at the time of filing this report.

Spokesman of the Operation Lafiya Dole theatre command, Colonel Mustapha Anka, confirmed the incident in a statement issued to journalists on Sunday.

Residents said the attack was one of the worst in recent time, second to the Baga attack of 2013.

“To say the least, this is the worst carnage of all after that of Baga town that happened some four years ago”, weeps Alamin Bakura, a resident who said most of his relatives in Dalori were affected.

“I could not stand the horror of seeing pile up of corpses of burnt children, women and aged persons everywhere; no single house is left standing in Dalori; practically every structure that stands in the name of house has been burnt down in the 4 hours of attack operation carried out by the Boko Haram gunmen. I am very sure the corpses I saw were not less that 100; in some houses you would see three burnt corpses, others two, some one and so on.

Bakura said the gunmen dressed in military uniforms and they invaded the village on bikes and a light armored vessels.

“When we were fleeing to the main road towards Maiduguri, we saw some uniformed men asking us to come over to their side; we thought they were real soldiers, but as we approached them they opened fire on us, many people died; only few of us managed to scamper to safety”, said Bakura.

While some of the fleeing villagers managed to escape from the town towards Maiduguri, female suicide bombers who pretended to be fleeing to safety joined them.

But as the fleeing crowd got to a village called Gomari about 3km away from Maiduguri, soldiers who were being cautious about letting in suicide bombers to sneak in to the town amidst the fleeing villagers, stopped them for some screening. But before the soldiers could figure out how to go about screening the crowd in the dark of the night, three bombs exploded from three suicide bombers, which had also killed dozens there.

"But unfortunately as we suspected, three bombs went off from amongst the crowded villagers which killed many people", said a soldier, who pleaded anonymity in this report. 

A local photojournalist who visited Dalori said, he has lost count of corpses that were mostly burnt and killed by bullets.

“Dalori is completely burnt”, he said. Nothing remains there. I saw corpses that were yet to be evacuated; mostly burnt like barbecued animals; a rescue worker said the morgue at the Maiduguri Teaching Hospital is filled; and 35 more corpses were taken to the State Specialists’ Hospital in Maiduguri. But there are still corpses everywhere.

The photographer said women who fled and left their children behind returned wailing as they found most of their children burnt beyond recognition. A particular household was seen searching for apparels from the burnt pack of clothing to cover the body of their dead relatives for burial.

The atmosphere in Dalori, a community of about 1000 household is smoky with smell of burnt meat (mostly human flesh) impregnating the air.

The incident occurred at about 7pm when villagers were concluding the late evening prayers and settling down for supper, a gang of armed insurgents believed to be Boko Haram rode in on about a dozen of motorbikes, others in a truck surrounded Dalori and began to shoot sporadically. 

Many aged persons; children and women fell down either dead or injured as others scampered to safely. The gunmen continued to shoot for hours. 

The spokesman of the military country insurgency operation (tagged Lafiya Dole), Colonel Mustapha Anka informed journalists this morning that the Theatre Commander of the operation had visited the attacked villages and would give statement much later after all facts are gathered.

"We have visited the place together with the Theatre Commander this morning where we made our on the ground assessment and would make statement later; but that will be after getting all the information". 

A resident of Maiduguri, and private security operate Abba Shehu, informed journalists that "the situation was really bad there in Dalori; corpses are still being piled, many had died in the bush; but it is not easy to give figures now".

Dalori is just about 5km away from Maiduguri, but the very populated village had no security presence.

Villagers said the insurgents took their time to operate for about 4 hours.

One of the survivors from the village said he had to climb a tree to hide as he saw people being killed while fleeing.

“They were speaking our language and I could pick from what they were saying to each other”, said the villager (Yuraim) who pleaded anonymity in this report as he spoke to on phone.

  

A source at the Specialists hospital Maiduguri, who would, also, not want to be named said “over 100 injured victims, mostly of gun bullets were brought to the Accident and Emergency Unit, but we could not admit all of them; we had to refer some to other hospital because our facility here have been overstretched”.

According to a statement issued from the Operation Lafiya Dole media center, the attack was Boko Haram’s “desperate efforts for reprisal attacks on strong, determined and committed members of the Civilian  Joint Task Force (CJTF) and innocent citizen.

It said further that “yesterday 30 January 2016 BHT insurgent launched attack  Dalori through Yale from ( rear of Dalori village). An eye witnessed said that the insurgent came in two Golf cars, motorcycles, started opening fire and burning houses. their motive was to cause rancour and penetrate crowd with suicide bombers.

In his condolence visit to Dalori, the Theater commander Operation Lafiya Dole Major General Hassan Umaru condole the District Head Alh Lawal Bashir and entire dwellers for the unfortunate incident. He assured the people of Theatre's commitment in bring insurgency to an end soon.

General Umaru commended the villagers for their resilience and urged them to be strong and committed in the fight against insurgency. He also commented NEMA, SEMA, Red Cross and other Stakeholders for their tireless humanitarian efforts”.