42 killed in fresh Borno attack

At least 42 persons were killed when Boko Haram attacked Goni Usmanti village in Gubio local government area of Borno state on Saturday.

Ahmadu Modu, a witness, said the insurgents stormed the village in four gun trucks and motorcycles around 1am.

He said some members of the civilian joint task force  in the village engaged the Boko Haram fighters in a battle that lasted for about an hour before they were overpowered.

Modu said an air force fighter jet hovered around during the attack but did not render any assistance to the people.

“The fighter jet came eventually but it only hovered around without throwing a single bomb on the terrorists,” he said.

“No ground troops came to our rescue. Our people fought alone until over 40 of them were killed.”

Sagir Musa, spokesman of the army, neither responded to calls nor text messages from TheCable on the attack.

Boko haram had attacked Faduma Koloram village in Gubio earlier in the week, killing over 80 persons.

Earlier on Saturday, Boko Haram fighters engaged soldiers in a gun battle at Monguno local government area of Borno.

TheCable gathered that both sides suffered casualties in the attack.

Despite repeated attacks, the federal government has maintained that it is winning the war against insurgency.

In his Democracy Day broadcast, President Muhammadu Buhari said his administration has “considerably downgraded” Boko Haram.

Buhari added that all forms of crimes across the country had also been reduced.