Boko Haram kills farmers in Borno

Two farmers were killed by Boko Haram insurgents at Kuwa-Yangewa village on Maiduguri-Damboa road in Borno on Saturday.

Abdulamalik Biu, acting general officer commanding (GOC) 7 division of the Nigerian army, said the insurgents attacked a group of persons scavenging for leftover farm produce and killed two of them.

Biu disclosed that the troops deployed to the area rushed to the scene when one of the female victims reported to them.

The commander said he had visited the scene of the attack to appraise the situation, adding that normalcy had been restored to the area.

“Some people went to the farms and Boko Haram insurgents attacked them, they butchered an elderly man and a youth,” he said.

“The wife to the elderly man ran and informed the troops, who rushed to the scene to save them. The insurgents fled on sighting the approaching troops.

“Only two persons were killed and no abduction in the attack.”

However, reports indicated that the insurgents killed six farmers and abducted eight others who were harvesting their crops.

Rachel Hassan, a witness, said about a dozen insurgents armed with weapons attacked them while working in the farm in the afternoon.

Recounting her ordeal, Hassan said the insurgents separated females from the males and requested them to go home.

“I hired somebody, a displaced person residing at the Bakassi internally displaced persons (IDPs), to work in my farm,” Hassan said.

“The insurgents came and gathered us in one place, they asked women to go and macheted the males,” she recounted.”

Hassan said some of the corpses were cut to pieces, adding that she reported the case to the GRA police station.

Ahmadu Salisu, a relative of one of the victims, said his brother and 11 other farmers of Maduganari area of Maiduguri, went to work in their farms in the morning.

Salisu narrated that the insurgents attacked the farmers from different directions and butchered them.

“So far we recovered four corpses from the farms while eight others are missing or abducted by the insurgents,” he said.

Another victim, Aisha Waziri, said she was informed by her neighbors that her husband was killed in the farm by the insurgents.