Borno: Death toll now 143; women, children flee Benishiekh

Women and children have continued to flee
Benisheikh town in Kaga Local Government
council of Borno State following the attack
by Boko Haram sect, which left 143 killed,
according to current figure.
Local environmental officials in Borno State
had on Thursday continued to pick more
corpses from bushes and road sides.
DailyPost reported on Wednesday that
about 54 persons died in the attack staged
on Kano-Maiduguri highway and the nearby
village of Benisheik in which hundreds of
homes were burnt.
But officials of the state environmental
protection agency who moved along the
road sides of the highway to evacuate
corpses of civilians shot by bullets from
Boko Haram gunmen, say there are more
deaths than earlier reports.
“We have been picking corpses off the road
sides all day, there are more in the bush,
they are all travelers shot at or slaughtered
by Boko Haram gunmen who were attacked
on Tuesday night. We have so far picked up
143 corpses”, said Abdulazeez Kolomi, an
environmental assistant.
The Head of the Environmental Protection
Agency, Saidu Yakubu, who briefed the
governor on their activity, later told
journalists that the official figure of corpses
evacuated was 87.
A soldier at the Benisheik military post said
the Boko Haram gunmen dressed in
military fatigue opened fire on them using
more sophisticated arms.
“They were using anti-aircraft guns while
we were using AK 47 rifles and some RPGs”,
said the soldier.
The soldier said the Boko Haram
terrorists triumphantly left with 4
military patrol trucks and two other light
armored tankers.
A resident of Benisheik, Abacha Wakil, said
the Boko Haram gunmen invaded the town
at about 7:45 pm after attacking the military
base at the outskirts of the town.
According to him, “We all spent the night
inside the bush. In the morning, we found
that they had beheaded 14 persons, mostly
those in the Civilian-JTF, and left with at
least 21 vehicles and a truck filled with food
items looted from the shops they also set
ablaze.
Bashiri Takai a local butcher in Benisheik
said “we spent the nights of Tuesday and
Wednesday in the bushes because of fear
for our lives. They killed 15 people here in
the township and many travelers on the
highways. There is hunger everywhere; and
people are leaving”.
It was observed that there was general
anger on the part of the few remaining
villagers who felt both government and the
military had not done enough to protect
them in the two attacks they suffered in the
last ten days.
However, speaking to the people, the
Brigade Commander of the Army, Brigadier
General Muhammed Idris Yusuf, who
accompanied the Governor to Benisheik
pleaded with the villagers not to lose
confidence in the military.
He pledged a reinforcement of more troops
to protect the town.
“We share your pains and we promise to
beef up the presence of soldiers around
Benisheik. We have not abandoned you as
you think; our troops ran out of
ammunition, that was why they withdrew to
reinforce. They are now back and more are
coming”, said Brigadier General Yusuf.
Borno State Governor, Shettima, also
addressed the aggrieved youths and some
few elders of the deserted town and
promised to spend about $312,000 (N50
million) in rebuilding the destroyed village.