Islamic State of the West African Province (ISWAP), the breakaway faction of Boko Haram jihadists, reportedly beheaded over 20 herders in northeastern Borno State.
Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency expert and security analyst in the Lake Chad region, disclosed this in a tweet.
He said the terrorists riding on motorcycles killed the herders Tuesday evening.
“The terrorists who rode on 17 motorcycles attacked and killed 14 herdsmen in the axis of Kukawa in the evening of Tuesday 25, July 2023 after accusing them of trespassing,” he tweeted.
The killings come after the ISWAP insurgents
banned farming and fishing activities in the axis. They suspected the farmers were spying on them for the military.
Makama said the insurgents “didn’t fire any shots from their rifles as they freely deployed machetes in beheading many of the herdsmen.”
“After killing the herdsmen and stealing their livestock, the insurgents moved towards the axis of Kukawa, Doro and Kalla, areas suspected to be occupied by large numbers of the terrorists,” he added.
The terrorists, moving in “seven gun trucks”, on the same day, around 11:00 pm, “intercepted another Fulani herdsmen in the axis of Kukawa and killed six additional persons after warning them not to ever come to the area. “
“Some of the remaining victims who fled the scene were able to recover four bodies in the aftermath of the attacks leaving several bodies to litter in the bushes,” he added.
A day before, the terrorists “abducted about 7 Fulani herdsmen in Monguno after sneaking to the town through the axis of Ajilari Charly 7.”
“This was as another unspecified number of the Fulani men were abducted by the terrorist group in Garere village in Gudumbali local government area of Borno State where they demanded for N40 million ran some,” Makama revealed. “This week-long onslaughts against the herdsmen have forced them to flee from Lake Chad to safer locations in the axis of Cameroon, Niger and Chad.”
