Bike-riding Boko Haram terrorists opened fire on a village in northeastern Nigeria last week, killing at least 100 people, locals said Wednesday.
More than 50 terrorists on motorcycles entered the Tarmuwa area of Yobe state on Sunday night and started shooting before setting fire to buildings, according to Yobe police spokesperson Dungus Abdulkarim.
Police blamed the attack on Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency in the region since 2009. Boko Haram has since splintered into various factions that together are responsible for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million, as well as a humanitarian crisis with millions of people in dire need of foreign aid.
At least 1,500 people have been killed in the region so far this year in attacks by armed groups, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED.
Yobe Deputy Governor Idi Barde Gubana gave a much lower death toll of 34 from Sunday’s attack. Contradictory statistics are a common trend in the security crisis, with the death toll from the number of survivors often higher than the official figure.
The 34 dead cited by the deputy governor were those buried in a single village, said Zanna Umar, a community leader, who said they have so far confirmed that 102 villagers were killed in the attack. Most of the others were either buried before the officials arrived, or their bodies were taken to other places for burial.
“We are still working to search for more because many people are still missing,” says Umar.
Sunday’s attack is one of the deadliest in the past year in Yobe. The state is attacked less often than neighboring Borno, the epicenter of the war with Boko Haram.
Local media reported that the extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for villagers informing security officials of their activities. Several Boko Haram members were killed as a result of the information passed on by villagers, the militants cited.
Reprisals are rampant in the northeast and villagers “sometimes pay the price” after military operations, said Confidence MacHarry with SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based security firm.
“This is the first time our community is facing such a devastating attack,” said Buba Adamu, a local chief, his voice laced with sadness and fear. “We never thought anything like this could happen here.”
“There are some places (in the region) completely outside the control of the Nigerian army and the villagers often live in fear of reprisals,” MacHarry said. In such places, he added, Nigerian security forces only go there for operations but do not have enough manpower to remain on the ground.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was elected last year on a promise to end the conflict with Boko Haram, condemned the attack in a statement that sought to assure the villagers of justice but was silent on security measures.
Security analysts have criticized Tinubu’s security policies, saying he has not taken bold steps so far to solve the killings and that the problems he inherited, such as inadequate resources and manpower, remain.
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