How Boko Haram killed 63 in latest attack in Borno

The dreaded Boko Haram guerilla fighters struck in Malari village, Borno State, at the weekend where they were said by an aid worker to have killed 63 persons, though official record of deaths puts the figure at 19.

National Daily gathered that an aid worker at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in Monguno, Borno State, revealed that hundreds of survivors from villages in the area flew to the IDPs camp for safety during the attack.

An escapee who lost his brother in the attack, Abatcha Umar, was said to have disclosed that the attack took place in the early hours of Sunday, saying that he counted 19 bodies, including that of his younger brother.

He decried that the killers were spotted around the village three days before the attack and residents informed soldiers assigned to the nearby town of Gudumbali but there was no intervention to protect the community.

National Daily also gathered that an aid worker at a camp that received the survivors, who sought anonymity, said the number of death recorded in the attack was 63.

Boko Haram fighters were said to have arrived the community in trucks firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The Nigerian Army had earlier refuted media reports that the military lost over 50 soldiers to the Boko Haram fighters.

Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, was gathered to have on Monday in Abuja, maintained that troops in the North East lost no soldier.

Chukwu had appealed to the mainstream media not to believe stories that terrorists were planting in some social media platforms.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari, on return from his vacation in London, the United Kingdom, had at a Security Council meeting with service chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday, directed security agencies to intensify the battle to secure the country.

The meeting was said to be convened after receiving reports of security threats during the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations.