Boko Haram militants attack Bama in Northeastern Nigeria

Boko Haram Takfiri militants have torched homes in Nigeria's northeastern town of Bama, forcing residents to flee, witnesses say. "They came into the town around 12:00 pm (1100 GMT) warning that anyone who wanted to leave should leave the town and soon after they began torching homes," AFP quoted resident Umar Kaka as saying on Sunday. The fires forced large numbers of the residents to flee to the Borno state capital Maiduguri. On Saturday, the militants told residents of the city, which is in control of Boko Haram, to leave before they set fire to their homes ahead of the arrival of Nigerian troops attempting to retake the city. "Not all residents could leave because some are too sick or old to leave and we are afraid they were burnt in the homes," Kaka added. "We learnt soldiers were coming. They advanced on Bama on two fronts and met some resistance at Boboshe and Yale but succeeded in crushing the Boko Haram gunmen," said Ibrahim Kyari, another Bama resident. Bama has been in control of the militants since early September when it was seized along with several towns and villages in northeastern Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states on the border with Chad, Cameroon and Niger. The Boko Haram militants killed large number of the town’s population, forcing hundreds of residents to seek escape. Over the past weeks, Nigerian troops backed by soldiers from  Chad, Niger, and Cameroon have retaken most of the towns.

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.