Tag Archives: Damaturu

Damaturu IDP camp records 22 marriages, 81 deliveries in 20 months

Posted on by
Reply

No fewer than 22 marriage contracts were sealed and 81 babies delivered in the past 20 months at the Pompomari Internally Displaced Persons camp in Damaturu,  Executive Secretary, Yobe Emergency Management Agency, Musa Jidawa , has disclosed.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Damaturu on Saturday that the camp, established in March 2015 for IDPs from villages in Gujba Local Government Area displaced by insurgents, also recorded 18 deaths during the period under review.

Mr. Jidawa, who is also the Secretary of the State Committee on Resettlement and Rehabilitation of IDPs, said the camp started with 4,211 IDPs but now hosts about 2,000 persons.

According to him, his agency also circumcised boys at the camp that were due for circumcision.

“The agency had within this period, circumcised 76 boys whose age range between five and 11years in an organised ceremony in accordance with their customs and tradition, to give them a cultural sense of belonging.

“The celebrants were each provided with new sets of clothes, one live chicken and a blanket as is the practice in their ancestral communities,” he said.

The Secretary explained that the circumcision was carried out so that boys of the age group did not outgrow the period of getting circumcised.

He said another camp, the Bukar Ali IDP camp, was closed down following requests by the IDPs to return home as security had improved in their communities.

 

“The state government relocated 391 IDPs in the camp comprising 92 households to their respective communities, with each household provided a return package of two bags of rice, a bag of beans, vegetable oil, cooking pots, nylon mats, soap and N20,000,” he said.

NEMA Confirms 14 Dead In Damaturu Suicide Attack

Posted on by
1

At least 14 people were killed in three separate suicide bomb attacks in Damaturu, northeast Nigeria, on Wednesday, the country’s National Emergency Management Agency said.

The blasts came after Boko Haram militants this week claimed to have carried out three suicide attacks on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja, last Friday that left 18 dead and 41 injured.

Suspicion will likely fall on the Islamist rebels, who have repeatedly attacked Damaturu during their bloody, six-year insurgency.

Last month, a girl thought to be aged 12 killed six and injured 47 when the explosives she was carrying went off outside a bus station in the Yobe state capital.

NEMA coordinator for Yobe state Bashir Idris Garga said the first blast happened at a small food store at a housing estate, killing four.

Another near a mosque killed one, while nine, including a family, lost their lives when another bomber exploded at a Fulani settlement on the outskirts of the city.

“Total injured 10, seven partially injured and three critically injured,” Garga said in a text message.

Boko Haram has reverted to attacking “soft” civilian targets after last year’s land grab that saw it seize towns and villages across Yobe and neighbouring Borno and Adamawa states.

Read More: ngrguardiannews

Damaturu Suicide Attack: How It Happened

Posted on by
2

Two suspected female suicide bombers attacked a motor park and Pompomari ward simultaneously in  Damaturu, the Yobe state capital, killing seven with over 26 others injured.

Sources said, one of the suicide bombers, wearing a veil and pretending to be passenger, detonated her bomb at about 9:45am when security men manning the park had not commenced  routine check of people entering the park.

Meanwhile, the scene of the explosion has been condoned off by security men as as corpses and the injured were taken to Sani Abacha Specialist hospital.

Read More: vanguardngr

Nigerian Army Arrests Soldier Responsible For Sporadic Shooting In Damaturu

Posted on by
Reply

The Nigerian Army said the sporadic shooting heard around Damaturu metropolis on Tuesday was due to an action of one of its soldiers. The explanation came in a statement issued by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col Sani Usman.

“The Nigerian Army wishes to inform the public and clarify that the sporadic firing heard in Damaturu this evening was a gross act of indiscipline on the part of a soldier who has already been arrested,” Usman said.

He, therefore, appealed to public, especially those residing in Damaturu, to remain calm and go about their normal business.

Credit: NAN

How Cameraman, Police Saved Lives From Damaturu Suicide Attack

Posted on by
Reply

But for the extra vigilance of a cameraman and police officer at the scene of a suicide attack that killed eight persons at the outskirts of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, yesterday, more lives would have been wasted if one of the injured suicide bombers had succeeded in igniting a handbag filled with more bombs.

A group of suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers yesterday came in a convoy of two vehicles, a Toyota Highlander with a Bauchi State number plate -and a Ford Galaxy mini bus marked 2B 2108 and approached from Maiduguri towards Damaturu.

But police officers at the checkpoint stopped the two vehicle, as they curiously noticed the car leading the convoy with a strange tourists number plate. Upon interrogation, the visibly dishevelled
looking passengers claimed to be foreign diplomats travelling from Maiduguri to Damaturu.
Dissatisfied with their conduct, the police officers insisted on taking them to the station for proper interrogation.

But within seconds, the Toyota Highlander went off in massive explosion and flung most of the passengers out of the jeep in their dismembered form. Only the female passenger survived the explosion with an injury on her waist.

Four of the passengers inside the jeep were killed instantly alongside the three police officers who were closed to the jeep.
As more security operatives, aid workers and journalists arrived at the scene, the injured woman was seen on ground lying almost lifeless, as she intermittently called for help in Hausa language.

A camera man who was filming the injured woman that was moving suddenly sighted her trying to drag a reg handbag in front of her. But the cameraman quickly alerted a nearby police officer over the bid of the woman to hide the handbag under the veils she was wearing .
“As we sensed she was up to something sinister by trying to conceal the handbag under her veil, we immediately sensed she was trying to detonate bombs hidden inside the handbag”, said a police officer who sought anonymity.

“All threats to make her hand over the handbag proved abortive. So one of our men had to fire a shot at her from a distance in order to disarm her.
“And to our dismay, when the bomb experts from the Explosives Ordnance Department came and carefully opened the bag, we found five unit of live mortar explosives inside the handbag. It took extra care to defuse the explosives, because it is capable of causing massive destruction”.

Army Confirms 50 Killed in Damaturu Bomb Blast

Posted on by
1

Two female suicide bombers detonated bombs at a screening area for Eid prayers in Damaturu early Friday morning, killing at least 50 people, the army has confirmed. The army places the time of the explosion at 7.40am, just as eid prayers got underway to mark the end of the month-long Ramadan fast.

Spokesman of the Nigeria army Colonel Sani Usman said the two women, an elderly woman and a 10-year-old girl detonated devices at screening areas for intending Muslim worshippers at Layin Gwange, Damaturu and at “Phase One”,  (in front of former state secretariat), Damaturu.”

At least “43 people died in the first explosion and several people were injured,” said Usman.
Seven more were killed in the second explosion.

“The situation is under control. Both Yobe State Governor and the Chief of Army Staff,
sympathise with and urged the people to stay calm and be security conscious,” Usman added.

Daily Trust adds that Usman noted that  no amount of terrorist act would deter resolve to stamp out terrorism and insurgency.?

Damaturu Under Boko Haram Attack Again!!!

Posted on by
Reply

Damaturu, the Yobe state capital, has again come under intense assault by suspected Boko Haram militants, barely a month after a similar attack killed many residents.

Residents and security operatives said the city was under heavy gunfire and multiple explosions forcing people to cringe in their homes.

Umar Haruna, a civil servant residing in Damaturu told PREMIUM TIMES that the city and its residents have come under attack again.

He said the attack started at about 8p.m.

“We are under attack; gun shooting everywhere in Damaturu…we dont know what to do now,” he said.

A top security officer of the State Security Service, SSS, who refused to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the development, told our correspondent via SMS that “Yes, there is an attack going on here and I believe the soldiers and the police are containing the attacks”.

Credit: www.premiumtimesng.com

Boko Haram: Updates From Damaturu

Posted on by
43

Reports reaching us from Damaturu says, insurgents opened fire on an air force jet circling their forces and dropping bomb.

Residents fled or tried to hide as the attackers charged into Damaturu firing their guns and shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), people at the scene told Reuters.

The gunmen arrived at 5.30 a.m. and attacked a police station, said witnesses. Local Bala Aminu said he later saw the city’s university campus and a nearby police base in flames. “I saw a military jet circling three times. People have abandoned their vehicles on the road and gone home,” resident Mustapha Usman said by phone.

Another resident, hiding behind a gate, said he saw the militants driving down a road in police vehicles and an armored tank, trying to shoot down the plane. “They mounted anti-aircraft guns and they are trying to shoot the aircraft that was bombarding the town. They were all turning their heads shooting and moving toward Gujba road (south east of the city),” he added.

The gunmen launched their attack from the nearby town of Buni Yadi, a Boko Haram stronghold, said residents. No one was immediately available for comment from the ministry of defense.

Credit: Yahoo News

BREAKING: Boko Haram Invade Damaturu, Attack State University

Posted on by
1

Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, is under heavy attack by suspected Boko Haram terrorists who,  according to fleeing residents, may have surrounded the town.

Explosions and  gunshots are being heard in some parts of the Yobe State capital. A resident of the city, Yaya Haruna, told PREMIUM TIMES the shooting started at about 6a.m.

“It is as if they have surrounded us all here; there is sound of explosion and serious shooting.  We are all lying down on the floor with our families. Please pray for our safety,  that we survive this… ”

“We are in serious confusion now,  we are just hearing gunshots and explosions on the southern part of the city and people are fleeing,” said another embattled resident,  Malam Abdulmalik.

The resident said he was woken by loud sounds of gunshots and explosions which started at about 6a.m.

An official of the SSS in Maiduguri, who usually does not want to be named in the  media, confirmed in a text message sent to our reporter that “Damaturu may be under attack now”.

According to security sources in the capital, the Islamic sect, forced themselves into the city when they started shooting around Bukar Abba University, along Gujba road where a heavy fight ensued between them and the military. The situation was later brought under the control of the military.

Damaturu is 135 kilometres west of Maiduguri,  the Borno State capital.

Credit: Premium Times