Zabarmari: Terror As Boko Haram Returns, Fires Gunshots

Zabarmari community in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State have experienced a second wave of terror as the Boko Haram insurgents reportedly invaded rice farms on Thursday, shooting sporadically to terrorize the residents.

According to some of the witnesses who spoke to journalists, that the terrorists came to the area but no fatality or abduction was recorded as people fled their homes.

Eko Hot Blog reported that last week, the Boko Haram insurgents raided Zabarmari community, laying to waste 43 rice farmers who were in the process of harvesting their farm produce.

One of the residents, Ishaya Ahmed, said women who were en route their farms on Thursday first caught a glimpse of the terrorists.

“While some of our women and girls were on their way to the farm on Thursday, they came across the Boko Haram in large numbers, moving in a single line from north to south and, at the sight of the women, they began to shoot sporadically into the air to scare people away.

“So, the women froze at the gunshots and could not proceed to the farms. They had to return. I think the insurgents spared them because they were women. If we, the men, had followed them, they might have killed us.”

A community leader in Zabarmari, who pled anonymity, told journalists that boys and men were affected in the Saturday’s gruesome attack.

“Some of them were newly-weds,” he said. “Some with very young families. Others were mostly school-age boys while some were hired to harvest the farm for some fee. We heard the rumours that women were also killed, but it is not true.”

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Meanwhile, a woman in the community who lost her husband during the attack, said: “We got married eight months ago. I don’t have a child, and I don’t have any business I am doing. I only survive by what my husband makes from the farm. At the moment, I am staying with my mother since the death of my husband.”

Recall that the Senate earlier on Tuesday called on the president to axe the out-of-depth service chiefs who have proven to be unable to develop viable strategies to contain Nigeria’s mounting security challenges.

The Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, who seemed to have faith in Nigeria’s security apparatus, had on Monday urged the president to engage the services of mercenaries to fight Boko Haram.

“One of our recommendations as possible solutions to end the insurgency is the immediate recruitment of our youths into military and paramilitary services to complement the efforts of the Nigerian forces,” he said. “Our third recommendation is for the President to engage the services of mercenaries to clear the entire Sambisa forest.”