Boko Haram, 21 Killed in Clash with Military

Boko Haram fighters

        The resident of Gwoza told AFP on Thursday that Boko Haram has renamed Gwoza town in Borno state which it captured  as part of a campaign to establish a caliphate in the North-eastern. The Islamists seized the town of Mubi in Adamawa State last week and now insist it be called Madinatul Islam, or “City of Islam” in Arabic. The extremists are believed to control more than two dozen towns and villages in the North-east and there are signs that they are trying to advance south towards Adamawa’s capital Yola.

         Abubakar Shekau, in a video released in August declared that he had made Gwoza part of a caliphate  an announcement that recalled a similar move by the Islamic State militant group which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria. Boko Haram has change the name of two towns, Gwoza and Mubi, which they say are now part of their Islamic State,” said Ahmad Maishanu, who fled Mubi with his mother on Wednesday to Yola. and they are now forcing people in both towns to use the new names.

     “Boko Haram tried to attack Malam Fatori... but they met stiff resistance from the Multi-National Joint Task Force who initially repelled the attack after prolonged fighting,” said Lawan. According to AFP, local residents put the civilian death toll at 16 and claimed that dozens of militants were killed in the initial military response on the ground and from the air. The insurgents went into the town shooting indiscriminately. They killed 21 people.”

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       Aminu Ahmad, who lives in the Abadam Local Government Area, of which Malam Fatori is the biggest town, estimated that “hundreds” of heavily armed Boko Haram fighters arrived in a convoy of pick-up trucks. Both witnesses confirm that all the churches in Mubi had been burnt down and Islamists were patrolling the streets regularly and no body or security forces to resist them. It was a bad outing for the insurgents because dozens of them were killed,” he said. The troops involved were from Nigeria, Chad and Niger and were stationed nearby.

      The fighting forced thousands of people to flee the area across the border, said residents and Lawan, who represents northern Borno in the upper house of parliament. “The town was deserted as a result of the attack and thousands of people crossed into Niger and are now camped in Bosso town which is only five kilometres (three miles) away,” he said.

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