It was a weekend of bllody harvest for terrorists in Borno State as 98 people were killed in three villages as petrol Bombs, AK 47 rifles, rocket propelled Launchers (RPGs) and Improvised Explosive Devise, IEDs, were used to wreck havoc without the intervention of security agents.

Most of the slain residents of Anchaka, Ngoshe and Kaigamari in Bama, Gwoza and Konduga local government areas died in their sleep in a most terrifying and painful manner as their houses, mainly thatch-roofed, were set ablaze by insurgents in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday.

One of the council heads, Baba Shehu, disclosed to journalists in Maiduguri that “the attackers invaded the communities early in the morning on motorbikes while residents were still sleeping.

“They set ablaze houses and shot residents who tried to escape from the fire,” Shehu said, adding that about 60 persons were confirmed dead after the incident, with several others injured.”

He lamented that almost all the houses in the communities were destroyed by the gunmen who threw IEDs at the buildings and that the newly renovated mechanical boreholes provided by the local council to provide water for the communities, GSM telecommunication masts and other property worth millions of naira were also destroyed.

Many survivors have been forced to flee to Maiduguri for safety but the state’s capital has also witnessed brazen attacks from these insurgents and no there is no assurance that their lives would be spared.

The Army has also been accused of complicity to the killings by both local and international sources, which they continue to deny.

But more residents are convinced that the military is indeed guilty of the crimes levelled against it, especially because of their total absence from the scene of attacks throughout the duration which sometimes lasts for hours.