Terrorists Kill 40 Farmers in Deadly Borno Attack

No fewer than forty farmers were killed, and the whereabouts of many others remain unknown, following an attack by Boko Haram/Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists on Dumba, a farming settlement in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State.

Residents of Dumba reported that the terrorists stormed the area at around 3 p.m. on Sunday, January 12, armed with sophisticated weapons. The attackers rounded up the farmers and, before opening fire, warned them that farming activities in the area, which had been banned, were still prohibited.

The terrorists declared that anyone found engaging in farming there in the future would face death. One farmer who managed to escape unharmed recounted the chilling incident.

“We are the people farming at Dumba. Today (Sunday), the terrorists came and met us in the area. They chased us out of the farm and said that they had not lifted the ban on farming in the area. They said any farmer found in the area henceforth would be k!lled.

They k!lled many of our farmers. It was in the night that we ran to soldiers and Civilian Joint Taskforce (CJTF) members who assisted in taking us to a safer place.

We were farming together with those killed, God saved me. The dead bodies that I counted were about 40 of them. The rest that were shot in the bush and those that escaped with gunshot wounds could not be accounted for,” he narrated.

A member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), who requested anonymity, revealed that such attacks on farmers by the terrorists have been a recurring issue in the region. He added that in some instances, the terrorists have killed up to 10 farmers, but these incidents often go unreported.

The alarming scale of the recent killings, however, prompted them to speak out about the persistent challenges faced by farmers and fishermen in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State.

“It was around 3pm that the attack occured, and it was around 5pm that the survivors reached us. We used boat to ferry them to a safer place together with the help from the military. About 200 of them that escaped were rescued. They told us that over 40 of them were killed. They are mostly fishermen and crop farmers,” said the CJTF member.

The Dumba community is located approximately 7 kilometers from the well-known Baga fishing community. Baga is a hub for large-scale fishing activities, thanks to the riverine nature of Kukawa Local Government Area, which shares a border with the Republic of Chad.