Suspected Boko Haram insurgents killed 48 fish
vendors after setting up a roadblock near the
country’s border with Chad, the head of the
fish traders association told the Agence France-
Presse on Sunday.
“Scores of Boko Haram fighters blocked a route
linking Nigeria with Chad near the fishing village
of Doron Baga on the shores of Lake Chad on
Thursday and killed a group of 48 fish traders
on their way to Chad to buy fish,” AFP quoted
Abubakar Gamandi, head of the fish traders
association, as saying.
Gamandi said the attackers set up a barricade
at Dogon Fili, 15 kilometres from Doron Baga in
Borno State, and stopped a convoy of fish
vendors around midday, slaughtering some of
them and drowning others in the lake.
“The Boko Haram gunmen slit the throats of
some of the men and tied the hands and legs
of the others before throwing them into the
lake to drown,” Gamandi told AFP by telephone
from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
It was unclear if the motive for the gruesome
attack was robbery or if there were other
reasons for the killings.
Boko Haram has once in a while targeted
residents seemingly indiscriminately in its
deadly insurgency.
Doron Baga, 180 kilometres from Maiduguri, is
the base of the Multi-National Joint Task Force,
comprising troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger
fighting the Islamist group.
The MNJTF was formed in 1998 to fight trans-
border crime but its mandate was expanded as
part of efforts to tame the Boko Haram
insurgency in the restive region.
Gamandi claimed the assailants killed all of
their victims without using their guns.
“The attackers killed their victims silently
without the use of the gun to avoid attracting
attention from the multi-national troops,” he
said.
Kaloma Zarami, a fish vendor in Maiduguri, said
he learned of the killings from other traders in
Doron Baga.
Zarami said, “The news came to us late
yesterday (Saturday) through some of our
colleagues who came from Doron Baga to
inform us of the incident because there is no
telephone service in the area.
“We lost 48 people in the attack. Some were
slaughtered and others were thrown into Lake
Chad with their hands and legs tied and left to
drown.”
A military officer in Maiduguri confirmed the
attack but said details were sketchy.
“We heard of the attack near Doron Baga but
we don’t have any details because the area
falls under the operational jurisdiction of the
MNJTF,” the military officer said.
News of the attack was slow to emerge due to
the destruction of mobile phone towers in the
area by Boko Haram in previous attacks.
Incessant Boko Haram attacks have disrupted
fishing and farming along the shores of Lake
Chad. Fishermen from Doron Baga have been
forced to abandon fishing and have turned to
importing dried fish from neighbouring Chad.
Gamandi said the Dogon Fili route provided the
safest passage for traders from Doron Baga to
Chad as other routes are infested with Boko
Haram gunmen who rob and kill travellers.
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