By Sam Kayode
Over 40 residents of Rann, capital of Kala Balge council area of Borno state have been slaughtered by Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP).
The killings took place Sunday in a surprise move when ISWAP insurgents carrying rifles and knives rounded up a group of civilians that were searching for scrap metals to sell for a living.
Reliable sources told metrowatchonline.com that the insurgents rounded up about 47 of the scavenging residents who were looking for the scrap known as “Ajaokuta ” in local parlance in Borno.
“But shortly after the capture, at least three of the donkey-riding scavengers were injured while they were trying to escape from their assailants.
RELEASE OF ELDERLY AFTER SCREENING BY ISWAP
The insurgents allegedly screened the people releasing two elderly men, over 60 years, together with four male teenagers found among the scavengers.
It was not clear if the only one left by the insurgents was taken with some others back to heart of the Savannah where they came from after the attack.
metrowatchonline.com however learnt that about 8pm yesterday, after the first funeral ceremony, some family members of one of the victims called the mobile phone numbers of their benefactor who did not return home, but the phone was not picked by the deceased meaning he was obviously dead.
INTER CAMP RIVALRY
The source said the insurgents had always identified themselves as Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and threatened to kill any one found around their camps in “Mudu.”
The source said that the incident actually followed a disagreement between the victims and some of the residents of a nearby ISWAP camp in Mudu.
According to another anonymous source, the wives and children of some of the insurgents accused the group of scavengers of having stolen mattresses, foodstuff and other valuables from their camps while the combatants were away but their family members were at the site to see them.
The residents of the camps had warned the group coming from Rann that they were free to roam the area and scavenge but they had to refrain from taking any item from their camp.
This caused the insurgents to start looking for anyone moving around the area and to finally take revenge by perpetrating the mass killing.
“As I’m speaking to you we buried almost 40 people as at yesterday Monday, and we are still looking out to see if we could see more corpses in the nearby bushes.
“It was at this moment that they were surrounded by ISWAP who behaved first in a friendly manner as if they wanted to preach to the residents only to later tie them up and slaughtered them one by one in a slow and painful manner like sheep.
“I searched for my relative’s corpse painfully yesterday but I didn’t see him, and many others like me went on the search for the bodies of their loved ones with some successful and others not yet.
“We will not stop searching because we are praying to get their bodies so that we can bury them according to Islamic rites instead of leaving them to be eaten up by wild animals or decayed for vultures to consume.
The military high command could not be reached when contacted to comment on the sad incident as at the time of writing this report.
