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At least ten persons have been confirmed dead and as much as 40 injured as Boko Haram terrorists staged multiple attacks in Maiduguri on Wednesday night, witnesses said.
The attack occurred while soldiers were battling to repel another horde of Boko Haram insurgents who were trying to invade the city via the southern flank.
PREMIUM TIMES reported the attack on the Jiddari Polo area of the city, with the army saying it repelled the attackers ‘neutralising’ many of them.
Several residents in the Jiddari Polo area fled their homes during the attack, but were later asked to return by the army.
While the army may have repelled the Boko Haram in Jiddari Polo, the terror group appears to have succeeded at the Maiduguri-Gamboru, which lies on the eastern axis of the city.
The Wednesday night attack on Jiddari Polo area started at about the time the majority Muslim residents were about to break their Ramadan fast.
Residents could not settle down for their meals as deafening sounds of shooting and bombs rented the air forcing dwellers of the suburbs at the outskirts of the town to flee into the city.
A witness, Yunusa Garba, informed PREMIUM TIMES on phone that his home was close to the major fighting point between soldiers and the insurgents.
“As I am talking to you, our neighborhood, which is not far away from the locations where the shooting was is filled with people that had to flee their communities as the Boko Haram arrived. They are all here, women aged men and children, all roaming the streets”.
He said some of the dislodged residents in the villages had earlier in the day alerted some security officials about a large assemblage of Boko Haram gunmen at a village named Alidawari, not more than 5km from Maiduguri.
“A report was taken to the security about the Boko Haram gathering at about 3 p.m., but nothing was done to that effect”, he said.
“But it was about three hours later that we learnt that the gunmen had attacked some of the small villages and chased all residents away. Most of the displaced residents made it to Maiduguri on foot”.
The Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, later visited the displaced persons on Wednesday night.
The attack on Alidawari, would be the first major assault by Boko Haram on Maiduguri in a very long time.