From HASSAN JIRGI Maiduguri
Islamic State-West Africa Province, ISWAP, has given a notice to residents of Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State to vacate their home town.
One of the residents told AljazirahNigeria that most of the residents have fled their homes in Kakuwa as ISWAP threatened that failure to adhere to their ultimatum and vacate their homes by weekend would mean facing the terror of death.
Another resident said the terrorists gathered residents of various communities in the early hours of yesterday and commanded them to leave their homes before today or risk being killed.
Credible source said community of the area were gathered this morning by the terrorist group and received the warning. They said the deadline is Saturday, starting from today.
“If we don’t leave the area by Saturday, we will face the consequences. Many have left for Monguno and we are leaving tomorrow before the deadline.”
One of the residents who does not want mentioned his name in print saying they were not going anywhere. They said it is better to be under terrorists than to go back to starvation in the IDP camps,” he said.
Bukar Modu noted that immediately after they received the threat from the terrorists, communities started vacating their communities, some to Kross Kauwa while others left for Monguno Local government area of the state.
“They claimed they wanted to preach to us, and we were deceived. Instead, they gathered us, and their commander ordered our execution. They accused us of betrayal, saying some among us were spying for enemies.
According to sources, ISWAP opened fire on us. Over 40 people were killed, and at least 35 were escape. One of the terrorists was punished by their commander for allowing some of us to flee.
The source added that some of the people have returned home, so more than 30 persons are still missing. We don’t know if they are alive or dead,” he said.
The residents had lived together with ISWAP terrorists for over a year now until the conflict that led to Sunday’s killings, source said.
Manyan people had urged security agencies to take action to protect the community and prevent further attacks., Modu said there has not been official response to the request.
AlhazirahNigeria learnt that this notice came barely a week after ISWAP terrorists killed 35 fishermen in Tubum Rogo community, leaving 25 other people injured and 30 others still missing.
