ISWAP: Yobe govt buries 34 victims of Mafa community attack

The Yobe State government led by the deputy governor, Idi Barde-Gubana, held funeral prayers for the 34 victims who were killed in an attack by suspected Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Mafa community on Sunday.

After making a donation of N30 million, Barde-Gubana assured that the state government will work closely with the Federal Government to provide military formation in the area.

The deputy governor directed the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to make sure the displaced persons and the injured are well taken care off at their camps and hospitals.

The latest attack on the Mafa community is described as the worst in the state since the Boko Haram insurgency began 14 years ago.

The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) has since come out to claim responsibility for the attack.

In a letter by the attackers, ISWAP said they carried out the attack because the village allegedly provided information to the military, which led to the deaths of its members.

“This is a message from the soldiers of the Caliphate in the West Africa Province to the leaders, mukhtars, and the rest of the residents and farmers in the town of Mafa and the villages around it.”

“You have been tempted to remain in your countries in safety. The soldiers of the Caliphate will not harm you, nor threaten you with your money, nor hinder you from any activity of yours, whether agriculture, trade, etc., until you have arrogantly raised yourselves to a position in which you believe that your hands will reach our brothers with harm and remain uninterrupted.

“You have harmed our brothers in the past days in the town of (Bangaro) and its environs, and you cooperated and sympathized with the apostates in killing our brothers, and when we arrived in the area, we did not harm you.

“Rather, we limited ourselves to those whose hands were stained with the blood of our brothers, and who were attacked by their weapons, according to the information we found. We thought that by doing so we had warned you with the language of war, hoping that you would be deterred.

“However, this increased your arrogance and arrogance, so you repeated the same crime in the month of Safar.”

An eye witness identified as Ali Abdullahi, a physically challenged, revealed many people were killed, several shops were destroyed but he was spared after the assailants discovered his disability.

“It was Boko Haram that came to our community and killed several people. When they saw I have disability, they asked me to go back. They are suspecting that we are the ones giving the military information to attack and killed them,” Abdullahi said.

Another witness Zanna Umar, said, “We gathered that there are about one hundred and twenty five people killed. Here we buried 34, there are people that carried their corpses and buried them about forty in number, and the rest, we will go and bury them tomorrow.”