No fewer than 110 Boko Haram insurgents were, at the weekend, killed in a gun battle in Damboa, headquarters of Damboa local government area of Borno State by men of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army.
Damboa about 95 kilometers from Maiduguri, the state capital, was the first local government area captured by insurgents in June this year before it was recaptured by troops in July.
The killing of the terrorists came barely 24 hours after troops in support of Civilian JTF killed over 75 insurgents at Dogonwire while attempting to repair the vandalized power transmission line along Damboa- Maiduguri Road since July this year as well as the combing of Tashan Alade and other communities of Hawul local government Area taken over by insurgents.
A security source, who did not want his name in print, said that the insurgents- who came mostly in black uniform resembling that of the Nigeria Police, used cattle as their shield, but the troops and the vigilante youth quickly realised their trick and killed all of them.
“We rounded them up and killed them as there was no escaping route for them. We killed over 100 of them, while their vehicles and motorcycles were destroyed”, the source said.
A resident of the area, Alhaji Mohammed Bulama, said,” The incident occurred at about 1:35 pm when we are about to start jumat prayer (Friday congregational prayer) when we started hearing gunshots. We quickly went back to our houses leaving the vigilantes and soldiers behind.”
When contacted, Defence Spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade, confirmed the incident but insisted that the exact casualty figures were still being ascertained.