The Borno State Government has expressed shock over the multiple bombings in the Gwoza area of the state, which resulted in several deaths and injuries.
“It is not an intelligence failure. It is an error that we did not see coming,” the Borno State Commissioner for Information and Internal Security Usman Tar said on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s breakfast show Sunrise Daily, days after the multiple explosions.
Scores of persons died in the string of bombings one of which happened during a wedding celebration in the North-Eastern state. Several others were also wounded in the Saturday attacks, emergency authorities said.
According to the commissioner, the attackers may have exploited the state’s porous borders to carry out the bombings.
“If terrorists want to attack and they use a particular route that you don’t know, what can you do? As you know our boundaries are porous that is internationally. Even our local boundaries are porous,” Usman said.
“If terrorists want to attack, they do it using the frontlines. That was what probably happened.”
‘Black Saturday’
However, Ayuba Bassa, a community leader in Borno, has criticized the government and security authorities for their inadequate response to insurgency. He stated that there were warning signs of the attacks, but no action was taken to prevent them.
Bassa urged the authorities to move beyond mere rhetoric, noting that around 30 women were involved in carrying out the multiple bombings.
“We cannot trust the Army, we cannot trust the civilian JTF or anybody who stands in the name of politics that is willing to fight for these people anymore.
“It was really a black Saturday. It has affected Gwoza to the blood. What happened was the infiltration of trained women including a teenager as suicide bombers. They were able to come and carry out the mission. We have learned that they were above 30 who were trained to do that but a few of them succeeded,” Bassa who is the National Coordinator of the Gwoza Christian Community Association said.
“If the IDP camps are not dismissed, they will continue to be breeding grounds for more Boko Haram [terrorists].”
A Resurgence?
Although Boko Haram has lost significant ground in recent years, jihadists continue to launch regular attacks on rural communities in Nigeria. Throughout the insurgency, Boko Haram has frequently used young women and girls to carry out suicide bombings.
The group seized Gwoza in 2014 during their advance across northern Borno. Although the Nigerian military, with assistance from Chadian forces, recaptured the town in 2015, Boko Haram has continued to launch attacks from nearby mountains.
Boko Haram militants have conducted raids, killing men and kidnapping women who venture outside the town for firewood and acacia fruits. The violence has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced around two million people in Nigeria’s northeast.
The conflict has also spread to neighboring countries such as Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, leading to the formation of a regional military coalition to combat the militants.