A mob of unruly young men has injured not fewer than ten people in Mairi Kuwait, a community in Jere Local Government Area, part of Borno metropolitan.
Our respondent who visited the scene gathered that the mob also broke shops and carted away with valuables.
The victims included health workers and business people who were going about their lawful business.
An eyewitness in the community who goes by Malam Ali, and whose business was also affected by the incident, said the mob attacked the community on Saturday around 5:00 pm, while chanting ‘we will kill all of them’.
‘They were shouting, saying kill them all, as the shouting intensified they started beating and attacking everyone they saw with sharp knives, swords and cutlasses, injuring many residents while many escaped death,’ he added.
A medical director at Amanah Medical Health Care who identified himself as Idris also narrated how he was beaten by the mob, stressing that he ‘narrowly escaped death.’
Mr. Idris spoke to our correspondent at the clinic where he and other victims are now receiving treatment.
‘We received not less than ten victims including myself while other victims were transferred to neighboring hospitals based on the degree of their injuries,’ Mr. Idris added.
Abor (Abubakar), another trader who also did not give his second name, accused the mob of breaking into his shop and carting away with some items.
‘When they arrived, I was attending to my customer. I’m into the business of charging phones for people due to lack of electricity, so when the attack intensified I decided to flee for my safety.
‘When I came back, I counted my loss randomly, over 17 smartphones were missing. I can only know my exact loss after my customers came for their phones,’ he said.
How it happened:
The group suspected to have perpetrated the attack goes by the name ‘Baza Taro.’
It means loosely ‘displacing or dispersing a gathering,’ in Hausa, which alludes to its unruly nature.
They were allegedly at the community to carry out a revenge attack on a group in the community.
In an interview, Danladi, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a local vigilante group formed to tame the excesses of Boko Haram, said they were there when the mob attacked but could not put up any resistance at the time.
He told our correspondent that the bone of contention between the two groups was rooted in a party organized to revel on the last eid but which had turned bitter.
We could not establish what the cause of the misunderstanding was as the perpetrators had gone under.
‘The first incident happened at a small party that was organized by Ngomari youths in the Mairi community which ended up in a fight between the two groups.
‘When we received the first information we organized ourselves and moved to the scene, but before we got there, unfortunately, they had already succeeded and ran away with people’s belongings,’ Danladi said.
Our correspondent also gathered that after the party, Mairi youths were the first to attack the mob in Ngomari Costin, a township adjoining the former.
However, when asked as to whether he was aware of the first attack by the Mairi youths, Danladi said this is not true.
‘I have no idea of any revenge from our people, and if there is any plan for that, I will be informed adequately,’ Danladi said.
Meanwhile, police in Maiduguri told this newspaper that they have arrested six suspects in connection to the crime.
