The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for recent attacks in various communities in Yobe State where over 87 lives were lost and property worth millions of naira destroyed.
The terrorists had, on Sunday afternoon, struck Mafa town, killing over 87 residents and burning homes and shops.
Those who survived the deadly assault said they spent the night hiding in bushes, witnessing their homes being destroyed and torched by the armed men and by morning, they returned to a community in ruins, with bodies of those who could not escape strewn across the area, some charred by fire.
It was revealed that the bodies of the victims were given mass burial which was attended by the State Deputy Governor, Hon Idi Barde Gubana, along with other senior government officials.
While there were speculations as to the group of terrorists who carried out the deadly attacks, ISWAP has come out to claim responsibility.
According to counter-insurgency and security expert in the Lake Chad region, Zagazola Makama, the dreaded group, in a letter on Tuesday, claimed it targeted the community for supposedly giving information to the military which resulted in the killing of their members.
The letter written in Arabic, further threatened to go after other communities who give the military information about them.
“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,” the letter reads.
“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.
“We only targeted those whose hands were stained with our brothers’ blood and who had attacked with weapons, based on the information we gathered.
“We hoped that this would serve as a warning, but it seems to have only increased your arrogance, leading you to repeat the same offenses in the month of Safar.”
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