LIMANKARA, BORNO STATE — The sound of sporadic gun battles pitting soldiers against an armed Islamic extremist group on Saturday cracked down from mountains overlooking a frightened village on the border with Cameroon.
The security forces have for days been tracking the militants in battles which officials said have claimed 28 lives since the self-styled Talibans raided a police station on Monday, killing four officers and stealing ammunition.
“We have directed the soldiers to kill them on sight. We want to end this madness once and for all,” Borno State governor Ali Modu Sherif said in his office as the army pursued its search and destroy operation in the mountains.
Inhabitants of the once quiet, tiny peasant village of Limankara with its mud-thatched houses said they were scared despite the presence of hundreds of soldiers at the foot of the Mandara mountains straddling Nigeria’s northeast border.
“We are happy the Cameroonian authorities have intensified security along their side of the mountains and are ready to help arrest or kill them if they cross the border,” the state governor said.
The insurgents are mainly university students who claim to draw inspiration from Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban militia. In January, they launched attacks in neighbouring Yobe State which were put down by soldiers after three days of fighting.
“Everybody in this village lives in fear because of the constant sound of gunshots from the mountains,” Bukar Nzarma, a 42-year-old farmer in Limankara, told an AFP journalist at the scene in the northeastern Borno State, where villagers said the Talibans took seven hostages and have killed two of them.
“We have known no peace since Monday night when the Talibans struck and our fear is heightened by the sound of gunshots from the mountains which we have not been used to,” said Nzarma, reclining under a tree with friends.
Limankara, 10 kilometres from Gwoza, where the Islamic militants raided the police station, looks like a place under army siege, with roadblocks and armoured cars on the bumpy and dusty road leading to the village.
“Our life has never been the same since this trouble started. Nobody dares go out of this village in the direction of the mountains where we have our farmlands,” Ali Idrisa, a 33-year-old farmer, said.
“This is harvest time, some crops are due for harvest but we cannot go to the farms for our safety. We do not want to be caught in crossfire or be mistaken for a Taliban,” he added.
Inhabitants of 11 other mountain villages have fled to the relative safety of Limankara for fear of being trapped in the fighting, the villagers said.
“We were told by the authorities to confine ourselves to our houses throughout the military operations, but it was not possible for us to stay indoors because we need to fetch water and provide basic needs,” said Shehu Mato, 36, who arrived from the mountains.
“We therefore decided to vacate the mountains. The deafening fire exchanges are terrifying and we cannot stand it any more. It is real war up there,” said Mato, pointing up the mountainside to where a military reconnaissance helicopter hovered.
Of seven people taken hostage, the militants killed two and threw their bodies down the mountainside while one escaped, survivors said.
“I am afraid of what might happen to my brother being held by the Talibans considering what they did to two of the hostages,” said Hannatu Sambo, a 29-yera-old woman whose 17-year-old brother was captured by the militants.
“These people are heartless,” she said.
