Nigerian terrorist outfit Boko Haram attacked Gubio town in Borno province on Sunday evening. The militants arrived in six utility vehicles, killing killed 37 residents and destroying 400 structures, Nigeria's Leadership newspaper reported on Tuesday. Gubio is located 60 miles north of the state capital of Maiduguri.
''We were playing football around 04:30pm when we suddenly started hearing gunshots and there was confusion all over the town, everybody was running," Alhaji Bukar Mondama, a teenage member of a local civilian group, told the Leadership newspaper.
"They killed 37 civilians including two little boys and many others suffered injuries. They took their time to select and burn all good homes and all the mosques in the town. They burnt our vehicles that had been parked in the town so that we would not be able to go after them," Mondama added.
Eight mosques, four schools, local government secretariat, 22 vehicles and over 400 homes were destroyed in the five hour attack. A military base in the town was was overrun.
Yusuf Modu Gubio, a member of a civilian group, said he was surprised to find that some of attackers were young teens – some dressed in army uniforms and driving military vehicles. "They were roaming the streets without anyone challenging them," he said, according to Leadership newspaper.
Kashim Shettima, the governor of Borno province, appealed to the panic stricken people, pleading with them to hold their ground. "You should persevere... terrorists will never succeed. We will defeat them," Shettima told survivors of the attack, AFP reported. "I appeal to you not to flee from your homes; we assure you that we are going to rebuild the ancient town of Gubio," he said.
Nigerian armed forces have pushed Boko Haram out of most of the areas it had claimed in the past few months, Reuters reported.
Boko Haram is a homegrown terror organisation that wants to create a hardline Islamic state in Nigeria's Northeast.
