LAGOS
Boko Haram militants have reportedly captured another town in northeastern Nigeria after a Monday attack that resulted in several deaths and mass displacement.
Several local residents from Damasak town in Borno State confirmed that the town had fallen into the hands of Boko Haram militants who overran the area on Monday morning.
"Damasak fell to the militants after they masqueraded as traders and entered the market," Idrissa Babou, who was among the hundreds who fled the town in the wake of the attack, told The Anadolu Agency.
"It was when they infiltrated the market that they started shooting in the air," he recalled.
"Many of our people died; many had to flee," he said, noting that fleeing residents had scattered in different directions when the attackers came.
"Many of our people are now refugees in [neighboring] Niger, because Damasak isn't so far from Niger," he added.
Dauda Na'allah, a member of a local vigilante group, confirmed the attack on Damasak, which, he said, had fallen due to a lack of army reinforcements.
"A few soldiers and some of our men repelled the attackers last Friday when they first attacked Damasak. We killed about ten of them," he told AA.
However, he said, troops and allied vigilantes were no match for the militants' firepower on Monday.
"They came in huge numbers. We didn't know until they had infiltrated the town through the market," Na'allah said.
"As some of them were shooting in the market and we were busy engaging them, suddenly a back-up team [of militants] came in large numbers. That was a game-changer," he added.
According to Na'allah, no fewer than ten people were killed in Monday's attack, "mostly villagers caught in the crossfire."
Damasak, a fishing town near the porous border with Niger, is the latest town to fall to Boko Haram in Nigeria's northeastern region – although the military is gradually retaking some of the territory seized by the group earlier.
Boko Haram continues to represent a major security threat for Nigeria, where preparations for a general election are currently underway.
Yet doubts remain as to whether elections can be held in certain restive areas due to the threat of militant attacks.
Since May of last year, Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – the three states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency – have all remained in a state of emergency.
Efforts to extend the state of emergency have been resisted in parliament, which has the power to reject the president's extension request.
On Tuesday, security officials appeared before Nigeria's senate to explain the situation on the ground, as opposition mounts against the state of emergency, which locals insist has made no difference in the fight against Boko Haram.
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