Attack on Damasak: Boko Haram targets aid workers and UN facilities in Nigeria

Ahmed Adel

Relief and humanitarian aid workers in Nigeria are suffering from an increase in the number of terrorist operations carried out by Boko Haram against them, which increases the Nigerian authorities’ concerns about the expansion of the group, access to and control of these facilities, and preventing food from reaching those who deserve it.

Damasak attack

In the same context, terrorists linked to Boko Haram, which is affiliated with ISIS, attacked humanitarian facilities in the city of Damasak in northeastern Nigeria.

According to AFP, the attack came late Saturday, April 11, killing four people and wounding at least four others. This was the second attack in two months against one of nine United Nations humanitarian bases in the country.

“Armed men from the terrorist organization ISIS in West Africa are still in Damasak, walking in the streets, firing bullets and setting fire to humanitarian facilities,” said one of the humanitarian workers, requesting anonymity.

Reason for the attack

Meanwhile, one of his colleagues said that the deliberate shooting in the building of a non-governmental organization extended to the United Nations base, which was destroyed, adding that the buildings of three other non-governmental organizations were also destroyed.

A military source confirmed to AFP that the attackers who tried to storm a military base in the city were contained thanks to air support and then “were forced to withdraw” after fighting that lasted three hours.

“One soldier was killed and two others wounded,” the source said, pointing to the destruction of five vehicles belonging to the attackers. A source in a humanitarian organization indicated that three women were killed when a projectile fell on a house during a wedding celebration.

The terrorists burned the home of a local leader, a medical facility, an ambulance and a vehicle belonging to the humanitarian organization, according to two sources.

“The brutal Saturday attack threatened our work and put the lives of many aid workers at risk,” said Eric Patton, director of the council in Nigeria.

“Fortunately, our five Damasak township employees escaped unharmed; however, the perpetrators managed to set our guesthouse on fire and destroy life-saving relief supplies, including vehicles used to deliver aid,” Patton said.

“Besides the humanitarian facilities, they also attacked a police station and a hospital where they seized medical supplies,” said Musa Kolo, a member of the town’s community.

Kolo added that he believed the attackers had returned to their forest with the equipment and food they had looted.

On March 1, armed Boko Haram elements targeted the Dikwa area in Borno State, killing six civilians and deliberately targeting humanitarian facilities, according to the United Nations.

Blood history

The most violent terrorist group in Africa appeared at the beginning of 2000 and was initially just a group that claimed to promote virtue and forbid vice, but over time it transformed into opposing state policies, in light of the rampant corruption in Nigeria.

In 2009, Boko Haram declared its rebellion, taking up arms and adopting a violent approach. Since then, they have caused the deaths of more than 27,000 people and the displacement of more than 1.8 million Nigerian citizens from the areas of violence.

In 2015, Boko Haram announced its pledge of allegiance to ISIS and expanded its geographical operations to include the countries of West Africa overlooking Lake Chad, after it had been limited to the Muslim states of northern Nigeria such as Borno. In the same year, the organization launched bloody attacks in northern Cameroon and carried out kidnappings, prompting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to express his grave concern about the kidnappings.

The year 2016 witnessed a defection from that pledge as a result of tactical differences in operations between the leaders of the organization, which resulted in a split, the dismissal of Abubakar Shekau from the group’s leadership, and the appointment of Abu Musab al-Barnawi as its leader. But Shekau succeeded in establishing another group in the area that bears the old name of Boko Haram, Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihad.