Few days ago, the military took journalists round some
liberated Boko Haram strongholds in Maiduguri and environs. The area has
the complete picture of a deserted war front – dead bodies, human
skulls, ribs, bones, mass graves, destroyed homes and empty streets.
Indeed,
the gory scenes at Bulabulin Ngarnam, a suburb of Maiduguri, where Boko
Haram insurgents held sway for the past four years, are better imagined
than seen. Newsmen report that so bad are the sights in Bulabulin that
when journalists were taken to the area, it was very difficult to count
the number of decomposing bodies of human beings, including men, women,
children and the old.
Also discovered were over 200 shallow
graves, many of which had been exhumed by dogs or washed away by rain
waters. This is beside dozens of corpses deposited in hospitals days
before, during and after the
siege.
Not long ago, the area was
effectively under the control of insurgents with their flags, amir
(governor) and cabinet members while followers go about their normal
lives of trading, worshiping, teaching and learning.
At the
peak of their reign, insurgents reportedly moved about freely, mostly on
motorbikes, brandishing their guns and other dangerous weapons. They
succeeded in forcing out hundreds of lower class citizens who have
settled in the area for years, leaving behind only those inhabitants who
embraced their way of life and joined the followers of Mohammed Yusuf,
the now slain leader of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad,
also known as Boko Haram.
Ngarnam, Weekly Trust reports, became
famous when Mohammed Yusuf’s home, school and mosque popularly known as
Markas were all destroyed by military operatives who were deployed to
contain the insurgency in 2009.
Soon after the crackdown on
members of the sect, those who survived regrouped in Bulabulin Ngarnam,
among many other locations within and outside Maiduguri. While remaining
underground, the sect members strengthened themselves by amassing arms
and ammunitions as well as recruiting members in preparation for another
insurgency that continued till date.
Few months ago, some known Boko
Haram territories such as Budun, Kofa Biyu, Kawar Maila, among others,
were reclaimed by Nigerian troops deployed to the area. However,
recapturing Bulabulin was seen as a “mission impossible,” especially by
locals who live few miles away from the enclave.
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