{"id":70252,"date":"2014-12-01T13:31:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T13:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=70252"},"modified":"2014-12-01T13:31:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T13:31:44","slug":"nigeria-gunmen-raid-damaturu-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=70252","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria gunmen ‘raid Damaturu city’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suspected Boko Haram militants have carried out attacks on the city of Damaturu in north-east Nigeria, residents and security sources say.<\/p>\n

The assault on the city, the capital of Yobe state, began shortly after 05:00 local time (04:00 GMT).<\/p>\n

Gunshots and explosions were heard and a base of the riot police was reported to have been set on fire. Yobe state university also came under attack.<\/p>\n

Yobe is one of three Nigerian states under a state of emergency.<\/p>\n

The BBC spoke to a university student in Damaturu who said he had been woken by the sound of explosions and had seen a large number of militants wearing military uniforms moving into the city.<\/p>\n

He said he and some other residents had since fled to the surrounding countryside.<\/p>\n

‘Chaos all over’<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Another resident, Umar Sada, told the AFP news agency: “We have left our homes. We are now in the bush. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n

A government official, who asked not to be identified, said: “It’s chaos all over the town. All I can hear is explosions and gunfire from my house.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/div>\n

“I couldn’t go out for morning prayers because this started before dawn and I’m afraid to leave in case I get caught up in it.”<\/p>\n

Boko Haram has taken control of a series of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria in recent months.<\/p>\n

The authorities have struggled to defeat the militant Islamist group, which has been waging an insurgency since 2009.<\/p>\n

New York-based Human Rights Watch says Boko Haram has killed more than 2,000 civilians this year.<\/p>\n

\"Sceengrab<\/div>\n
Boko Haram has taken control of a series of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria in recent months<\/div>\n

On Friday, more than 100 people were killed in a gun and bomb attack on a mosque in the city of Kano.<\/p>\n

The identity of the attackers has not been confirmed but Boko Haram has been widely blamed.<\/p>\n

Damaturu has been targeted by Boko Haram a number of times before. At least 63 people were killed in an attack on churches and police in 2011 in what was then the deadliest attack of the insurgency.<\/p>\n

On several other occasions since then, militants and the security forces have engaged in gun battles in the city.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, a suicide bomber in Damaturu targeted a crowd watching a televised World Cup football match, killing more than 20 people.<\/p>\n

\"line\"<\/div>\n

Who are Boko Haram?<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Founded in 2002<\/li>\n
  • Initially focused on opposing Western education – Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language<\/li>\n
  • Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state<\/li>\n
  • Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria – also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja<\/li>\n
  • Some three million people affected<\/li>\n
  • Declared terrorist group by US in 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Suspected Boko Haram militants have carried out attacks on the city of Damaturu in north-east Nigeria, residents and security sources say. The assault on the city, the capital of Yobe state, began shortly after 05:00 local time (04:00 GMT). Gunshots and explosions were heard and a base of the riot police was reported to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":70255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-70252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/70255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}