Boko Haram Burn Down Police Station in Borno

Boko Haram militants continue their daily rampage across northern Nigeria, as they invaded the Shani Local Government Area of Borno State. They have reportedly set ablaze the Divisional Police Station in Borno State late Monday afternoon.

The militants stormed the Divisional Police Station, among other nearby houses, including shops, and vehicles using Improvised Explosive Devices and petrol bombs, and had opened fire indiscriminately with policemen reportedly fleeing the scene.

Shani is located about 250 kilometers south of Maiduguri, which also shares a boundary with some parts of Taraba state. Continue...

The Boko Haram reportedly preceded their attack inside the town, and started shooting sporadically. They also snatched one of the police patrol vehicles of the police residents, before they fled towards Gwaskara village.

On Sunday, gunmen fired at worshippers, and reportedly burned down four churches in a town near Chibok, the site of the Mid-April kidnapping of over 270 school-girls who remain missing. More than 30 bodies were recovered, with more turning up in the bushes from violence in the town of Kwada. 

In Washington, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman, Jen Psake, was peppered with a series of questions regarding American efforts at assisting the Nigerian government in the recent spike in Boko Haram violence of recent weeks. Psake, was vague about those ‘increased capacity and efforts’ announced by State Department officials nearly five weeks ago. In the late question and answer session, Psake, said she could provide “no new information” about the church bombings, and continued reports of Nigerian military forces arriving late, fleeing, or addressing the recent attacks with a reported ‘lackluster’ effort on the part of defending Nigerian residents.

 The half dozen questions posed to the State Department Spokeswoman centered on a perceived view that the Nigerian military is a force in ‘disarray.’ Psake, said that there was “no validation of these recent reports,” only that the U.S. Government was “increasing the assistance” to the Nigerians. She cited the on-going training efforts, including assisting local law enforcement officials, and said that the U.S. had “boosted their capacity” inside the country. The Nigerians, she said, “remain in the lead” in the fight against Boko Haram.

A resident of Shani told newsmen that the hinted news of the terrorists invasion into Shani was made public at 9am on Monday, local Nigerian time, when they were sighted by some women on their farmlands around Walama. It was there where the terrorists told them that they should vacate their farms as they have a deadly mission to execute in some undisclosed places in Shani.

A SaharaReporters correspondent learned that no lives were lost at that point, but the terrorists succeeded in burning down the police station, patrol vehicles, and had destroyed local properties running into the millions of Naira.