On Thursday July 2nd, Boko Haram fighters attacked Damasak in Mobbar Local Government Area in Borno state. During the terror act, the insurgents, that have terrorised the Northeast region for over a decade, shot a United Nations Humanitarian Air Service helicopter. Although no aid worker was on board the aircraft, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon said in a statement that the crew members are all safe.
Meanwhile President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the attack. The President described the attack as “another desperate rear guard action by the Boko Haram terrorists who have been under intense pressure from the Nigerian military.” The recent attack is the latest in series of attack on aid workers in the northeast over a decade. UN workers and other international and local nongovernmental organisations are subject of attacks, kidnapping and murder perpetrated by the terrorists in the region.
He assured the international community and Nigerians that the attack on the UN helicopter which claimed the lives of two persons, including that of a 5-year-old child would not go without severe consequences.
Earlier in the year, the humanitarian hub in the UN in Ngala, Borno State was assaulted by heavily armed terrorists with properties including a vehicle of UN agencies used for movement and aid delivery destroyed.
Also recall that in 2011, not less than 18 people were killed in a suicide car bombing at the United Nations Headquarters in Abuja. The suicide bomber drove through two security barriers; detonated the bomb after crashing it into the UN reception area.
Staff of the UN and other humanitarian agencies in the Northeast Nigeria have been target of recent attack by terrorists operating in that region. In 2019, four aid workers were murdered by the terrorists along Borno and Yobe highway while two were kidnapped. Series of murderous acts were also carried out by the terrorists on aid workers in the region.
While the UN leads humanitarian services in the region, supporting internally displaced persons numbering millions, it has continued to request the Federal Government to ensure that adequate protection is guaranteed for the workers and the vulnerable in the region due to the volatility of the Northeast.
Buhari in his reaction to the recent attack, assured the international community that the Nigerian military is on top of the situation. He said the terrorists’ recent attack was part of their desperation to prove that they are strong in order to cover up their dwindling fortunes.
