BORNO(Sundiata Post) – Death toll in last weekend’s suicide bomb attacks at a wedding ceremony in Gwoza, Borno State has risen to 18, while no fewer than 42 others sustained injuries of varying degrees, the Director General, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Dr Barkindo Saidu, confirmed, yesterday.
Saidu said no fewer than 30 female suicide bombers were sent into Gwoza to detonate the IEDs at different locations within the area.
He said only four suicide bombers succeeded in carrying out their assignments, so far. He explained that one of the female bombers who came from the Pulka axis was responding to military interrogation at the checkpoint, when she panicked and detonated the IED killing herself, the soldier and a civilian JTF member.
It was gathered that the women got into Gwoza from different locations, some from Pulka and others from the Mandara mountains. The attack, one of the deadliest reported in the state in recent months, injured more than 30 people. The degree of injuries vary from abdominal ruptures to skull and limb fractures.
Saidu said he witnessed the first blast. “In my presence, at about 3pm, the first bomb blast in Gwoza occurred, detonated by a female suicide bomber in the midst of the marriage ceremony celebration. It affected more than 30 people with varying degrees of injuries and instant deaths. Some minutes later, another blast occurred around the General Hospital,” he wrote in a situation report later in the day.
The wedding was held at Tashan Mararaba, near the Fire Service in Gwoza town. A survivor said the first bomber was carrying a baby on her back when she stormed the venue and detonated the IED. As people gathered to bury those killed at the wedding, Saidu said a third bomber, a lady, detonated another IED with a lot of casualties.
“While emergency officials were in the hospital coordinating the rescue mission, a fourth blast was set off by a female teenager. So far, 18 deaths have been recorded, comprising children, adult males, females, and pregnant women; 19 seriously injured were conveyed to Maiduguri in four ambulances,” Saidu said.
At the time he released the situation report, he said 23 were waiting for military escort “in the Medical Regimental Services (MRS) Clinic.”
The evacuation of the injured continued into the night with the SEMA DG, who was in Gwoza when the attacks occurred, coordinating the process from there. He also said he had received a report of a suspected suicide bomber in Pulka, but did not provide further details about that. It was gathered that two female suicide bombers were said to have been arrested in connection with the detonation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), while the military has imposed a curfew in Gwoza LGA in the wake of the attacks.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has condemned the attacks, in strong terms, vowing that the purveyors of the dastardly act will pay a heavy price.
In a statement by Special Advisor on Media and Publicity Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu described the attacks as desperate acts of terror and a blatant demonstration of the pressure exerted on the terrorists and the success attained in undermining their ability to conduct offensives,
He declared that the purveyors of wanton violence shall have a certain encounter with justice, and that these cowardly attacks are only but an isolated episode, as his government will not allow the nation to slither into an era of fear, tears, sorrow, and blood.
The president stated that his administration is taking necessary measures to secure citizens, emphasising that efforts will be redoubled to ensure that those who trouble the nation, dispatching precious lives, and disrupting law and order are completely removed. President Tinubu condoled with the victims of the attacks, the families of the deceased, as well as the government and people of Borno State.
