Some 200 heavily armed Boko Haram heavily gunmen stormed Damboa in Borno state yesterday, killing at least 12 soldiers, four policemen, and four civilians, and destroying the police headquarters as well as homes and shops. Security forces and aircraft responded to the attack, reportedly killing 50 terrorists. Boko Haram also carried out a suicide car bombing in Konduga in Borno yesterday, killing five members of a youth vigilante committee, and killed over 15 travelers in an ambush on the Maiduguri-Dikwa road. Following a botched suicide bombing by a female bomber in Gombe, authorities arrested three more suspected female Boko Haram members, including Hafsat Bako, who allegedly led a recruitment and espionage cell. A security source claimed that 486 recently arrested alleged members of Boko Haram, who have reportedly been quietly released, were northerners enticed by the All Progressives Congress to move to the south for voting purposes.
