Thousands Flee Nigerian Town After Suspected Boko Haram Threat

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau (All Africa)

In Nigeria, thousands of residents from Gubio town in Borno State fled this week to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, after suspected Boko Haram terrorists reportedly sent them a letter threatening an imminent attack.
The fleeing residents, who arrived in Maiduguri on lorries, vans and trucks, were seen moving toward the direction of the Shehu of Borno’s palace as well as toward the city center.
One of the displaced residents, Fannami Abuwar, said, “We have been threatened with letter by the Boko Haram insurgents saying that they would attack us soon and we all have to flee for our lives having heard of what happened to communities like Damasak and Malumfatori where similar threats were made and carried out.”
A spokesman for the Vigilante Group in Borno State, Muhammed Gava, confirmed the development.
He said, “We were all disturbed by the development because Gubio, though not too far away from Maiduguri, has been very peaceful and calm all this while.”
Officials of the state government and aid workers have yet to respond to the situation even as residents of Maiduguri had begun to worry over the increasing influx of displaced people into the state capital that is already choked up by over 100, 000 others from about 15 local government areas of the state.
Gubio, which is about 96 kilometers from Maiduguri, is an agrarian town and headquarters of the local government of the same name.