How Boko Haram Conquered, Destroyed Ancient Damboa And Gwoza T. — Aug 17, 2014 | Leave a comment Damboa and Gwoza towns are two ancient settlements that are important to Borno State, especially in the area of agro-economy. But when Boko Haram sect decided to lay siege and conquered these towns, they went a little further in their assault by hoisting their flags. Although the military has taken back Damboa, the town of Gwoza remains in the stranglehold of the intrude About two weeks ago, precisely on August 5, 2014, the historic town of Gwoza in Borno State came under the attack and conquest of the Boko Haram sect members, who did not only massacre soldiers and civilian residents, but also had the effrontery of hoisting their flags in the town, just as residents fled for their lives as the terrorists decided to takeover the ancient town. The conquest of Gwoza came three weeks after the insurgents had hoisted their flags in Damboa town, which they had earlier conquered from the legitimate government of the state; a town where over 15,000 people were forced to flee for their dear lives. Even before Boko Haram assumed territorial control of Gwoza and Damboa towns, the insurgents had literally sacked hundreds of villages and hamlets scattered around Konduga, Bama, Damboa, Kala-Balge and Gwoza local government areas of Borno State. The sacking and hoisting of flags in Damboa and Gwoza towns however have been adjudged as the biggest assaults by the Boko Haram terrorists on the government of Nigeria in recent times. Though the military had, after two weeks of aborted attempts, been able to reclaim Damboa, though at a costly effort that saw the deaths of many soldiers, Gwoza has however continued to remain under the control of the Boko Haram sect till date. Several attempts were made by soldiers of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, as well as those in Adamawa State commands to recapture the seized town, the emboldened insurgents had continued to resist the invasion of soldiers into the conquered territory. LEADERSHIP Sunday learnt from reliable sources that the Boko Haram terrorists, during their attack on August 5 were able to dislodge the soldiers stationed in Gwoza, and took over most of their ammunition, including major combat tanks. Hundreds of hapless residents were either slaughtered or shot dead as the insurgents went berserk in the town, while thousands of other displaced residents who managed to escape alive made their way to the top of the Gwoza hills where they took refuge, allegedly eating wild plants and drinking from clothes soaked with rain water for several days now. From the mountain top, the displaced residents, including their newly installed first-class emir, Alhaji Muhammadu Idrissa Timta, watched how their years of toil to build the present day Gwoza town were being reduced to rubbles by the rampaging Boko Haram gunmen, who visited every house, including the palace of the emir. Some of the displaced residents who spoke from the rocky hilltops gave chilling narratives of how their relatives, friends and neighbours were systematically selected, dragged out of their homes, and slaughtered outside before their houses were set on fire. The Chief Imam of Gwoza, Alhaji Abdullahi, was also attacked in his house and slaughtered before his family members who later took to their heels. A serving local government ward councillor, Honourable Saleh of Kuranabasa Ward, was said to have been slaughtered outside his home alongside nine members of his family. Liman Adamu Sawab, a displaced resident, gave a chilling narration of how the attack on Gwoza was carried out and how they were surviving atop the Gwoza hills. “When they came on Tuesday, we thought it was just one of those hit-and-run attacks they usually carried out at the outskirts. But their shooting continued to get louder and louder as they came nearer. Then, we began to see soldiers fleeing into the town,” he said. “Initially, we all ran into our houses. But when we began to hear people screaming and thick smokes bellowing into the skies, we had to start running towards the hills. On the way, I saw several corpses littering the streets. It was then I knew I did not take the decision to flee on time. The corpses were many and the shooting was deafening. We had to run up the hills. Some who had sustained injuries collapsed on the way; we helped some by dragging them up the hills, but others had to give up on the way up,” he said. Continuing, Sawab stated that, “We were on the hilltop for about seven days. On the first day, we fed on some wild fruits and drank from the pools of water we collected by the rocky pits on the hills, which also got finished because we were in our thousands on top of the hills. At a point, some of our people, especially the women, would have to spread their clothes to soak rain water so that they could squeeze them into the mouths of their children when they begin to cry of thirst.” However, Sawab said many people could not survive the hunger and thirst on the hilltops. Most saddening of the Gwoza people’s plight was the presence of their newly crowned first-class emir, Alhaji Muhammadu Idrissa Timta, among them on the mountain top. LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that in order to safeguard the life of the emir from being taken by the Boko Haram gunmen who killed his father, the immediate past emir in a bloody attack on May 30, 2014, the displaced people of Gwoza refused to reveal to security personnel and the media that the emir was also among those that were taking refuge under the rocks of Gwoza hills. One of the displaced victims said, “We have lost everything, including our revered late father, the emir. But we cannot afford to loose our new emir again, even if the palace and the entire community are destroyed. On top of the hills, he stayed with us, and his presence gave all of us the hope that we shall survive what the Boko Haram was doing to our ancestral home, down the hills.” It would be an understatement to say that the people of Gwoza had lost almost everything that defined their existence due to the ongoing occupation and destruction of their ancient home. Some of the residents, especially those who were old enough to recall a bit of their history, ascribed the inability of the federal government and its troops to protect them when the Boko Haram terrorists came attacking, as a ploy to cede them back to Cameroon some 52 years after they had opted to part ways with Northern Cameroon, where they were once nationals, to join Nigeria. LEADERSHIP Sunday had traced the history of the development of the present Gwoza, now in rubbles, to hundreds of years back, even before the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914. According to history, Gwoza town, just like Bama, Dikwa up to some parts of Maiduguri, known as Customs Area, was part of the German Protectorate. Gwoza was part of the former English speaking Northern Cameroon, until the 1961 plebiscite that later brought the area under the federation called Nigeria. Gwoza was under the German Protectorate, before the United Nations organised a plebiscite in the Cameroon on February 11, 1961, which gave two options to the people either to form a union with Nigeria, then under the British Protectorate, or a union with Cameroun under the German protectorate. After the plebiscite, it was said that the Northern Cameroon, under which Gwoza was, “voted for union with Nigeria”, while the Southern Cameroon went with the Cameroun. It would be recalled that, though Gwoza is now being ruled, traditionally, by a first-class emir, courtesy of the recent elevation made by the governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, it was before now a mere chiefdom that bore allegiance to the royalty of the old Dikwa Emirate. During the decisive moment of the plebiscite, the large jurisdiction of the Dikwa Emirate fell on both sides of the British and German protectorates. At that critical moment, the then Shehu of Dikwa was given the option of choosing where his kingdom would have its headquarters since the plebiscite would split his domain into two. And the Shehu opted to be where the old Kukawa, being the spiritual nucleus of the Kanem Borno, was. Kukawa was then in Nigeria. With that decision taken, the Shehu’s palace had to move to Yerwa (Maiduguri) even as he gave condition that his younger brother be made the Shehu of Dikwa still under the German protectorate. Gwoza used to be an ordinary chiefdom under the Dikwa Emirate until later in the ‘80s that it became an emirate, which later grew to become a first-class emirate in Borno State. Despite the plebiscite that brought a substantial part of Gwoza to Nigeria’s side, with the stretch of the mountains giving the two sides a natural boundary, there still exist two Gwozas; one on the side of Cameroon and the other on the Nigerian side, all sharing common culture and traditions. As a matter of fact, because of the common ties that the people still share, some smart politicians, during elections, would manipulate their votes by getting their relatives or supporters from the Cameroonian borders, like the Mandaras, the Gudus, etcetera, who are still Gwozas to cast their ballots for them. Besides that, Gwoza remains one of the most unique LGAs in Borno State where there is an amalgam of about 15 distinct ethnic groups. In Gwoza, there are Marghis, Mandara, Agibua, Waha, Fulanis, Hausa, etc; who live and share common neighbourhoods with one another. Before the recent adoption of hereditary pattern of kingship, the people of Gwoza used to have a republican system of kingship that was brought by the present Timta ruling household. But today, despite all those years of struggle for growth and self-actualisation as a unique agrarian community in Borno State, Gwoza, an area that covers 2,883km of Nigeria, with a population of 276,312 people (according to the 2006 census), now exists in the rubbles of its past, as Boko Haram gunmen who sacked the town and its surrounding communities have turned it into wild graveyard where corpses littered its nooks and crannies unburied. A female survivor, Binta Sani, said, “We, the women, alone had buried well over 900 corpses; mostly, old and young males, in shallow graves with our bare hands, and there are hundreds more that we could not bury because their corpses had already rotten.” For the people of Damboa, a town that is famed for being a food production hub of Borno State, only history would, for now, tell tales of their accomplishments over the past years, as Boko Haram sect has destroyed virtually every structure that landscaped the town and its surrounding communities. Even though soldiers of the Nigerian Army have announced the reclaim of the seized town of Damboa from the terrorists last week, some leaders of the ravaged community said the agrarian town would remain inhabitable for a long time if government does not step in and rebuild the town and help the displaced people to return home. Damboa has suffered repeated attacks by Boko Haram members for more than six times in the last two years, with the worst being the July attack which led to the sacking of both military and civilian residents. Concerned elders of Damboa felt the town and its over 15,000 would-be returnees needed both local and international supports to bounce back to life. One of the leaders of the ravaged town, who spoke under the aegis of ‘Damboa Forum’, Alhaji Modu Shettima, said at least 95 per cent of the town was destroyed by the insurgents. “Our people who are still sleeping in displaced people’s camps deserve special intervention from the state, federal and international donors. Our dear town, Damboa, had been a thriving farming and fishing community for many years, which is now in ruins and its people in distress. Almost all the houses, public buildings and security structures in the town were burnt down, and rebuilding them remains a big challenge for the displaced who are yearning to go back home. “We believe the whole world knows what happened in Damboa, where many people were killed. We pray God to grant their souls eternal rest. We are worried about the plight of our people. When would they return and how would they start a new life amid daunting challenges, because of the fact that the insurgents have destroyed everything?” Historically, Damboa people are predominantly, Marghis, but their close ties with the Kanem Borno empire had made the people share certain cultures and traditions with the Kanuri.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 05:26:48 +0000
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