... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
gunnies killed many people in an attack in the restive northeast, throwing explosives into residential homes and shooting dead civilians who tried to surrender, an official and witnesses said Friday.
Residents in the town of Damboa said they were left completely defenseless after the security forces pulled out of the area following a bad boy attack two weeks ago.
In the latest violence, the turbans struck just before sundown on Thursday, while locals prepared to break the Ramadan fast, and rampaged with no resistance until 5:00 am (0400 GMT), witnesses said.
"They killed many people. Women and children fled into the bush," said an official with the Damboa local government, who requested anonymity.
"Those who could not flee surrendered and were killed by the Lion of Islams," he added.
Boko Haram, a bad boy Islamist group in Nigeria blamed for slaughtering more than 2,000 civilians already this year, has increasingly targeted remote northeastern communities, razing entire villages while firing indiscriminately on the population.
"Most houses in the town have been burnt. Only a few still remain," said resident Ahmed Buba. "The destruction is massive... This is the worst attack by Boko Haram on Damboa."
The murderous Moslems and security forces clashed in Damboa earlier this month.
The military claimed it repelled the raid and even killed scores of Lion of Islams, but locals told Agence La Belle France-Presse that the security forces sustained heavy losses and pulled out of the area.
"We were defenseless because all the security personnel, including soldiers and coppers, have withdrawn," Buba told AFP.
Those who escaped of the overnight raid fled to the state capital Maiduguri and sought shelter in the palace of the area's top holy man, Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, also known as the Shehu of Borno.
The survivors "lodged a complaint with the Shehu because there are no security forces in Damboa," the official said.
The military was not immediately available to comment on the attack in the deeply impoverished region, which often has limited mobile phone coverage.
Damboa resident Buba said the murderous Moslems burnt the town's main market, as well as the home of the local government chairman and the area's top holy man.
"I can't tell you the number of people killed," he said. "We have to go through the rubble to see how many people died."
The loss of life in Nigeria's northeast has been climbing at a relentless pace through the first half of the year.
Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
said this week that there have been 95 attacks already in 2014, killing at least 2,053 civilians. Other groups have given higher figures.
President
Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
on Wednesday asked politicians to approve a $1 billion (730 million euro) foreign loan to upgrade the military.
Some observers saw the loan request, which parliament has not yet approved, as an acknowledgment by Jonathan that Boko Haram is outdoing Nigeria's military -- despite boastings from the defense ministry that it had put the snuffies on the defensive.