Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram shot and killed a policeman in Damaturu, Yobe State. The officer was ambushed while walking home from work in the evening. The assailants fled immediately after the shooting.
26 Aug 2012 · Damaturu, Damaturu, Yobe
Deaths
1
Injured
0
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
1
Perpetrators
Boko Haram
Response
Police internal memos were issued advising officers to avoid wearing uniforms while commuting and to vary their routes between work and home.
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
psychological warfare against the state’s domestic face, and the exploitation of the soft residential perimeter.
Trajectory
By killing officers in their neighborhoods, the insurgents successfully signaled that the State could not protect its own enforcers, leading to the eventual withdrawal of many security families into centralized, barricaded police colleges and barracks.
Cycle notes
Mirrors the pattern of Boko Haram’s targeted assassinations of off-duty security personnel in Yobe/Borno in late 2011–early 2012, such as the 25 October 2011 shooting of a policeman in his house in Damaturu and the 5 February 2012 killing of a secret police officer in front of his residence there.
Pattern
Targeted Killings of Security Personnel
Related — Targeted Killing
Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles rode through the Dumburum/Rukudawa road and attacked members of the local vigilante group who were on routine patrol providing security to traders at the weekly market. The attackers killed all 10 vigilante members on duty. In a brutal display, they removed the private parts of some victims and burnt all the motorcycles used by the vigilante group. The gunmen did not attack any of the traders at the market, indicating they came specifically to target the vigilantes
ISWAP executed the four remaining male aid workers who had been abducted in July 2019. The group released a video showing the executions and claimed the action was taken because "the government is not sincere and do not respect timelines" following a breakdown in talks . The group announced that Grace Taku, the only female among the six abducted workers, was "condemned to life of slavery"
Sheikh Ibrahim Birkuti, a prominent Wahhabi cleric known for his vocal and public criticism of Boko Haram’s extremist ideology, was assassinated outside his residence in Biu, Borno State. Two gunmen arriving on a motorcycle – Boko Haram’s signature tactical transport – opened fire on the Sheikh at close range before fleeing. A neighbour, Babagana Hanafi, told AFP: “A gunman riding a motorcycle stopped outside the house and brought out a gun from under his shirt and shot him twice at close range before fleeing.” Police confirmed the attack and blamed Boko Haram, noting that Birkuti had been one of the most prominent clerics to criticise the sect in Borno State.