Suspected Boko Haram gunmen dressed in military camouflage attacked Bulabulin Ngaura village in Konduga LGA, Borno State, at about 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. The insurgents mounted a roadblock on the Maiduguri-Biu Road and ambushed residents on their way to the mosque for morning prayers, opening fire indiscriminately. Governor Kashim Shettima‘s aide, Alhaji Mohammed Sani (alias A. Banje), was among the dead. A family of five (husband, wife and three children) was abducted from a Peugeot 406 vehicle on the same road. The attackers also shot and killed five civilians going to prayers and injured several others. The assault occurred simultaneously with a separate attack on Gajiram town (Nganzai LGA) that killed 15 people.
5 Sept 2013 · Bulabulin Ngaura, Konduga, Borno
Deaths
5
Injured
8
Kidnapped
5
Total casualties
13
Perpetrators
Boko Haram
Response
Troops of 5 Brigade, 7 Division of the Nigerian Army (based in Monguno) pursued the insurgents to their camps in the Marte and Sambisa Forests, killing about 50 insurgents in a shootout with air support. The military also blocked all exit routes to capture fleeing insurgents. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa confirmed the operation and stated: “Subsequently, the villages have been rescued from the fangs of the insurgents.”
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Boko Haram's strategic campaign of reprisals against communities cooperating with the Civilian JTF vigilante movement .
Trajectory
Bulabulin Ngaura eventually became one of the most dangerous ghost villages on the Damboa road. By late 2013 and early 2014, the frequency of these small-scale executions forced the total abandonment of the village, allowing Boko Haram to use the area as a permanent staging ground for IED placements and highway robberies.
Cycle notes
This incident mirrors several earlier Boko Haram attacks on rural communities in Borno State, including repeated 2013 Konduga LGA raids, where villages near Maiduguri were attacked and homes burned (e.g., the 11–12 August 2013 Konduga), and the 18 September 2013 Benisheikh massacre (Kaga LGA), in which Boko Haram killed dozens of civilians and local vigilantes in one of the deadliest attacks of that period. Collectively, these incidents reflect a recurring pattern of rural insurgent violence targeting soft civilian communities around Maiduguri, characterized by intimidation, reprisal killings, and attempts to assert territorial influence.
Pattern
Attacks on Worshippers
Related — Armed Attack
Suspected gunmen attacked POS operators in Sodawa community, Ghari LGA, Kano State. Several were killed and others injured.
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed a lodge housing construction workers in the Bolori area of Maiduguri, Borno State. The attackers slit the throats of nine workers, all of whom were engaged in the construction of the Shehu of Borno’s Central Mosque project. The victims were reportedly killed while sleeping. A military spokesman confirmed the bodies were recovered with deep machete cuts; local residents reported that the attackers invaded the area around 1 am and left after the operation. The nine victims comprised eight men and one woman.
A group of armed men, suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists, launched a midnight assault on a military base in Gujba town. They attacked two military patrol vehicles in a heavy shooting, killing one soldier and torching the vehicles. The attackers were later repelled by troops, who chased them into the surrounding bush