{"id":15326,"date":"2017-07-30T20:03:29","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T20:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=15326"},"modified":"2017-07-30T20:03:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-30T20:03:29","slug":"technically-defeated-boko-haram-on-rampage-again-massacres-about-100-oil-workers-university-staff-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=15326","title":{"rendered":"TECHNICALLY DEFEATED BOKO HARAM ON RAMPAGE AGAIN. MASSACRES ABOUT 100 OIL WORKERS, UNIVERSITY STAFF, OTHERS"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least 69 people are known to have died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team in northeast Nigeria, as three men kidnapped by the jihadists made a video appeal.
\nExperts said the attack \u2014 Boko Haram\u2019s bloodiest this year \u2014 underscored the persistent threat it poses, despite government claims the group is a spent force.
\n\u201cSo far the death toll stands at 69,\u201d said an aid agency worker involved in the recovery of bodies after the attack in the Magumeri area of Borno state\u00a0on Tuesday<\/span><\/span>.
\nThe worker, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said 19 soldiers, 33 civilian militia and 17 civilians were killed.
\n\u201cThe last body was recovered\u00a0Friday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in the bush in the Geidam district of neighbouring Yobe state, which is several kilometres from the scene of the ambush,\u201d he told AFP.
\n\u201cIt shows the victim, who had gunshot wounds, died after trekking a long distance. There could be more such victims in the bush.\u201d
\nAnother source with knowledge of the rescue operation gave the death toll as \u201c70 or more\u201d and also said it was unclear whether all the victims had been accounted for.
\nThe attack hit Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation staff.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a confirmation of the boldness and reassurance that Boko Haram has managed to gain over the last six weeks,\u201d said Yan St-Pierre, from the Modern Security Consulting Group.
\n\u201cThey have been attacking more and more military outposts and more military convoys. For them to go after NNPC personnel just shows they don\u2019t fear any military reprisal.
\n\u201cBasically they have managed to gain enough resources, enough material, to plan ambushes targeted towards high value targets.\u201d
\n
\nNews of the rising death toll came after Boko Haram published a four-minute video in which three men identified themselves as being from the University of Maiduguri.
\nThe trio were part of a NNPC team on a mission to find commercial quantities of oil in the Lake Chad basin.
\n\u201cI want to call on the acting president professor Yemi Osinbajo to come to our rescue to meet the demand,\u201d one of the men says in the video, which he said was shot\u00a0on Friday<\/span><\/span>.
\nHe attributed the attack to the Islamic State-supported Boko Haram faction headed by Abu Mus\u2019ab Al-Barnawi, which has vowed to hit military and government targets.
\n\u201cThey have promised us that if their demands are met they will release us immediately to go back to the work we were caught doing,\u201d the man added.
\nThere was no indication of where the video was shot but Magumeri is some 50 kilometres (31 miles) by road northwest of Maiduguri.
\nUniversity of Maiduguri spokesman Danjuma Gambo confirmed the identities of the three kidnapped men in the video.
\n\u201cThey are our staff but one more is yet to be accounted for,\u201d he told AFP.
\nFive members of staff from the university \u2014 two lecturers, two technologists and a driver \u2014 were killed, vice-chancellor Ibrahim Njodi said\u00a0on Friday<\/span><\/span>.
\nHe told reporters the university had been hesitant to send staff with the NNPC team but had been assured about security.
\nNigeria is searching for oil in the northeast to try to reduce its reliance on supplies from the Niger delta, where militant attacks have slashed production.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kidnapping has been a feature of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000, displaced more than 2.6 million and left millions of others on the brink of famine.
\nThousands of women and girls have been seized, to be married off to fighters, used as sex slaves or suicide bombers, while men and boys have been made to fight in the Islamist ranks.
\nThe al-Barnawi faction differs from fighters loyal to Boko Haram\u2019s long-time leader Abubakar Shekau in that it disagrees with the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.
\nOn Friday<\/span><\/span>, two suicide bombers struck a camp for displaced people in Dikwa, 90 kilometres (56 miles) east of Maiduguri, killing five.
\nCivilian militia member Babakura Kolo said the men disguised themselves as traders wanting to buy grain.
\nIn Bama, 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, three young female suicide bombers were killed when their explosives detonated prematurely\u00a0on Thursday<\/span><\/span>, he added.
\n\u201cA fourth bomber, an 11-year-old girl, was too frightened to pull the trigger. She succeeded in removing her vest and sneaked into town. She was found and taken into custody,\u201d he said.
\nAFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 69 people are known to have died in a Boko Haram ambush of an oil exploration team in northeast Nigeria, as three men kidnapped by the jihadists made a video appeal. Experts said the attack \u2014 Boko Haram\u2019s bloodiest this year \u2014 underscored the persistent threat it poses, despite government claims the group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[34,338,4013],"class_list":["post-15326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-boko-haram","tag-nnpc","tag-university-of-maiduguri"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/BOKO-HARAM.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3Zc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15328,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15326\/revisions\/15328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}