{"id":118983,"date":"2021-04-17T12:01:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-17T04:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118983"},"modified":"2021-04-17T12:01:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-17T04:01:30","slug":"about-80-of-nigerian-town-flees-after-three-attacks-in-a-week-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=118983","title":{"rendered":"About 80% of Nigerian town flees after three attacks in a week: UN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/About-80-of-Nigerian-town-flees-after-three-attacks-in-a-week-1234723?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/362\/36231949.295.jpg\" alt=\"As many as 65,000 people have fled violence in the northeastern Nigerian town of Damasak\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>As many as 65,000 people have fled violence in the northeastern Nigerian town of Damasak<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ABUJA, April 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; As many as 65,000 people have fled violence in the northeastern Nigerian town of Damasak, the United Nations said.<br><br>The so-called Islamic State West Africa Province group unleashed a series of attacks in Borno state, looting and burning homes, warehouses of humanitarian agencies, a police station, a clinic and also a UNHCR facility.<br><br>&#8220;Up to 80 percent of the town&#8217;s population \u2014 which includes the local community and internally displaced people as well \u2014 were forced to flee,&#8221; said Babar Baloch, Spokesperson for UNHCR.<br><br>ISWAP, split from Boko Haram in 2016 and has become a dominant threat in Nigeria.<br><br>More than 36,000 have been killed and two million displaced by the decade-long fighting in Nigeria that has spread into neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.<br><br>Some have fled towards the regional capital Maiduguri and other nearby towns while others have crossed the border into Niger&#8217;s Diffa region, itself vulnerable to jihadist violence.<br><br>&#8220;The people of Damasak are desirous to stay in Damasak. However because of the security situation, some have fled into the bush, some have fled into neighbouring Niger for safety,&#8221; said Abubakar Kyari, Senator representing Borno North.<br><br>Nigeria&#8217;s army dismissed reports militants had overrun Damasak and said on Thursday troops were in control of the area.<br><br>At least four people, including a soldier, were killed in an attack Monday. The UN said eight others were killed Wednesday, while locals said ten bodies were buried and 20 people were injured.<br><br>The town hosts one of the military&#8217;s fortified garrisons or so-called &#8220;super camps&#8221; to fend off attacks.<br><br>But critics say closing smaller bases for the larger camps has left jihadists free to roam in rural areas. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As many as 65,000 people have fled violence in the northeastern Nigerian town of Damasak ABUJA, April 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; As many as 65,000 people have fled violence in the northeastern Nigerian town of Damasak, the United Nations said. The so-called Islamic State West Africa Province group unleashed a series of attacks in Borno state, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":118984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118983"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/118984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}