The terrain is rocky and hilly.[3] The Gwoza Hills, with heights of about 1300m above sea level provides scenery and is made up of the Mandara Mountains, which form a natural barrier between Nigeria and Cameroon, starting from Pulka. They overlook the game reserves by meandering towards Mubi and beyond in Adamawa State.[4]
As of 23June2014[update], "reports indicated that the whole of Gwoza was under attack. The report could not be substantiated because most telephone masts in Gwoza and surrounding villages have been vandalized by insurgents."[6]Deutsche Welle reported that "Roads out of the region are extremely dangerous and phone connections are poor to nonexistent."[7]
As of 19 October 2014, an estimated 3,000 Gwoza residents displaced by fighting are "squatting on the fringes of Abuja", according to a local relief committee spokesman, with "the need for shelter, food, clothing and medicare for the displaced also becoming dire."[8]
On 27 March 2015, the day before the Nigerian presidential election, the Nigerian Army announced that it had recaptured the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram.[9] According to AllAfrica.com, "Gwoza, one of the largest towns in Borno, fell under the control of Boko Haram terrorists on August 6, 2014."[10]
History
In April 2014, residents in Gwoza LGA reported that Boko Haram members fleeing from Sambisa Forest had moved into their towns on motorcycles, "being spotted in Patawe, Fadagwe, Wala, Uvaha, Gatha, Jige, Warabe and Ngoshe" villages. Motorcycles had been banned throughout Borno State for almost two years, and were rarely used by non-Boko Haram members.[11]
According to House of Representatives member, Hon. Peter Biye Gumtha, since the beginning of the Boko Haram attacks, "over 200 churches have been completely razed down, leaving only 8 functional churches in the whole of Gwoza Council area." As of January2014[update], Biye was "the only Christian House of Representatives member from Borno State."[12] He remarked:
“What is happening in my constituency is very unfortunate and frightening. People are being killed by terrorists on a daily basis, Churches are being burnt, and if people like me who is also a member of the House Committee on Army, alerted military authorities based on intelligence reports that my village would be under attack by terrorists, and nothing was done to secure the area, then it is unfortunate, because the ordinary people that live in volatile areas are no longer safe and protected by our security outfits.[1]
On 30 May 2014, the traditional ruler, the Emir of Gwoza, Idrissa Timta, was killed after he was abducted with his colleague, the Emir of Uba, Ismaila Mamza, by armed men, in Hawul LGA.[13][14][15] "His convoy was ambushed while he was on the way to attend the funeral of his deceased colleague, the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar."[16]
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State traveled to Gwoza, accompanied by a sizeable military escort, to pay his last respects to the Emir of Gwoza. As of June2014[update], the Maiduguri-Bama road to Gwoza has been designated a "no-go zone" due to an "upredictable security situation". A journalist accompanying the Emir counted "16 towns, villages and hamlets that were completely deserted along the 135km road."[17] In his eulogy, Governor Shettima described the late Shehu Idrissa Timta as “a man who spent better part of his reign preaching peace and tolerance.”[18]
On 12 June 2014, Idrissa Timta's son, Muhammad Timta, (also called Alhaji Muhammad Shehu) became the new Emir of Gwoza. He "promised to unite and strengthen the relationship between Christians and Muslims in the area."[19][20]
On June 2, 2014, in an event that has been called the Gwoza massacre, "No fewer than 300 villagers were reportedly killed in three communities around Gwoza local government area of Borno State" by gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram.[21] "The militants arrived in Toyota Hilux pickup trucks - a common vehicle for the military - and told civilians they were soldiers there to protect the local population ... The gunmen reportedly gathered people in the center of the villages and fired on them. As people attempted to flee, militants on motorcycles waited outside the villages and attacked them."[7]
On 8 June 2014, the spokesperson for a group of religious and political leaders in Gwoza LGA, Dr Asabe Vilita, (also Borno Commissioner for Commerce and Investment), said:
“[W]e wish to state categorically clear that there is no outbreak of religious war in our communities in Gwoza as being speculated, especially in the social media. What our people are facing is full-scale insurgents’ attack and terrorism. Although sometimes people have disagreements due to the confusion caused by the attacks in different areas, our people have since identified the insurgents as common enemy and have decided to unite in fighting them.”
She said 1,290 people had been displaced, and that "most people had to escape to Maiduguri", where three camps have been set up. According to Vilita, "four of the six communities in Gwoza East are currently under siege by the insurgents": Ngoshe, Agapalwa, Ashigashiya and Cikide.[22][23] On 22 June 2014,
The insurgents were said to have taken over most outskirts of Gwoza including the towns of Pulka and Kirawa, forcing residents to flee into neighboring Cameroon villages of Mura and Marwa, some 75km away from Nigeria borders.[24]
On 24 August 2014, Boko Haram claimed that it had formed an Islamic caliphate in Gwoza town. In December 2014, one hundred eighty five people in the Gumburi village area were kidnapped by Boko Haram. It was also reported that "people too elderly to flee Gwoza Local Government Area were being rounded up and taken to two schools where the militants opened fire on them." Over 50 elderly people were killed.[25] A "gory video" was released of insurgents shooting over a hundred civilians in a school dormitory in the town of Bama.[26]
In March 2015, the Nigerian army was reported to have retaken Gwoza town from Boko Haram forces.[9][27]
In Gwoza, the wet season is hot, oppressive, and mostly cloudy and the dry season is sweltering and partly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 58°F to 104°F and is rarely below 52°F or above 108°F.[44]
Maiduguri is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, on the continent of Africa. The city sits along the seasonal Ngadda River which disappears into the Firki swamps in the areas around Lake Chad. Maiduguri was founded in 1907 as a military outpost by the British Empire during the colonial period. As of 2022, Maiduguri is estimated to have a population of approximately two million in the metropolitan area.
Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west for about 421 km, Gombe to the southwest for 93 km, and Adamawa to the south while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon for about 426 km, its northern border forms part of the national border with Niger, for about 223 km mostly across the Komadougou-Yobe River, and its northeastern border forms all of the national border with Chad for 85 km, being the only Nigerian state to border three foreign countries. It takes its name from the historic emirate of Borno, with the emirate's old capital of Maiduguri serving as the capital city of Borno State. The state was formed in 1976 when the former North-Eastern State was broken up. It originally included the area that is now Yobe State, which became a distinct state in 1991.
Boko Haram, officially known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, is an Islamist jihadist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali. In 2016, the group split, resulting in the emergence of a hostile faction known as the Islamic State's West Africa Province.
Marte is a Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria, on the western coast of Lake Chad. Its headquarters are in the town of Marte
Askira/Uba is a Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Askira.
Bama is a town and a local government area in the central part of Borno State, Nigeria. Bama is the second largest landmass in the state. The town houses the famous Bama Emirate Council.
Damboa is a Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Damboa. It has an area of 6,219 km² and had a population of 233,200 at the 2006 census.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency is the chronology of the Boko Haram insurgency, an ongoing armed conflict between Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram and the Nigerian government. Boko Haram have carried out many attacks against the military, police and civilians since 2009, mostly in Nigeria. The low-intensity conflict is centred on Borno State. It peaked in the mid 2010s, when Boko Haram extended their insurgency into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
On the night of 14–15 April 2014, 276 mostly Christian female students aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School at the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Prior to the raid, the school had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions, but the girls were in attendance in order to take final exams in physics.
The Sambisa Forest is a forest in Borno State, northeast Nigeria. It is in the southwestern part of Chad Basin National Park, about 60km southeast of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. It has an area of 518 km².
The Gwoza massacre was a terrorist event that occurred on 2 June, 2014 in the Gwoza local government district, Borno State near the Nigerian-Camerounian border.
Shehu Mustapha Idrissa Timta was a Nigerian traditional leader who served as the 3rd Emir of Gwoza from October 1981 until his death in May 2014. He was killed in an attack by Boko Haram terrorists on May 30, 2014.
From 20 to 23 June 2014, a series of attacks occurred in Borno State, Nigeria. 91 women and children were kidnapped in the attacks and more than 70 people were killed.
The following lists events from 2014 in Nigeria.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in Nigeria.
Starting in late January 2015, a coalition of West African troops launched an offensive against the Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria.
On the evening of September 20, 2015, a series of bombings took place in Maiduguri and Monguno, Nigeria, killing at least 145 people and injuring at least 97 others. The majority of casualties occurred in Maiduguri where four explosions killed at least 117 people.
The Chibok ambush was an attack of Boko Haram insurgents against a Nigerian Army convoy in the night from 13 to 14 May 2014, as the latter was searching for schoolgirls who had been kidnapped by the Islamist rebels. Even though the Nigerian Army forces managed to extricate themselves from the ambush, the attack seriously affected the morale of the involved soldiers who felt that their leadership was carelessly sacrificing them in the war against the insurgents. As result, elements of the Nigerian Army's 7th Division subsequently mutinied at Maiduguri and almost killed their own commander, "humiliat[ing] the Nigerian military".
The Koshebe massacre took place on 28 November 2020 in the village of Koshebe, Nigeria, in Borno State, when as many as 110 civilians and peasant farmers were killed and six were wounded as they worked in rice fields in Koshebe village, near the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri. The attack was thought to be carried out by the Boko Haram insurgency. About 15 women were also kidnapped.
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