The extremist Boko Haram sect on Saturday mounted its flags in Damboa town of Borno state, declaring the area its exclusive territory, security sources and witnesses have said.
Damboa local government shares a boundary with the dreaded Sambisa forest the terrorists have converted to a formidable hideout.
The Boko Haram gunmen had in the early hours of Friday attacked Damboa, 85 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, killing locals and setting homes on fire.
Over 45 persons were killed while homes, shops, offices and vehicles were torched.
The gunmen later that Friday returned to launch yet another onslaught on the town at the time residents were busy picking corpses of those killed in the morning and preparing them for burial.
Witnesses said during the second attack, the gunmen did not even spare women and children as they dislodged the entire town and hoisted their flags there.
The death toll is feared to have increased although officials say they are yet to ascertain the casualty figures.
A top security official in Maiduguri confirmed the Damboa attack and said flags suspected to be those of the Boko Haram sect had been hoisted there.
Soldiers are yet return to Damboa after they were sacked in an attack on the military base there about two weeks ago.
After the soldiers fled, the terrorists took over the highway leading to the town, residents say.
“There is no single person in Damboa as we are speaking now except the insurgents,” a member of the civilian vigilante group said.
The hoisting of flags in Damboa by the terrorists occured as information filtered in that residents of Dile, Huyum, Lassa, Murtavu, Rimirgo and some other remote villages in Askira Uba local government area are fleeing their homes and moving into Uba town in droves.
Security officials told NL the residents decided to flee following a threat letter sent to them by the Boko Haram sect that they would soon be attacked.
A member of the Vigilante Group, Civilian JTF, Abbas Gave, said, “The people are all fleeing in response to a letter purportedly sent to those villages that they would also be attacked. So residents of about nine major villages are now on the run.”