DAMATURU, Nigeria — Islamic extremists stormed Damaturu in Yobe state, northern Nigeria like a swarm of bees, and at the end of their four-hour rampage, some 150 people had been killed — at least 130 of them Christians, according to church sources. Hundreds of people are still missing, and the destruction included the bombing of at least 10 church buildings.
More than 200 members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram sect stormed the Yobe state capital at 5 p.m. on Nov. 4, and soon the terrorists had blocked all four major highways leading into town. Having successfully dislodged security agencies after a series of gun battles and the detonation of explosives, the terrorists then led other area Muslims to the only Christian ward in town, New Jerusalem in Damaturu, home to more than 15,000 Christians, church leaders said.
When the Muslim extremists went to New Jerusalem, they said, any Christian they met who could not recite the Islamic creed was instantly shot and killed or slaughtered like a lamb. “The trauma my 10-year-old son had as a result of sounds from guns and explosions has not left him, as he has refused to eat ever since the attack,” said Pastor Idris Garba, the 41-year-old chairman of the Yobe state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
Bomb blasts the previous day in Maiduguri, Borno state about 80 miles east killed four people, with one of the explosions coming from a triple suicide bombing of a military base.
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