Boko Haram Resplendent in Dealing Death

"They came in Golf saloon cars and began to shoot sporadically. Many people ran to the bush including myself."
"When we came back in the morning the entire community had been razed. At least 50 people were killed, and there are many people wounded."
Dalori Community leader Malam Masa

"Some women were kidnapped by the Boko Haram gunmen, but I don't know how many they were."

Mohammed Kanar, chief, National Emergency Management Agency

"We had just finished evening prayers when the gunmen came to our village and indiscriminately opened fire and set fire to homes."

"They detonated two bombs, which added to our fright and confusion. Everybody fled into the bush from where we saw our homes burning."

Kulo Sheriff, resident, Dalori, Nigeria 

"We slept in the bush with no blankets despite the chilling weather. We could hear soldiers battling with the Boko Haram attackers. It was terrifying."

Adamu Kyari, resident, Dalori 

People walk past burnt out houses following an attack by Boko haram in Dalori village 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Maiduguri, Nigeria , Sunday Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Jossy Ola)

Charred corpses and bodies of those who died from bullet wounds lay sprawled on the streets of Dalori village, the carnage from Boko Haram's attack on Saturday night. And nor was the village of Dalori the only place that had been under attack; two camps located nearby where 25,000 refugees were stationed were also under attack. 

And though the village itself lies a scant five kilometres from Maiduguri, the largest northeastern Nigerian city, where government troops are headquartered, for the very purpose of countering any possible incursions by the terrorist group, it took what must have seemed a lifetime before the military finally arrived in the village in response to the terrifying attack.

Only to discover that the attackers were in possession of more powerful arms than the soldiers, who then withdrew. Inadequate military gear was what plagued Nigerian troops under the old government of Goodluck Jonathan, a situation that was to have been remedied by the new government of Muhammadu Buhari. 

Finally, when superior-arms-provisioned soldiers arrived, the Boko Haram fighters were forced to retreat. And to celebrate yet another success on yet another soft target; suffering civilians. It is well worth asking who it is that funds these merciless barbarians? Their campaign is a costly one; they are equipped with vehicles and weapons that don't come cheap. So where is t heir funding coming from, why exactly is it that is so eager to see fundamentalist Sharia law rule in Nigeria?

Women and children look at burnt out houses following an attack by Boko Haram in Dalori village Sunday Jan. 31, 2016.  (AP Photo/Jossy Ola)

One survivor recounted his dreadful experience as he hid in a tree, witnessing the firebombing of village huts, hearing the wildly desperate screams of children trapped inside their homes, burning to death. Nigeria's Islamist terrorists scheming how best to inflate their already gruesome record of mass killings, abductions, rapes and atrocities, accounting for the fear-filled migration of tens of thousands of Nigerians, anxious to escape the kind of fate that befell these villagers.

Three female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the midst of throngs of people whom the suicide bombers planned to infiltrate for major damage, posing as villagers. The shooting of people, the torching of their huts went on for four hours, leaving 136 injured, among the 86 accounted for as killed outright. And then there are the missing, who likely will elevate the death count, as will some of those who have been injured seriously enough not to survive their devastating ordeal. 

For Boko Haram a satisfying job well done, for Nigeria's embattled citizens, yet another unspeakable tragedy. For a hugely populous African country with relative wealth thanks to its oil reserves, and the resulting revenues, it is beyond belief that its military hasn't come to grips with the systemic corruption within the military which has kept the funding meant to properly arm troops, to benefit the officer class.

Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram