KANO: Militants have taken hundreds of hostages in a northeast Nigerian town where people had just returned after fleeing their homes, locals and militia sources said on Wednesday.

Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) “terrorists” late on Tuesday overran Kukawa in the Lake Chad region, the sources said.

They seized those who had returned to the town in a government operation on August 2 after spending nearly two years in displacement camps, said local militia head Babakura Kolo.

“The terrorists attacked the town in 22 trucks around four pm yesterday and engaged soldiers guarding the town in a fierce battle,” he said.

Kukawa’s residents had returned to their homes just 16 days earlier under military escort, on the orders of the Borno state authorities.

They had been living in camps in the regional capital Maiduguri, 180 kilometres (120 miles) away, where they fled following a bloody attack in November 2018.

A local chief who accompanied the residents to the town said the people had returned with the hope of working on their farmlands “only to end up in the hands of the insurgents”.

“We don’t know what they would do to them but I hope they don’t harm them,” said the chief, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.

A security source said fighter jets were deployed from Maiduguri on Wednesday to “tackle the situation”, without giving details.

Yan St-Pierre, a counter-terrorism consultant for MOSECON (Modern Security Consulting Group), expressed doubts over the strategic value of taking a town.

“Kukawa is of limited value in itself, but the border region of Baga — on the shores of Lake Chad — is an important transition zone to Chad and Cameroon, and its control is important to ISWAP... for tactical and economic reasons,” he said.

The decade-long jihadist conflict in northeastern Nigeria has forced around two million people from their homes, mostly in the northern part of Borno.

Many have moved into squalid displacement camps in Maiduguri and rely on handouts from international charities.

In the last two years, local authorities have been encouraging the displaced to return home, despite concern by international charities that this is not safe.

Residents have been returned to five major towns since 2018, where they are confined under military protection with trenches dug to try to fend off jihadist raids.

Despite the fortifications, the insurgents have continued to launch attacks.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2020