Militants Attack Fishing Community in Calabar, Nigeria

Militants in two speed boats (Monday) stormed Esuk Atu, a fishing community in Calabar and caused mayhem by killing a fisherman and burning the operations vehicle of the Civil Defense Corps.

The militants who stormed the place at about 8am in two speed boats shot sporadically at everyone on sight and a fisherman, Ikot Ufot from Akwa Ibom State who was working on his net at the beach was hit in the head and died shortly at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital where he was rushed to.

Mr. Asuquo, an operations officer with the Marine Unit of the Cross River State Anti-Deforestation Committee told CrossRiverWatch that his men intercepted a large wooden boat on Sunday night laden with 550 logs of timber on its way to Akwa Ibom State and had to confiscate the boat and wood.

“We brought the boat and the wood ashore last night because we have a ban on logging in this state. This morning while offloading the wood and taking it to our store in town, at about 8am we saw two speed boats speeding towards us and one of my boys alerted me that those are the bad boys and we retreated”.

He said while the security men comprising the men of the Civil Defense Corps and Anti Deforestation Committee were retreating ashore, the militants began shooting sporadically and shot one of the fishermen who was not able to escape ashore quick enough and also razed the Civil Defense Corps 504 Peugeot wagon.

“The weapons we have can only fire pellets at close range but these fellows are armed with rapid action weapons so we had to retreat that was how they were able to cause the havoc”. Asuquo said

He said the young man who was killed, Ikot Ufok, was taken to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital but with the doctors on strike, there was no one to attend to him so he died.

“He had lost so much blood by the time we came back and when we took him to the hospital, there was no one to attend to him because of the strike by the doctors”.

When CrossRiverWatch got to the scene of the incident, the razed vehicle was still incinerating while the officials of the Anti Deforestation Commission were standing at a distance from the shore.

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