“They are young guys, small boys, they should be between 18-20, and they are like Fulani but not Nigerians. Some of them have turban on their heads and they were chanting Allahu Akbar,” said one of the survivors.
Survivors of Monday’s terror attack on a passenger train in Kaduna have relieved their traumatic ordeals.
They spoke on Tuesday at the St Gerald’s Catholic Hospital where some of them are receiving treatment.
They said the attack was launched by terrorists between the ages of 18 and 22.
The survivors said they heard a deafening sound and the train started wobbling before it finally came to a halt.
The terrorists, they recalled, started shooting sporadically at the train.
One of the survivors, Maimuna Ibrahim, said: “This is my leg where bullet entered, though it didn’t touch my bone, it came out. That is the only thing I can remember but I just know that we suffered but again we are thankful to the Nigerian Army and the police, they really helped us because they brought us to the hospital.
“I didn’t sit by the window side. It was inside. The terrorists entered the train but they didn’t reach my own side. It was the bullets that just hit people.
“They entered SP 17 when they entered we were looking at them while we laid down because they asked us to lie down. The police in the train were the ones that told us to lie down so that bullet will not hit us and that is why the bullet hit me. I didn’t know that we were to lie down.
“They are young guys, small boys, they should be between the ages of 18-20, and they are like Fulani but not Nigerians. Some of them have turban on their heads and they were chanting Allahu Akbar. We even saw when they were abducting some people, they were driving them out of the train and went away with them.
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Another survivor, Muhammadu Ishaq, said: “We heard a loud voice of something, then the train started shaking then suddenly it stopped. Then we started hearing gunshots from every angle.
“Then police that inside the train they ran and came out and started firing back. They told us to all lie down in the train. The police went through the front to fire them back but they followed through the back Coach 17.
“Then they broke the door with gun and they gained access. Then they said everyone should come out, then me when I saw that they have successfully entered the train. Then we started running from coach 17 to 16, 15 and so on and so on.
“As I was running for my life, than I noticed a shot on my hand, then I held my hand to continue running. I didn’t even know it was gunshot. But I know something hit me and then I held the place. It was when I was soaked with blood I knew it was gunshot.
“Then we laid down and praying but was still hearing gunshots for like one and half hours, then we started hearing the soldiers from far and they started shooting them back.”
Another survivor, Fatima Shuaibu, a student, said: “I was sitting close to the window. They just threw something like bomb and the train started shaking. Then the train tried to fall down, after then when the train has stopped they started shooting. So they broke the door of the train on the VIP side, so they came inside, carry some people, shoot some, went away with some and took them through the bush before the security came like one hour thirty minutes after the attack, over 500 security came and saved us.
“I was inside the VIP coach, they were targeting the VIP coach. After that they targeted the economy side, SP 17 they shoot many people there. They told us they came with five Sharon car and machines. They just put People inside and went away.
“They are small children like 18-20 years and they did not look like Nigerian people. They looked like Chadians, Nigeriens because they spoke languages like Fulani but not purely Fulani of Nigeria. And they were not even more than 20.”
The Nation
