Damaturu is a

Local Government Area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

and the capital city of

Yobe State Yobe is a state located in northeastern Nigeria. A mainly agricultural state, it was created on 27 August 1991. Yobe State was carved out of Borno State. The capital of Yobe State is Damaturu; and it's largest and most populated city is Poti ...

in northern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. It is the headquarters of the Damaturu Emirate.

History

Damaturu came into existence as a colony when it was carved out of the Alagarno district by the British. It resulted in the conquest of the

Bornu Empire Bornu may refer to: * Bornu Empire, a historical state of West Africa * Borno State Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west, Gombe to the southwest, and Adamawa to the south while it ...

in 1902 by colonial forces under the command of Colonel

Thomas Morland General Sir Thomas Lethbridge Napier Morland, (9 August 1865 – 21 May 1925) was a senior British Army officer during the First World War. Early life Born in Montreal, Canada East, Morland was the son of Thomas Morland and Helen Servante. Edu ...

Boko Haram

Damaturu has been attacked many times by

Boko Haram Boko Haram, officially known as ''Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād'' ( ar, جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, lit=Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad), is an Islamic terrorist organization ...

jihadist Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irre ...

s in their violent campaign to establish a

caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

in the northeast. In November 2011, they killed over 100 people in a series of attacks. In December 2011, they carried out two bombings. In June 2012, 40 insurgents broke into a prison. 40 inmates escaped and eight people were killed. In June 2013, insurgents attacked a school and killed thirteen people, including students and teachers. In October 2013, militants engaged security forces in a lengthy gun battle and raided a hospital. In December 2014, militants carried out attacks again. Gunshots and explosions were heard and a base of the riot police was reported to have been set on fire. Yobe State University also came under attack. In February 2015, a teenage female suicide bomber killed 16 people at a

bus station A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is ...

. In February 2020, a massacre occurred in Auno on the Damaturu-

Maiduguri Maiduguri is the capital and the largest city of Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria. The city sits along the seasonal Ngadda River which disappears into the ''Firki'' swamps in the areas around Lake Chad. Maiduguri was founded in 1907 as a mi ...

highway. Insurgents killed 30 commuters, burned vehicles and kidnapped people.

Geography

The

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal ...

of the area is 620. The Local Government Area has an area of 2,366 km and a population of 88,014 at the 2006 census. The town of Damaturu is on the A3 highway and in 2010 had an estimated population of 44,268. The northeasterly line of equal

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...

and

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek let ...

passes through the area, including in the north.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Yobe State Local Government Areas in Yobe State State capitals in Nigeria

History

Boko Haram

Geography

See also

References