The grim situation is made clearer by Dr. Rev. Ayuba John Bassa and Rev. Filibus K. Goma, national coordinator and chairman of the Board of Trustees of Gwoza Christian Community Association (GCCA), respectively.

Their documented account of the violence carried out by the Islamists was published in part by Sahara Reporters in 2025.

“Gwoza once had a thriving Christian presence,” according to Bassa.

“Before the insurgency, there were more than 176 large church buildings across Gwoza Local Government.

“Today, 148 of those churches have been burned and lie in ruins.

“Entire Christian neighbourhoods in Gwoza East and West were flattened; in many places, every Christian home was destroyed,” Bassa and Goma told Sahara Reporters last year.

“The human toll and destruction are detailed and specific,” the Sahara Reporters report continues.

“In Gava-West alone, 74 towns and villages were sacked, 36,946 families were dispersed, 99 churches were destroyed, and 292 people were killed in September 2013.

“In Attagara, 13 churches were destroyed, 1,738 families displaced and 140 Christians killed by 3 June 2014.

“About 107,000 Gwoza Christians are scattered in 27 internally displaced persons camps across seven Nigerian states and in the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon, while almost 50,000 are squatting with relatives in towns and cities across Nigeria,” said GCCA.

To date there have been no official public announcements or verified reports indicating that the Southern Borno Independent Hunters Association (SBIHA) is raising a new statewide vigilante group.

Instead, the Borno State Government, under Governor Babagana Zulum, is depending upon the Nigerian Army garrisons supported by existing local hunters, vigilante groups, and the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) to defeat the well-armed terrorists of Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP), according to social media sources.  Time will tell which strategy will produce needed results.