Again, gunmen suspected to be members of the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram struck on Sunday in the northeast, killing no fewer than 100 people mostly Christian villagers.
The attack took place in the mostly Christian village of Izghe in the troubled state of Borno, which has been under emergency rule since May last year in a bid to stop an Islamist rebellion that has claimed thousands of lives since 2009.
“They killed many, many people in the attack late Saturday. From the latest information I have gathered, more than 60 people have been killed,” local government official Maina Ularamu told AFP.
A local farmer who escaped by scaling the fence of his house and crawling on his belly for 40 minutes said the attackers had gone door-to-door looking for those hiding in their houses.
“The attackers came around 9:30 pm in six trucks and some motorcycles. They were dressed in military uniform,” Barnabas Idi told AFP by phone.
“They asked men to assemble at a place, and began hacking and slaughtering them.”
There were no security forces in the town at the time of the attack, he said.
“We suspect that the gunmen were members of Boko Haram. They have taken over the village,” said Ularamu, chairman of the local government in the state capital Maiduguri.
“They looted businesses and food stores and loaded all their spoils into vehicles owned by residents and fled into the bush,” said Ularamu, who was speaking from Abuja.
The official, who was preparing to return to Maiduguri to deal with the fall-out, said details of the attack had yet to be verified.
Hundreds of villagers in Borno had already fled to Maiduguri after Boko Haram militants last week killed 43 people in two separate attacks.
Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create a strict Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north. The southern half of the oil-rich country, Africa’s most populous, is mainly Christian.
Gunmen also reportedly attacked a fishing village on Lake Chad on Saturday, killing an unspecified number of residents.
A survivor said several residents had drowned in the lake while trying to escape the gunmen.
Military spokesman Mohammed Dole confirmed the attack but declined to comment further. He said the area fell under the jurisdiction of a multinational task force comprising troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad.
Boko Haram militants have carried out frequent attacks in both cities and remote areas of the northeast, despite a military operation launched when emergency rule was declared.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who has voiced frustration with the progress of the operation, replaced his top military brass on January 16.
(AFP)
