Suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed several people in a village in
Nigeria’s far northeast, a local administrator said on Wednesday, in
the
latest attack since a supposed ceasefire was announced.
Heavily
armed fighters in all-terrain vehicles stormed the town of Kukawa, some
180 kilometres (112 miles) from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, and
opened fire on police and a local market.
Kukawa, near Lake Chad,
has been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram, forcing Nigeria’s state-run
oil company to abandon prospecting and drilling.
The latest attack
happened on Monday and was slow to emerge because telecommunications in
Borno have been largely destroyed by five years of violence.
“They
(the gunmen) killed several people, especially around the market, where
traders had gone for commercial activities,” the Kukawa local
government chairman Modu Musa told AFP.
“They burnt the whole
market, the police station, government lodge, dozens of vehicles and
most houses in the town in indiscriminate rocket and bomb attacks.”
Police
officers in Kukawa initially intercepted the insurgents on the
outskirts of the town and engaged them in a fight but were forced to
retreat because of the gunmen’s superior firepower.
Hundreds of
residents fled to Maiduguri, joining tens of thousands of others who
have abandoned their homes and livelihoods as a result of sustained
attacks in Borno and two neighbouring states.
Nigeria’s government
earlier this month announced that they had secured a ceasefire deal
with Boko Haram and agreement to release 219 schoolgirls abducted from
their Borno school in mid-April.
But violence — and further kidnappings — have continued unabated.
Source:PM News
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