MAIDUGURI (Web Desk) – At least 50 people are feared killed after Boko Haram militants attacked a village on the outskirts of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday.
According to army and local residents, suicide bombers also carried out deadly attacks on Sunday in the Lake Chad region, an area frequently targeted by Boko Haram.
Nigeria’s army said Boko Haram fighters struck Dalori, some 12 kilometres from the northern city of Maiduguri late Saturday, burning down the village and sending residents fleeing into the bush.
Dalori is located near camps set up for people displaced by the seven-year Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country.
“During the incident lives were lost while some people sustained injuries, “army spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka said in a statement.
Residents and an aid worker said at least 50 people were killed in the assault which took place after evening prayers in the mostly Muslim region.
Anka said the assailants also tried to penetrate the Dalori camp, but they were repelled by the troops.
Boko Haram has kept up a wave of attacks despite President Muhammadu Buhari declaring late last year that Nigeria had “technically” won the war against the group.
In the Lake Chad region, which borders Nigeria as well as Chad, Cameroon and Niger, suicide bombers struck two Chadian villages killing three people, a local security official said.
In the first attack in Guie, a bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up, killing one person and injuring 32, while the second attack in the village of Miterine left two dead and 24 wounded, the official said.
Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon have formed a coalition along with Benin to fight Boko Haram and have marshalled a force of 8,700 soldiers, police and civilians.
In retaliation, Boko Haram has launched cross-border attacks from northern Nigeria on the neighbouring countries.
