Boko Haram arrested; Kilkled In Niger — NAIJ.COM News

“They shot at them while they were in the middle of the prayers and later set the mosques ablaze”.

Self-defense spokesman Abbas Gava said his group’s fighters in Kukawa said some militants also broke into people’s homes, killing women and children as they prepared the evening meal, the wire service reported.

A fisherman who witnessed Wednesday’s attack corroborated the death toll to another foreign news agency.

They wiped out the immediate family of my uncle…

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people and left about 1.5 million others displaced during a six-year insurgency to create an Islamic caliphate in the northeast of Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer. They spared nobody.

Vanguard quotes a third witness noting that Boko Haram jihadists were attacking “indiscriminately” at women who were working to prepare food for the fast, possibly because they were most vulnerable.

Another resident who managed to flee said the militants arrived in vans and on motorcycles.

“Many people were killed”, the military source told Reuters, adding that the casualty figure “may be very high”.

Kukawa is around 50 kilometres (30 miles) away from the two villages near Monguno.

Neighbouring states including Niger and Chad have been drawn into the conflict, helping Nigeria’s effort to crush the group.

Last Tuesday, over 23 people including members of youths vigilante, were feared dead with scores injured when a bag filled with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) discovered by operatives of the youth vigilante (Civilian JTF) at a deserted camp of Boko Haram near Monguno village in Borno State had incidentally exploded.

Earlier this year, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Despite their territorial losses, the insurgents have kept up their deadly raids, explosions and suicide attacks on “soft” targets such as markets and mosques.