Boko Haram Fighters Kill 13 in Attack in NE Nigeria

“The attackers burnt down some houses and killed seven persons in the village situated along Konduga-Maiduguri road”, Opadokun said. “Some had been shot in the back, which means they were fleeing when the terrorists killed them”, Musa said.

A local vigilante, Goni Musi, confirmed the death toll.

An army order received Sunday by the AP requires all accused and condemned soldiers to northern Kaduna town for a committee starting August. 7 “to screen and assess all disciplinary cases arising from erstwhile Op Zaman Lafiya” against Boko Haram.

Boko Haram’s bloody insurgency in Nigeria alone has left more than 15,000 people dead since 2009. In recent months, the group has increasingly expanded its operations into neighboring countries.

The Nigerian army has freed 178 individuals being held hostage by Boko Haram jihadists together with greater than one hundred youngsters, it stated late Sunday, because it carries out a regional offensive aimed toward rooting out the insurgency.

“There is nobody in Gamboru”, he told AFP.

The Nigerian Air Force also reported killing “a large number” of militants in repelling an attack on Bitta village, 30 miles southwest of the army operations that took place around Bama, 45 miles southeast of Maiduguri (my-DOO’-goor-ee) city.

A joint taskforce of 8,700 troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin was due to have started operations against the Islamists on July 31 but it has been dogged by a lack of funding and political resolve.