Soldiers speak to people standing away from houses burnt by Boko Haram Islamists at Zabarmari, a fishing and farming village near Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, on July 3, 2015. Several female suicide bombers in northeast Nigeria blew themselves up amid panicked villagers fleeing a Boko Haram attack, killing scores, the army and witnesses said on July 4. The latest carnage in series of attacks that have claimed more than 200 lives in just three days happened on Friday night in Zabarmari village, 10 kilometres (six miles) from the city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of the jihadist group. AFP
Gunmen killed eight people in a raid on a village in northeastern Nigeria, a local resident and a vigilante said Thursday, in the latest violence blamed on Boko Haram.
The attack in Borno state Wednesday was unleashed the same day as twin suicide bombings in Cameroon and a series of blasts at two bus stations in Nigeria that left at least 50 dead.
“The gunmen we believe to be from Boko Haram came into our village around 9 pm on Wednesday and shot dead eight people,” said Umar Goni, a resident of Pompomari village.
The militants stormed the home of the village chief who was away at the time but killed his son before moving on to other houses where they killed a vigilante and people who had been displaced by previous attacks, Goni said.
The toll was confirmed by Yuram Bura, a member of a vigilante group which assists the military in fighting the Islamists.
Pompomari is about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Biu, the biggest town in southern Borno, the state which has borne the brunt of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Buhari took office in May vowing to crush the insurgency but since then more than 750 people have been killed, according to an AFP count.
The bloodshed came after Boko Haram released a new video on Twitter, maintaining they were not defeated and vowing: “We will be coming from where you never expected, stronger than before.”
Nigeria’s new President Muhammadu Buhari, on a visit to Washington, lashed out Wednesday at US policy in his country, saying an arms ban was hampering the fight against the Islamist militants.
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