KANO- AFP) – Soldiers on patrol in the troubled northeastern Nigerian  city of Maiduguri killed a suspected member of an Islamist sect in a  shootout on Tuesday, the military said.

“Two suspected members of Boko Haram engaged a military patrol team in a shoot-out at Gomori area of the city in which one of the attackers was  killed,” spokesman Hassan Isijeh Mohammed said.

The second attacker fled during interrogation by the military, he added.

Residents said they quickly fled the area in fear of reprisal attacks by soldiers who have been accused of rampaging and killing scores of  locals after attacks in recent weeks.

Amnesty International said nearly 50 people have been killed in military raids after attacks by Boko Haram.

It said soldiers torched homes and randomly shot at residents they  accused of harbouring sect members after a bomb attack targeting its  team on Saturday night.

The Boko Haram sect launched an uprising in 2009 that was put down by a  brutal military assault which left hundreds dead and destroyed the  Islamists’ mosque and headquarters in Maiduguri.

It claims to be fighting to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria,  Africa’s most populous country of some 150 million people, roughly  divided between Christians and Muslims.