Eight people have been confirmed killed by suspected members of the radical Boko Haram sect in Katarko town in the outskirts of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.

Katarko is 22 kilometres south of Damaturu and a community in Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe State, which is the state’s stronghold of the Boko Haram insurgents.

Residents said the insurgents stormed the town around 7:30p.m. and first attacked the military base in the town before moving to residential houses killing eight residents in an attack that lasted over seven hours. The insurgents reportedly left at 2.30a.m. and encountered no resistance.

According to a resident in Damaturu, “they came here and launched an unsuccessful attack on the military base before embarking on some selective killings within the town, leaving us with eight casualties currently being prepared for burial.”

During the attack, the insurgents also blew off the Katarko Bridge linking Damaturu to their stronghold, Buni Yadi, the capital of Gujba Local Government Area of the state ,which connects Yobe and neighbouring Borno and Adamawa states.

This is the first time Boko Haram militants would attack Katarko, since the commencement of serious hostility by the insurgents in 2009.

Meanwhile two Boko Haram suspects have been arrested in Damaturu metropolis in possession of Improvise Explosive Devises (IED) with the intention of causing havoc in the state.