KANO, Nigeria: At least 10 people were killed yesterday in raids by suspected Boko Haram gunmen on two villages near the town of Chibok where Islamists abducted more than 200 girls in April, residents and local leaders said.
Military fighter jets dropped bombs on the insurgents, halting the attacks after nine hours, said Enoch Mark, a Christian priest in Chibok, some 11 kilometres from the attacked villages.
“We have picked up 10 corpses with bullet wounds” in the bush outside the villages of Kwaranglum and Tsaha, he said.
The gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed the villages early yesterday, razing them and shooting residents as they tried to flee, Mark said.
Smoke from the direction of the two villages could be seen from Chibok, said Mark, whose daughter and niece were among the schoolgirls abducted in Chibok on April 14.
Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 girls from Chibok. A total of 219 are still missing.
The schoolgirls’ abduction from their dormitory in the remote town triggered global outrage and condemnation.
The gunmen, aboard all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, arrived in Kwaranglum around 7am, firing indiscriminately and torching homes, according to resident Daniel Haruna, who fled to Chibok.
The attacks were in apparent reprisal for the killing of eight Boko Haram fighters by a local vigilante in Kwaranglum on Tuesday, Haruna said.
Despite being fired on by the gunmen, some of the victims managed to trek a considerable distance from the two neighbouring villages, Mark said.
“Many bodies are scattered in the bush because the gunmen went after people who ran into the bush and shot them dead,” Haruna said. AFP
