MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Two attacks by suspected Boko Haram insurgents have killed 24 people in Nigeria’s northeast in the latest violence believed to be in revenge against vigilantes, residents and officials yesterday.
A survivor and a hospital source spoke of 18 people killed in the town of Bama on Sunday. A resident and a military source said six people were killed in Damasak on Monday. The two locations are in Borno state, but are some 200km apart. The military has encouraged the formation of vigilante groups to help it track down Boko Haram members as it pursues an offensive in the northeast aiming to end the Islamist extremists’ four-year insurgency.
“They came in military uniform and pretended to be members of the JTF,” survivor Mallam Bakura Module said of the attack in Bama, referring to a security task force. An official at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital said on condition of anonymity that four others had died on Monday night, bringing the death toll to 18. AFP
