Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 43 people and burned down three villages in northeast Nigeria, residents told reporters on Thursday, the latest in an upsurge of attacks by the Muslim militant group.
Dozens of rebels on motorcycles stormed Matangale, Buraltima and Dirmanti in restive Borno State on Tuesday, opening fire on villagers before looting and burning homes, fleeing residents said.
News of the assault was slow to emerge due to poor communication in the region after Boko Haram destroyed telecoms masts in previous attacks.
Photo: AFP
“They came at about 4pm on 20 motorcycles, three gunmen on each, and attacked Matangale before proceeding to Buraltima and Dirmanti,” resident Dala Tungushe said.
“They killed 43 people and burned all the houses in the three villages after looting food supplies,” said Tungushe, who fled Matangale to Biu, about 90km away.
Matangale was worst hit, as the attackers opened fire at an open well outside the village, where residents had gathered to fetch drinking water and do their laundry.
“The Boko Haram gunmen opened fire on the crowd at the well, where they killed around 16 people,” said Bulama Karuye, another resident. “In all, we lost 43 people in the attacks. All the three villages were completely burned.”
He added that the number of casualties could have been much higher had some of the villagers not been at a weekly market about 40km away.
Hundreds of residents from the affected villages, particularly women and children, fled to nearby Damboa town, where they had sought refuge in a primary school, both Tungushe and Karuye said.
Troops and hunters from Damboa pursued the fleeing attackers and a gunfight erupted, they said.
“The soldiers and the hunters brought back a pickup truck and some motorcycles they recovered from the Boko Haram attackers ... but we don’t know how many of the gunmen they killed,” Tungushe said.
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