At least 45 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants at dawn on Tuesday in a remote village of Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, military sources and authorized vigilante groups told reporters.
The insurgents started shooting into houses in Njaba at about 5:30am, a military source in the state capital, Maiduguri, said on Thursday.
The village is close to the town of Damboa and about 100km south of Maiduguri.
“The attack was not immediately known, because the village is very remote and our men couldn’t access the area,” the source said.
The army also repelled an attack on Tuesday on the town of Konduga, southeast of Maiduguri in Borno, a military source and residents said.
No death toll could be ascertained.
On Thursday evening, the army also pushed back an attack on the town of Ngamdu, on the road to Damaturu, the capital of neighboring Yobe State, two military sources said.
It was too early to determine the number of casualties, they added.
Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency to carve out a Muslim state in the northeast of Nigeria has killed thousands and displaced more than 1.5 million people.
The group gained worldwide notoriety in April last year after its members kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Borno State, the heartland of Boko Haram.
The slow government response sparked the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement that has been seeking international support and lobbying the government to keep up the search.
On Thursday, a representative for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan met with the girls’ families in Maiduguri.
“As you are all aware, our military is having the upper hand in this sacred war. We believe by the grace of God that your children will return safely,” Nigerian Minister of State for Power Mohammed Wakil told them.
Boko Haram seized territory the size of Belgium last year, which Nigeria’s ill-equipped army has struggled to take back.
Jonathan, who is seeking re-election on March 28, has been heavily criticized for the failure to crush the insurgents.
Elections were postponed for six weeks from Feb. 14 for security reasons.
Since the delay, Chadian troops cooperating with the Nigerians have reclaimed some important towns in Borno.
The army has also been able to push the militants out of some territories in neighboring Adamawa and Yobe states.
A senior local government official in Damboa, about 20km from Njaba, who declined to be named, said that most of the victims were teenagers.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese