(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) At least 50 people, mostly civilians and members of local vigilante groups, were killed when Boko Haram militants raided three villages close to Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's northeastern Borno State, local residents said Friday.
"At least 50 people were killed in the two villages of Kayamla and Bale when the terrorists raided them on Wednesday evening," Audu Badari, a farmer in Kayamla, told Anadolu Agency by phone.
"At least 31 were killed in Kayamla and 19 others in Bale," Badari added.
Adamu Kyari, the member of a local vigilante group in Borno State, confirmed the Wednesday attacks, but said it was "difficult to give exact casualties because villagers who survived the attack had to flee.
"People were killed in Kayamla and Bale, but I am not sure how many. We visited the villages on Thursday to see if some of the terrorists were lurking around," he said.
"We met people burying their dead in a mass grave. I counted up to 45 [bodies] in the two villages, but they could be more," Kyari added.
Nigerian army spokesman Chris Olukolade confirmed that there had been suicide attacks in Kayamla and in the nearby village of Pulka.
"We are aware of the attack on Kayamla, [which was] spearheaded by a suicide bomber. The bomber was pushed forward while his fellow terrorists tried to gain access, but troops foiled the attack," Olukolade told AA on Friday.
"There was a similar suicide attack incident at Pulka led by six terrorists also on Wednesday. To the best of my knowledge, the casualties were just the terrorists," he said.
"Two soldiers were wounded and I think a member of the civilian Joint Task Force [vigilante group] also died at the checkpoint," he added.
The spokesman went on: "These attacks were meant to divert attention from the onslaught against them in Sambisa Forest, but we repelled the attacks."
The attacks are the first by Boko Haram since the army drove the group's fighters from their main strongholds in Sambisa Forest.
The attacks apparently took place shortly before a failed attempt to enter Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri on Wednesday night.
Last month, the army rescued close to a thousand hostages from Boko Haram's Sambisa Forest hideouts.
It remains unclear, however, if any of the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped in April of last year were among those rescued.
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