(MENAFN- Arab Times) At least 25 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants in raids on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning on three communities in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state, military and police sources said.
Fighters in pick-up trucks attacked the town of Dille and two smaller communities in the Askira/Uba area in Borno state about 250 km (160 miles) south of Maiduguri the capital of Borno state and the epicentre of the insurgency. The raids were the latest in a string of attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants who, a Reuters tally showed, have killed more than 600 people since President Muhammadu Buhari's inauguration on May 29. Vigilantes resisted the attack on Dille that came around 1 pm local time, the sources said.
A police source who declined to be named said the attacks on the smaller nearby communities came early on Tuesday. Boko Haram has been trying to carve out an Islamist state in the northeast of Nigeria for the last six years. It controlled large swathes of territory in three states last year before being pushed out of the major towns it controlled. The insurgents have dispersed into pockets across Borno state, notably along the Niger border near Damasak, Lake Chad, the Sambisa forest reserve and around the Mandara mountain range that borders Cameroon.
The militants have undergone a resurgence since then, carrying out attacks across northern Nigeria and neighbouring countries in the last few weeks. Borno state governor Kashim Shettima said this month that seven local government areas out of 27 were "largely inaccessible because these lunatics called Boko Haram still move up and down the areas". Meanwhile, Nigeria's army said Tuesday it had liberated 30 hostages held by Boko Haram, including 21 children and seven women, amid ongoing offensives against the extremists in the country's northeast.
Army officials said the operation to free the captives took place in the town of Dikwa in Borno State, which had fallen to Boko Haram twice since April, and was recaptured by Nigerian troops last week. "As a result of ongoing operations under the aegis of Operation Lafiya Dole to clear Dikwa and its environs from Boko Haram" (the) Nigerian Army yesterday rescued 30 persons from the hands of the terrorists," army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement. "They include 21 children and a sixday- old infant, seven women including three nursing mothers, and two elderly male adults," he said. Dikwa is located around 90 kms (56 miles) east of Borno state capital Maiduguri.
Earlier Tuesday, 11 Boko Haram militants were killed in clashes with the military in a village in southern Borno state, a local resident and a member of the militia fighting alongside the army said. Three militia fighters were also killed in the battle. "On Monday afternoon around 2:00 pm (1300 GMT), Boko Haram gunmen on motorcycles attacked our village," said Markus Yohana, a local militia member fighting the Islamists in the village of Dille. Yohana said that soldiers ambushed the raiders as they tried to flee, killing 11. Another local, Bitrus Damina, confirmed the account.
"Soldiers went after them and killed 11 of them in the bush," Damina said. Boko Haram has stepped up its attacks since Nigeria's new president Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in May. The wave of violence has claimed 830 lives in just two months, dealing a setback to a four-country offensive launched in February that had chalked up a number of victories against the jihadists.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.