By Olarewaju Kola
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, (AA): At least eight people, including children, were killed in a Boko Haram attack on a village near an internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in the outskirts of the northeastern city of Maiduguri, Borno State capital, officials said Thursday. However, eye-witnesses said at least a dozen people were killed in the attack.
Bashir Garga, northeast coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, said in a statement the insurgents shot dead six persons at Kofa village and two others in Dalori IDP camp.
Motorcycle riding assailants opened fire at the villagers on Wednesday night.
Solomon Adamu, an official of the Civilian-JTF deployed in the camp, said “a total of 12 persons were killed here and outside the camp.”
“At Gwazari-Kofa, one person was killed, at Dalori IDP Camp II, two persons were killed; and at Bulabulin a village near the camp, nine persons got killed,” he said.
He said the attackers came in seven pickup vans.
“They were about 100 in number and all of them were fully armed. We had to run for our lives.”
“Villagers who ran into the bush for safety have returned to their homes while the Borno State Fire Service has contained the inferno. The injured have been treated in the camp clinic while serious cases were evacuated to hospitals in Maiduguri. An assessment team is on site to provide relief assistance to those affected,” he added.
The terrorist group also carried out attacks on four other communities in the state, namely Kofa, Mallumti, Ngomari and Gozari at about 8 pm on Wednesday.
Recent months have offered some respite in violence in northeast Borno State, the birthplace of Boko Haram.
The insurgency has entered it tenth year.
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Map of Nigeria showing Maiduguri. By Kemal Delikmen/AA]