Boko Haram kills 35 in attacks on Nigeria villages
Boko Haram gunmen killed 35 people in attacks on three
villages in Nigeria's restive northeast Borno state near the border with
Cameroon, a military source and residents said Thursday.
Dozens of Boko Haram gunmen dressed in military uniform
stormed Gumushi, Amuda and Arbokko in all-terrain trucks and motorcycles,
opening fire on residents and torching homes with petrol bombs, they said.
"Boko Haram attacked the three villages Wednesday
morning in which 35 people were killed, including 26 in Gumushi," a
military officer in the state capital Maiduguri told AFP on condition of
anonymity.
"The insurgents hurled petrol bombs into homes, setting
them ablaze and shot residents as they tried to escape," he said.
He said the gunmen raided Gumushi around 6a.m., (0500 GMT)
where they killed 26 residents.
Local media however put the death toll in Gumushi at 42.
Witnesses said the gunmen also launched coordinated attacks
on the neighbouring farming villages of Amuda and Arbokko, 125 kilometres from
Maiduguri, killing nine people and destroying scores of houses.
"The attackers came at 2 a.m., (01:00 GMT) when people
were asleep and went about throwing Molotov cocktails into homes which exploded
and set fire," resident Pirda Takweshe told AFP.
"They then opened fire on people as they ran out of
their homes, killing nine and injuring 13 others".
Boko Haram which means "Western education is
forbidden", has stepped up deadly raids in northeast Nigeria in recent
months, pillaging and burning entire villages and killing residents as part of
its five-year-old campaign to establish an Islamic state in the north.
Violence blamed on the Islamist group has killed thousands
since 2009.
News of the latest deadly raids came on the same day as
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan vowed a "total war against
terrorism".
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