Maiduguri: Suspected Boko Haram militants killed nearly 150 people in northeastern Nigerian villages, mowing down men and children while they prayed in mosques and shooting women preparing food at home, witnesses said yesterday. Dozens of militants stormed three remote villages in the flashpoint Borno state, setting houses ablaze in the bloodiest day of attacks by the extremist group since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May.
Gunmen killed at least 97 people in Kukawa, the worst-affected village, a local who gave his name as Kolo and said he had counted the bodies, said. “They wiped out the immediate family of my uncle... They killed his children, about five of them.” A fisherman who witnessed the attack corroborated the death toll. In two other villages near the town of Monguno, gunmen killed 48 people and injured 11, local lawmaker Mohammed Tahir and witnesses said. “They selected particular male residents from among the crowd of worshippers... and opened fire on them before setting the two villages on fire and razing them to the ground,” Tahir said. AFP
