Suspected Boko Haram gunmen
Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the military and police in the northeast Nigerian town of Buni Yadi, where the group massacred scores of students earlier this year, witnesses said on Tuesday.
Multiple witnesses told AFP that the insurgents stormed the remote town at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Monday, firing first on soldiers manning a checkpoint and razing the local police station.
They then torched the home of local government leader and several government buildings before turning their guns on an empty primary school, said witness Kura Babagana.
“When they started attacking, people began to flee,” he said. “There were casualties on the part of the security personnel but I don’t know how many.”
Scores of vehicles were also burnt during the attack, he added, an account supported by other witnesses including Buni Ibrahim, a trader who was in the town at the time.
Residents said the victims include 13 soldiers and 11 police officers.
Details were slow to emerge because of poor mobile phone reception in the area, where the Islamists have destroyed much of the telecommunication infrastructure.
Buni Yadi falls in Yobe state, one of the areas that has been worst-affected during Boko Haram’s bloody five-year uprising, which has killed thousands.
In February, more than 40 students were shot and hacked to death when suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed the town’s Federal Government College.
Yobe, along with the northeastern states of Borno and Adamawa, have been an under a state of emergency for more than a year.
The latest attack came as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, said the military had located more than 200 schoolgirls held hostage by the militant Islamist group, although he warned that an armed rescue mission could prove fatal for the hostages.
With the prospects of a military rescue uncertain, a number of initiatives to negotiate for the girls release are ongoing.
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