Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram terrorists kill at least 40 in Yobe

In the first significant attack on the northern eastern state in eighteen months, suspected Boko Haram militants fired at villagers and detonated a land mine in Yobe state, Nigeria, between Monday and Tuesday, killing at least forty people, the police reported on Wednesday.

According to Abdulkarim Dungus, the state police spokesperson, the attack occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) on Monday at Gurokayeya village in Gaidam local government in Yobe State.

He said that on Tuesday, while villagers were returning from burying the victims of the previous attack, a land mine exploded, killing at least twenty of them. He said that gunmen had opened fire on the villagers, killing at least seventeen of them.

In Borno state, a militancy hotspot and the centre of Nigeria’s 14-year insurgency war, the Islamist group Boko Haram has been murdering and kidnapping villagers.

(With agency inputs)