Nigeria: 'Boko Haram' kills 10 in Borno, seizes highway

By Olarewaju Kola

LAGOS, Nigeria 

Suspected Boko Haram militants seized a major highway in Nigerian northeast Borno State on Saturday after killing at least 10 people in a raid on Friday night in a nearby town, a local vigilante leader said.

The suspected militants invaded Ngamdu, a small community on a major highway, some 100 kilometers to the provincial capital of Maiduguri in northeast Borno State, on Friday shortly after the late night Muslims prayers, Bukar Mahdi, a vigilante leader in the town, told Anadolu Agency via telephone. The militants returned on Saturday to seize the road, the only one yet to be captured by the militants, Mahdi added.

"They came on motorcycles and shot sporadically even into mosques where some people were praying. People fled into different directions but they kept on shooting. Ten people died and four are critically injured now," he said.

Abba Tijjani, a survivor of the attack, who fled to Maiduguri, Boko Haram birthplace, said that the militants had also set on fire some houses after looting them.

"We had just finished prayers in the night at about 9 p.m. [local time when the attack took place]. Many people were just returning to their houses from the mosque. We lost 10 people, including my uncle. They will be buried today [Saturday]," he said. 

A military source confirmed the militants had seized a highway around the area on Saturday. "Vehicles were compelled to turn back from the Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway, which leads to [northeast] Yobe on Saturday because some Boko Haram seized the road," he told AA.

The source, however, claimed that military forces had dislodged the militants from the highway.

Boko Haram killed nearly 100 people mostly travellers on the same highway mid June 2013 in an attack that drew national outrage. The militants have stepped up attacks in the northern states despite promises by new President Mohammadu Buhari to stem the tide.