LAGOS, Nigeria
Gunmen believed to be Boko Haram fighters attacked Monguno area in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, killing at least 10 civilians and injuring seven others, local officials said.
“Boko Haram terrorists who are fleeing from the military bombardment in Sambisa forest attacked some villages in the Monguno local government area on Wednesday night where they gunned down 10 people. Seven others were seriously injured,” Na'allah Bashiru, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, told Anadolu Agency.
An official of the country's National Emergency Management Agency in Maiduguri confirmed the incident.
“The seven people injured are currently receiving treatment at the emergency unit of the University of Maiduguri following the attack on Wednesday night,” according to the official who asked not to be quoted because the agency cannot comment on security issues in the restive region.
Monguno is among the several towns recently taken back by the Nigerian army, which insists that skeletal attacks by Boko Haram are a "desperate measure by a group on the verge of extinction."
Analysts have cautioned that the militants could be regrouping and should not be underestimated.
