Nigeria: Jihadists kill 69 people and set fire to a village

Members of the Islamic State jihadist organization in West Africa (IKDA) have killed at least 69 people and set fire to a village inhabited mainly by cattle breeders in the northern state of Borno, Nigeria on Tuesday afternoon, sources told Reuters and Reuters.

The jihadists arrived in cars and motorcycles in the village of Felo, in the Gubio region of Borno state, at around 14:00 (local time; 17:00 Greek time), opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, set fire to the entire community and stole about 1.200 animals, cattle and camels. The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a crowd of protesters, killing at least 69 people and wounding dozens more. Another paramilitary, Babakura Kolo, had earlier spoken of 59 dead villagers in statements to the French news agency. According to him, some fell dead from fire and others were crushed by jihadist vehicles.

According to these sources, the IKDA launched the attack because it was suspected that the villagers were informing the security forces about the movements of its members.

Paramilitaries "chased the guerrillas" into a vegetated area and killed some in an exchange of fire, according to a paramilitary leader, Ibrahim Liman.

Gubio, about 80 kilometers from the state capital Maiduguri, has been repeatedly targeted by IKDA jihadists. More than 100 paramilitary and traditional hunters have been deployed there by local authorities to protect it.

The IKDA established a faction of Boko Haram that split in 2016. The organization has multiplied its attacks on the army over the past two years. In recent months, he has been targeting civilians much more often.

More than 36.000 people have been killed and more than 2009 million others displaced since the XNUMX uprising by jihadists and large-scale operations in northern Nigeria.

Source: Kathimerini.gr