Suspected Boko Haram militants gunned down 48 Muslim worshippers in two northeastern Nigerian villages, witnesses and a lawmaker said Thursday, shortly after some 100 people in the same region died in a similar attack.
“The Boko Haram gunmen killed 48 men and injured 11 others in the attack,” local lawmaker Mohammed Tahir said of the Wednesday raid in the flashpoint Borno state.
Medical staff help a man who is treated in a hospital after he was injured in a bomb blast carried out by young female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a bus station in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, on June 22, 2015 in an attack likely to be blamed on Boko Haram. The blast happened near a fish market in the Baga Road area of the city, which has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks by shelling, bombs and suicide attacks.
Medical staff help a man who is treated in a hospital after he was injured in a bomb blast carried out by young female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a bus station in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, on June 22, 2015 in an attack likely to be blamed on Boko Haram. The blast happened near a fish market in the Baga Road area of the city, which has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks by shelling, bombs and suicide attacks.
Also the militants killed close to 100 people in attacks on homes and mosques in a northeastern Nigerian village, witnesses said Thursday.
“The attackers have killed at least 97 people,” a local from Kukawa village, who gave his name as Kolo and who said he had counted the bodies, told AFP.
A fisherman who witnessed Wednesday’s attack corroborated the death toll.
“They wiped out the immediate family of my uncle…They killed his children, about five of them, and set his entire house ablaze,” Kolo said.
Another witness called Babami Alhaji Kolo who fled to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state where the attack took place, said more than 50 militants stormed the village early Wednesday evening.
“The terrorists first descended on Muslim worshippers in various mosques who were observing the Maghrib prayer shortly after breaking their fast,” he said.
“They… opened fire on the worshippers who were mostly men and young children.
“They spared nobody. In fact, while some of the terrorists waited and set most of the corpses on fire, others proceeded to houses and shot indiscriminately at women who were preparing food,” he said.
